Nearly 8 years after Apple put the word “Pro” in the name of an iPad, they have finally announced that they will be putting some of their own professional software on the platform. Apple today announced that they will be releasing iPad versions of their digital audio workstation (DAW) Logic Pro as well as the non-linear video editor (NLE) Final Cut Pro as subscription apps on a monthly or annual basis. Logic Pro has long been a favorite among composers and orchestrators for its sequencing features and asset library, among many other tools.
The iPad version is not yet available, but Apple has published a press release and promotional video showing the familiar desktop features and tools, along with a handful of new optimizations for touch input.
There are some features that seem perfectly suited to the iPad’s touch and stylus inputs. In the video, you can see users drawing in automation curves with a stylus and playing on-screen, multitouch piano keyboards and guitars. There is also a new plug-in called Beat Breaker, the details of which are a bit unclear, but Apple’s new Logic Pro for iPad page describes it as “The time and pitch morphing functions of Beat Breaker let you swipe and pinch to radically reshape and shuffle sounds instantly.”
This won’t be Apple’s first attempt at media creation software on the iPad. Logic Pro and Final Cut Pro join the simpler and more consumer-friendly media apps GarageBand and iMovie, both of which have been available since 2011 and are currently available free in the App Store. Apple positions both as stepping stones to the more costly and powerful pro apps. On the Mac, the features and interfaces of the consumer and pro apps have been converging to make the transition between the two easier, sometimes to the frustration of longtime pro users.
In addition to first-party software from Apple, these new professional media apps will be competing with established third-party iPad apps, including DAWs like Steinberg’s Cubasis and Wooji Juice’s Ferrite, as well as NLEs like LumaFusion and DaVinci Resolve.
Pricing, availability, compatibility
Logic Pro and Final Cut Pro for iPad will be released May 23, and will be available on a subscription basis: $4.99 (US) per month or $49 (US) per year. (For comparison, the desktop versions of the same software sell for $200 and $300 respectively, as one-time perpetual licenses with free upgrades.)
The new pro media apps will require an A12 processor or greater, which goes back to the 2018 iPad Pro, 2019 iPad Air and Mini, and 2020 iPad. They also require iPadOS 16.4 or later.
Conclusions
It is great to see Apple finally putting their software money where their hardware-marketing mouth is. I definitely intend to download these applications—especially Logic Pro—and experiment with them in the coming months. However, I suspect it will take a lot to pry me away from my existing Mac workflows for audio production. It will be hard for iPad hardware to compete with larger displays and dedicated hardware for audio and MIDI input. Though I can plug my iPad into a display and use USB to connect other devices, I’m not keen on disassembling a long-functional desktop setup to do that.
If anything, I imagine using Logic Pro for iPad as a way to check in on projects and tweak things on the go, but the problem there is keeping track of all the linked media files, considering that file management on iPadOS is still a bit tedious, as well as all the missing plugins and virtual instruments that I wouldn’t have access to on my iPad. It’s worth noting that iPadOS does have robust support for AudioUnit plugins (AUv3). However, while there are some genuinely great AUv3 plugins available on the App Store, they are almost all geared toward commercial music production. As I wrote in my initial review of Dorico for iPad, which also supports AUv3 instruments, there are very few options for the kinds of virtual instruments I rely on to imitate acoustic instruments.
This is a significant development for iPad users, and it is my hope that having a robust, first-party DAW on iPad will encourage competitors as well as plugin vendors on the platform. Perhaps having Logic Pro available may make it more likely that we could see iPad versions of our favorite sample libraries to use with our iPad notation software. And the overall result may be that iPad is taken more seriously as a platform for professional musicians.
And speaking of iPads in the hands of professional musicians (How ’bout that segue?), stay tuned to Scoring Notes for a major update to my round-up of iPad score readers later this month, as well as related coverage at next month’s MOLA Conference and Tech Fair in Berlin!
Tayto
Yeah but nothing for the the score editor…as ever.
