Pro–level music tools come to iPad
Free for 1 month; $4.99/month; $49/year FROM www.apple.com
NEEDS iPadOS 16.4 or later and a device with A12 Bionic chip or later
Apple has been trying to convince us for a number of years that an iPad can replace a Mac for professional creative work, and in a handful of cases like art and graphics that’s arguably been true. For music production however, serious Digital Audio Workstations (DAWs) haven’t made the leap to iPad, with the notable exception of Steinberg’s Cubasis. Perhaps in an effort to remedy this, Apple has created Logic Pro for iPad. Light years more powerful than GarageBand, it’s also not a direct port of Logic Pro for Mac. Instead, Apple has created a supremely powerful app that will be familiar to existing users but is completely reworked for the touch interface.
At your fingertips
Unlike Final Cut Pro for iPad with its exacting graphics requirements, Logic Pro works on any iPad with an A12 Bionic processor or better, which includes all recent models. This combined with its one–month free trial means a great many people will be able to try it out for themselves. While the app is around 700MB a full install of all its loops and content weighs more like 15GB, which combined with space for recordings could be an issue for iPads with lower capacities. It was tested on an M1–powered model and an A12 model and while performance on the M1 was buttery smooth, it was slower but still acceptable on the older model.
This is a remarkably accomplished music production suite and one that perhaps only Apple with its vast resources could have pulled off. As such it’s possibly a little daunting for newcomers, but a number of excellent tutorials and walkthroughs are provided to get you up and running. There are several track types available: MIDI and pattern–based software instruments, audio and drummer tracks. The content library lets you preview patches, loops and samples and drag and drop these into your project. For each track type, advanced, desktop–class editing tools are available and these extend to beat stretching audio, generating MIDI patterns, and much more. Plus, extensive Apple Pencil support makes tasks like drawing automation curves a breeze.
Built for pros
Many of Logic’s classic software instruments and effects plug–ins have been carried over and are available to load into projects. Audio Unit plug–ins for iOS are supported but these are not nearly as commonplace as they are on the desktop. So while you can transfer projects between iPad and Mac via iCloud or the share sheet, any Mac plug–ins will need to be bounced down to audio before they can go over to the iPad. Hopefully the release of this app will encourage developers
