Logic Pro Some concerns about upgrading.

[rainguitar]

I'm currently using Logic 9. A few months back I downloaded the latest version of Garageband. Not that I'd use it much but it has a scaled-down version of LPX new drummer plug-in and I wanted to try that. It also arrived with a curiously small set of instruments and many of the instruments that I had access to with the previous version of Garageband were now not available to me.

What I also noticed, shortly thereafter, was that some of the samples I was using in Logic 9 were missing. Isolated things like the garage band pop drum kit and the fretless bass samples and one of the electric pianos. Also the new Garageband could not access almost any of my massive colletion of apple loops without re-indexing them, and when it did, curiously enough, some of the green loops required garageband instruments that I could not otherwise get access to in the new Garageband. They're there but they're not there, so to speak. Instead it wants me to pay more money to get the new supposedly improved content.

I had to re-download some of my Logic 9 content to get those missing samples back. So clearly there is some over writing happening here and when that happens the stuff becomes unavailble to Logic 9. As I said, these instances are isolated but they are occuring. So, if overwriting is going to happen, and if that overwriting is going to render some of the samples unavailable in Logic 9, is there any point in keeping the Logic 9 content on my system? I'm working on a MacBook Pro so my hard drive space is limited. A second question related to the first is this. If I did choose to just go with LPX and delete all my LP9 content in advance of the installation of LPX, am I going to be missing content? In other words does LPX do away with any of the instruments previously availble to me in Logic 9? I know that some of the instruments have been improved but as long as they're actually there I can live with that. If they're gone altogether that's another issue.

Thanks. Greg

 

[Atlas]

I recommend that you keep both LP9 and LPX. They have a different set of patches/samples/loops. Good part of the LP9 patches will be found in LPX but not all of them; also new ones are found in LPX which could not be used in LP9. LPX projects are not retro-compatible, you can load LP9 projects in LPX but not the other way around.
Also chances are that (mostly 3rd party) plugins/patches instantiated in LP9 projects will not be recognized when loaded in LPX, even though they are compatible, forcing you to reinstantiate the plugin and reselect the proper associated patch. Therefore, still having LP9 available to load the original project version as a reference to retrieve the proper plugin/patche proves to be essentially indispensable...
LPX is considerably more bug-ridden than LP9. In fact none of LP9's bugs have been corrected in LPX, latter being a completely code rebuild. If you work on time-restrained project, it would be wise to complete it in LP9. Transition to LPX also imply learning curve, as it works a little differently...
Upgrading your MBP with a new bigger harddrive could be the ticket to accomodate the required space. SSD is highly recommendable. Samsung has 1TB SSD available, which works very well btw!

 

[rainguitar]

Thanks Atlas. You've helped me make a decision. I'll stick with Logic 9 for now. The truth is by the time Apple came out with Logic X, I had already purchased third-party plugs that covered most of LPX's new features anyway.

Greg

 

[Atlas]

I did not mean to discourage you from acquiring Logic Pro X. But only to inform you about possible caveats.
Logic Pro X offers new great features not found in LP9.
Probably one of the most powerful, I find, is the MIDI Scripter plugin.
The Drummer is also really helpful and works astoundingly well. It is like having a session drummer handy for free. Very intuitive to use.
You are probably already aware of all the other new LPX features...
Flex pitch is quite good, considering LPX's price. It is not at par with Melodyne, but the latter is costing about 3 times LPX...
I keep good hope that Apple will iron out most of the bugs soon in a near future, as they have already released 6 updates so far...

 

[rainguitar]

Yes but you see I have Melodyne, which covers what Flex pitch would do, I have Komplete 8 with and additional Kontact instruments and I'm actually pretty good at midi drum programming which reduces the need from something like Drummer. I also have Zebra 2.5, Alchemy, Ozone 5, Battery 4, Amplitube 3 and the Uhbik plugins. My main reason for even considering Logic 10 is the midi-plugins. But I also have close to a hundred Logic 9 projects and, by the sounds of things, I would have spend quite some time importing those projects into LPX, because most of them use 3rd party plugs. So, thanks for your interest, but at the moment the switch would be too time consuming.