Addison Road

17 Responses to “Logic Update”

1. 1 Chad
   21 May 2008 at 9:29 pm

   Oooh that is an annnnnnoooooyyyyyying bug.

2. 2 Daniel Semsen
   21 May 2008 at 10:29 pm

   please tell me you’ve written to Apple about the freaking chord inversion bug.

3. 3 michael lee
   21 May 2008 at 11:15 pm

   We’ve raised major stink about it, both through the normal support route, and through our super secret direct to the development team channel. Apparently, we’re no longer dating.

4. 4 michael lee
   21 May 2008 at 11:29 pm

   AHA! I was wrong! They did fix the bug, they just didn’t bother to include it in the info they released with the upgrade.

   About the upgrade

5. 5 Daniel Semsen
   22 May 2008 at 12:09 am

   PUH-RAISE THE LORD!

6. 6 michael lee
   22 May 2008 at 12:23 am

   Anybody want to buy a slightly used copy of Sibelius?

7. 7 corey
   22 May 2008 at 7:28 am

   Uh… you mean after I just bought and registered Sib. 5 yesterday? Cool.

8. 8 michael lee
   22 May 2008 at 8:58 am

   I’m joking - there’s no way I’m going back to Logic for notation. Sibelius is just a dream to work with. By the way, if you want to mess with some alternate “jazz” fonts, this guy built a set of fonts based on the Real Book series, which is the bible of jazz lead sheet notation:

   Real Book Jazz Fonts

9. 9 Alex
   23 May 2008 at 9:03 am

   Maybe somebody submitted the Logic bug to apple in John Mayer’s name…

   Does that slightly-used copy come with slightly-large discount? Kidding… but I was looking at it the other day online, still wondering how it compares with Finale.

10. 10 michael lee
    23 May 2008 at 10:01 am

    I really love Sibelius. I never got fast enough at Finale to really make it work for me, but Sib is so quick and intuitive, I don’t want to go back to Logic for notation. I think it’s absolutely worth the money, if you’re doing a lot of charting, arranging, etc.

    Getting things to look decent in Logic was always just a headache and a half.

11. 11 corey
    23 May 2008 at 10:31 am

    I’ve been using Finale for a few years. Just made the switch to Sib 5 because I feel like Finale is more of a “Windows World” application. Sib feels more benevolent and intelligent, Like more of a “Mac World” app. I can already feel the burden being lifted.

    Of course, I have 4 charts to get done quickly and correctly (Well Done Awards are back and I’m charting the American Idol alum Chris Slight tunes), so I’m making them my swan song for Finale. Then once it’s done, I’m probably gonna burn the manual on my BBQ. I may eat it too, so when I say Finale is crap…

12. 12 corey
    23 May 2008 at 10:32 am

    whoops, “Chris Sligh”

13. 13 michael lee
    23 May 2008 at 10:36 am

    Huh, that’s funny Corey, because I don’t remember getting your phone call to come play tambourine this year … do you not like my tambourine playing? Did I offend?

14. 14 corey
    23 May 2008 at 10:50 am

    well, it’s way less bigtime than it sounds. I was on the gig, and then I got a call to do a Taylor thing in Fort Wayne, Indiana. So, truth be told, I’m not even doing the gig. I just got relegated to “chart boy” with one phone call from the boss.

    Mike, you KNOW that if I were MD’ing it, you’d be the most bitchin’ tambourine player Chris ever heard.

15. 15 harmonicminer
    25 May 2008 at 12:05 am

    I just have to get too much done too fast to use a notation program separate from sequencing/audio. The life of a hack.

    typical experience for me:

    The chart’s done, the demo is done, the split-track with click is done, the parts and score are printed, and all has been delivered.

    The client calls around 8 PM: Can I put the whole thing down a step, make the dance break shorter by four bars, and change the backup vocal so it’s 2 females and 1 male instead of 2 females? Oh, and the piano player needs a few more notes in their part, they’re struggling with the feel in a couple spots, but leave the chord chart, just in case they bail and get a different piano player. And the woodwind player they’ve hired for WW3 doesn’t double oboe after all, can I put that part in WW2? Can I deliver by 10 AM tomorrow for a rehearsal?