Those that use it know that Logic score editor is all about workarounds with the frustration of knowing how next-level better it could be with even a few small fixes, changes and minor feature additions I.e. not having to redesign the unusual yet very usable region-based score editor paradigms.
For example (first 10 or so priority; after that in no particular order):
– Fix the bad joke implementation of SMuFL fonts – note flags and other other elements too big; collisions etc.
– Secondary beam breaks
– per-system staff above/below spacing to override staff style setting
– Ability to hide user rests; necessary for greatly simplifying workarounds
– Independent positioning of score elements amongst different score sets (i.e. parts) n.b. …and no we don’t need some toy ‘parts’ feature, just stick with and make improvements to the score sets paradigm in general
– cross staff beaming awareness of clef changes (n.b. and elements like accidentals also)
– Global Score Directions (e.g. rehearsal marks, tempo etc. required in all parts(score sets) but only to appear on some staves
…in other words, ability to independently hide elements PER score set
– include duration dot spacing options in note attributes (would override global setting) cause…occasional collisions in poly staves
– Note attributes>stem direction: add ‘opposite side’ i.e. Ability to choose which side of stem for notehead in staff attributes
– Improve gap between beams – currently too small – difficult to read at times e.g. beam lines of 16ths, 32nds, 64ths etc.
– More display options in staff style window (e.g.hide time sig) overriding score settings
– Independent note attributes (including beaming, stem length, positioning) for Tied notes
– Improved Slurs that span system breaks: when slur required to bend dramatically on one system, this shape currently is mirrored in its continuation on next system: independent adjustment on each system required.
– cross-staff slurs: in certain very particular permutations e.g. when slur goes down diagonally to the right over a short distance it becomes ultra thin. Only happens in very particular direction/length combinations -> glitchy
– non-mid-measure clef changes currently displayed after the bar which as well as looking bad, also causes misalignment if there is a simultaneous time sig change
– Dotted slurs/lines would be very useful
– New Text attribute option: no wrap/wrap/system wrap
– Beam extensions (i.e. over rests)
– Related to above: currently, hiding stems of beamed notes removes the beam to that note – retaining the beam here would be cool for beam extension workarounds
– Leger lines: hide when hiding note head (occasionally necessary for beam extension workaround)
– New list editor for score layout (could include global text also)
– Batch print dialog including score set selection
– Print layout inconsistencies e.g. manual spacing of meta objects. Currently different position to print out even when fully zoomed in
– Square instrument braces for instrument groups…
…Single stave (square) inst brace
– Global text – new setting: ‘Pages: custom designation with similar control as standard print dialog’ e.g. current page/2-8 etc.
Less urgent (some because of presumed difficulty in implementing):
– Beamed grace(e.g. independent) notes
– Articulation/symbol positioning relative to notehead / flip position function / or ability to attach meta events to notehead articulations including tweak positioning
– Improved ties
– should be able to select/copy/paste over several regions along timeline more intuitively like normal score editor
– would be cool if cross-staff functionality not limited to single stave above/below e.g. for multi-stave percussion parts
– Polyphonic staff note collision avoidance + awareness of other voices accidentals + consolidate rests in poly staffs (advanced -> unlikely)
– Diagonal wavy gliss line [Low priority: currently use overlapping bravura character]
Layout:
– manual width adjustment for individual bars
– Improved layout adjustment to individual note position: currently many positioning side effects and is often unusable
– Cover page (i.e. ability to insert page break at bar 1)
By the way, major tip: one of the best score editor features is generally unknown to most users and was introduced in v9 – namely the “-Full” staff style which offers staff polyphony workflow similar to other scoring software: no more chopping regions from bar to bar for changes in staff polyphony (and that includes e.g. always having a no-rests voice for beamed grace notes etc)
I could go on and on. There’s years of this stuff on the ‘Logic Pro help’ forum and not a single word heeded. Even the first three suggestions would be amazing. One can always hope. Thanks