Logic Pro 9 New review posted: Amp Designer/Pedalboard

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A pretty accurate review, man. I myself am a guitar junkie and pretty much go into 'snob' mode when I start digging into anything that's an emulator for direct in purposes.

Not the GREATEST thing on the planet, this pedal and amp suite, but it sure opens up a lot of possibilities, even if just for re-amping... I think it's as good as anything else out there, and believe me, I too own them all.

Well, I'm soon going to own a AxeFX, which is supposedly the "beall endall" of amp emulators...

Anyways, great review, dude.
 
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Nice review! I think over all the L9 upgrade is a no brainer. I already replaced some NI Gtr Rig 3 tracks with Logic's Amp Designer. We all know it's not a substitute for a real amp but all this stuff still sounds better than a POD ( had an original and an XT). Even if you just use some of the FX it's completely awesome.
 
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HI Orren,
Just read through your review and as you are obviously a guitar user as well as a Logic expert (I have Logic Power 7 :)) I thought you might have some feedback on a post I made that certainly relates to Amp Designer's usability in Logic :)
Do you know if there is a practical way to route all the midi from a MIDI control source (in my case a Waves GTR Ground) to a Logic Audio plug in, to take full advantage of the real time control of so many guitar effects? I know AQA qill get one thing accessed but I want to be able to have guitarists "perform" as they would live. Switching on and off overdrive pedals for solos etc, applying Wah, all on the fly. I'm currently stumped for how to get all this controllable parameters, controlled :)
Hope you can help?
Many Thanks,
Gareth
 
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Nice review !!!

HL Studios said:
HI Orren,
Just read through your review and as you are obviously a guitar user as well as a Logic expert (I have Logic Power 7 :)) I thought you might have some feedback on a post I made that certainly relates to Amp Designer's usability in Logic :)
Do you know if there is a practical way to route all the midi from a MIDI control source (in my case a Waves GTR Ground) to a Logic Audio plug in, to take full advantage of the real time control of so many guitar effects? I know AQA qill get one thing accessed but I want to be able to have guitarists "perform" as they would live. Switching on and off overdrive pedals for solos etc, applying Wah, all on the fly. I'm currently stumped for how to get all this controllable parameters, controlled :)
Hope you can help?
Many Thanks,
Gareth
Click to expand...

This may or may not help, and I do realize that this is an old post. LOL.

I use MainStage as the guitar rig for recording into Pro Tools. Maybe that will work for you also to record into Logic.

This way I can have access to all the realtime controls in MainStage.

I run MainStage and Pro Tools simultaneously on a MBP. I run into a MOTU 828 which is the I/O for Mainstage and then run that audio output into a Mbox to record into Pro Tools.

Hope this helps.
 
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Excellent review and good general advice. Thanks for noting that the original Logic amp plug-in is still there, I've used it with some extensive tweaking and I may still need it.
I've played guitar for 45 years including 20 years musician-income-only (in my long-lost youth) and have been using digital amp technology for about 8 years. I agree completely with your general comments on real-vs-digital. For myself digital solves more problems than it creates, but don't expect to replace your live tube amps in a full band setting, I've tried and failed. Digital (POX XT Live Pro) works great going through a PA for solo or small groups (a singer I play with can't believe a Marshall stack is coming from his Bose PA in wine tasting rooms without destroying the stemware) but gets lost in full drums/other amplified players settings. With "real" bands digital technology tends to sound "already recorded" and doesn't seem to project, based on my own ears and comments from others.
For recording, however, I don't have the luxury of cranking my late-70's non-master-volume-Marshall, so digital rules. I've had very good experience with "amp feel" using RevalverMKIII. I "built" my old 1969 Plexi that I had switched to 5881 output tubes (didn't need to worry about blowing the output transformer like I did in 1970!) with very good results. Excellent picking dynamics and guitar volume sensitivity. I agree completely that all modelers get some of it right, some of the time. And upgrades may fix some models and kill others. I don't have my Logic 9 upgrade yet, but I hope to have recordings and usage notes soon.
 
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I've had a chance now to use Logics Amp on a number of sessions. I think it's the closest to real sounding amps simulator I've yet to work with. Hands down I'd take this over L6, NI, or IK, and think they really do a good job of getting the High end to sound right. I'm still not ready to sell my VOX AC 30, but I have to admit I haven't mic'd it up in about 4 years...
 
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Fwiw, I think Amp Designer is just great for some sounds. It has replaced NIs GR4 and Overlouds TH-1 on a number of tracks already (and I really like both of them a lot). I do especially like the "almost breaking up" sounds that are possible with the Tweed and Boutique models. I'll gladly post some sound examples, in case anybody wishes so.

Some comments, though:
- I wish there was an option to combine the Pedal Board and Amp Designer into one GUI. That'd make a lot of sense, at least IMHO.
- I wish the Tuner had a "mute" function. This is almost driving me crazy. I fail to see how any tuner could not have a "mute" function. Also, I wish the tuner was part of AD or the pedal board.
- There's still a lot of noise going on with some amp models. No idea why, "Guitar Amp Pro" was famous for it, AD is a LOT better already, still, some portions of it are prone to extreme noisyness.
- As some of you may have noticed already, AD is Logics *only* plugin where it's possible to only "hover" your mouse over whatever parameter and tweak the very parameter with your mousewheel. Not even the Pedal Board is doing so. I wish that this was possible for all of Logics GUIs and mixer parameters. Saves a LOT of time, really. Zebra 2 users will know what I'm talking about. And with the event of AD, things are less consistant, too.
- The AD GUI is too big. WAY too big (and yes, I do know about scaling it down).
- Gain and Level knobs aren't next to each other. Makes sense in whatever real "point to point" soldered amp, doesn't make any sense in software. Gain and level are *the* two main parameters that are almost "linked" together, so they should be next to each other in whatever GUI. Given the relatively massive size of the AD GUI, the unfortunate event of them being as far away from each other as possible, this requires a lot of mouse movements (in case you don't have a suitable hardware controller). IMO quite a GUI design oversight.

Anyway, AD (plus Pedal Board) has already become one of my favourites. One of the most noticeable improvements on the plugin side of things.

- Sascha
 
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Sascha Franck said:
- As some of you may have noticed already, AD is Logics *only* plugin where it's possible to only "hover" your mouse over whatever parameter and tweak the very parameter with your mousewheel. Not even the Pedal Board is doing so. I wish that this was possible for all of Logics GUIs and mixer parameters. Saves a LOT of time, really. Zebra 2 users will know what I'm talking about. And with the event of AD, things are less consistant, too.
- Sascha
Click to expand...

That is a true mystery to me. There are various third-party plug-ins that can be operated via the Might Mouse trackball. One would expect that every knob, fader, numerical parameter could be similarly operated in Logic.


mk3
 
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Peter Ostry said:
When have you tried that the last time?
Try again, you may be surprised.
Click to expand...

Intrigued by this one, Mr Ostry...
So just quickly tried in a few places... to my pleasant surprise, many of Logic's internal plug-ins, like the Compressor and EQs do respond to trackball. Echo, for example, and SmplDelay did not, but those are older plugs without the updated sorts of grey-blue interfaces. The Channel strip faders and pans, unfortunately, do not respond. No time at the moment to check various of Logic's instruments, but presumably there is good news there also...

Is this a recent change? Indeed I haven't tried this in a long time.

zm
 
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