    Sure.

    So: I transpose the tracks (except drums, of course) down a step, select all the bottom notes in the backup vox and move them into the newly inserted bass clef in the backup part, slice out four bars from the dance break, forcing a rewrite of the last couple bars remaining to get back into the vocal entrance, move 6 bars of oboe from WW3 to WW1, and move the WW1 part at that point into WW3, kick out a new demo for the show producer, a new vocal rehearsal CD (with everything but vox on it) and a new split track with click left and playalong tracks on the right for the performance with some live players and track combined.

    I print pdfs of all the parts (3 trpts, 3 bones, 4 ww, 4 piece rhythm and percussion), and a new score, batch print the pdfs in one go, and deliver three audio CDs to the client (different folks need the different versions), and one data CD with all the pdfs and all the tracks as data files.

    This all takes about an hour. I spend more time taping the parts and binding the score than using the software. If I’d been pushed, I’d have let the client get someone to tape it at their end… but I have this lovely heavyweight part paper, 70 lb offset from Kelly Paper.

    If Sibelius gets truly integrated Logic style with Pro Tools, I’ll look at it.

    But I positively HATE changing notes in notation when it doesn’t reflect the demo, and then having to go back and fix the demo… and no, I won’t be trying to make demos in Sibelius, for about a thousand reasons.

    Integrated software is where it’s at for me. If I hired a copyist all the time, and only had to sequence, it might be different, but nearly everything I do involves sequencing, plug-in synths, demos (which sometimes involves sticking a mike in front of somebody), playalong tracks and paper parts.

    Theoretically, if they get the integration right between Sibelius and ProTools, this will all be possible… but they will have to rewrite both softwares’ data structures from the ground up to make it work (that’s exactly how both Logic and Cubase were made…. planned integration from the very beginning of software development), or it will look and feel kludgy… and I have a hard time believing they can do that sooner than 2012, given Digi’s track record in even keeping up with operating system revisions.

    If Apple hasn’t upgraded Logic’s notation very seriously by then, I’ll consider switching.

    Digi used to be the sole USA distributor for Notator (late 80s early 90s… I think… it’s been awhile), the predecessor in the sequencing/notation integration area to Logic. I went to Digi headquarters a couple times to train their tech support people (I had written a book about Notator as a supplement to the manual, which was, ah, incomprehensible). Digi used to talk THEN about simply acquiring Notator, and adding it to ProTools, which was an audio only application then, with little or no MIDI capabilities. They just gave up, I think, when they realized what a huge project it would be, and that they’d have to give up some cherished ProTools look/feel issues to make it integrated.

    I wish them luck, though. Apple needs some serious competition to motivate them a bit. And I’m not encouraged by the recent price drop, actually… I’d have felt better if they left the price and upgraded the notation… but it’s still the only game in town for me.

16. 16 michael lee
    25 May 2008 at 12:35 am

    Phil, I’m with you on highly integrated projects like that, but when ink is the final copy, and I don’t have to worry about demos, etc., Sibelius is just very, very fast at getting things to look right.

    I will say that learning Sibelius has reinforced for me something that we preach all the time to our kids - if you know the fundamentals of notation software, you can move very quickly from platform to platform. I’m about a month in to using Sibelius for everything notational, and I’m flying through it at a very power-user rate. I even got started writing my own custom plugins (well, editing an existing plugin to better suit my needs, but still!). All that wouldn’t be possible if I didn’t start with a very deep understanding of Logic.

17. 17 harmonicminer
    25 May 2008 at 2:50 pm

    I have planned in the summer to learn Sibelius some anyway, just on general principles. I am interested in being able to write plugins… I purely love extensible software, one reason I’ve always been attracted to Logic’s Environment concept.