Apple Logic Pro For iPad

With their iPad version of Logic Pro, have Apple succeeded in implementing a touch‑first user interface without sacrificing pro features?

Large parts of Logic’s underlying audio engine have been running on iPads since 2011, when an iOS version of GarageBand was introduced. And what Apple so deftly demonstrated with GarageBand was how to create a user interface tailored to the delicate, yet imprecise, caresses of our fingers. Rather than simply port the Mac version of GarageBand, Apple reimagined it, creating an app that was both recognisably GarageBand yet clearly defined for the iPad.

Now Logic Pro itself has made the move; and to succeed, it too needs to have a reason to exist on the iPad, embracing the interaction models unique to this device, such as touch‑first and Pencil‑based input. Logic Pro For iPad can’t simply be an imitation. It must be a reinvention that retains the essence of what makes the application attractive for musicians. Is it?

A Logical Start

The Logic Pro experience on the iPad starts with the Project Browser, which is based on the standard iPadOS Document Browser and allows you to create new Projects and manage existing ones. These can be stored on your iPad, iCloud (or other cloud‑based storage), or a server, making it possible to access any Macs that might be attached to your local network. A collection of interactive lessons explains topics such as recording vocals or software instruments, the Step Sequencer, and so on, complementing the well‑written and usefully organised online help that runs to 959 pages in PDF form.

New Projects can be based around the typical Tracks area or a Live Loops grid, and the New Project Setting allows you to define an initial tempo, time signature, key signature and sample rate. The iPad’s internal clock supports 44.1, 48, 88.2 and 96 kHz, with 48kHz being the sensible default.

Track types have been tidied into four categories: MIDI, Audio, Pattern and Drummer. Support for hardware MIDI instruments is included courtesy of the External Instrument plug‑in, and MIDI tracks can trigger either this plug‑in or a software instrument.

If you’d prefer a new track to be based on a pre‑existing sound, you can tap the Browser button. This opens a new view consolidating the traditional Library and Loop Browser views from the Mac version into a single catalogue of instrument and audio patches, Apple Loops, samples, presets, and patterns, with handy shortcuts for accessing recently used items or downloading additional Sound Library content. With so much content on offer — around 15GB — a new filter view offers advanced options making it easy to find exactly what you’re looking for, and the way in which Presets are managed alongside Audio and Instrument Patches is also rather helpful. Presets store the state of the controls within a single plug‑in, whereas Instrument and Audio Patches encapsulate the configuration of plug‑ins and routing within an Instrument or Audio track.

This screenshot shows how all the user interface areas can be used together as part of a cohesive workflow. Here you can see a Pattern Track in the Tracks area, with the selected Region being edited in the Step Sequencer, along with the Drum Pad Play Surface at the bottom.

An App With A View

Usable in either landscape or portrait orientations, Logic Pro For iPad’s interface is divided into several distinct areas, beginning with the Control Bar running along the top of the interface. This can be customised to show various transport‑related controls, displays and modes, whilst also providing access to settings or the Project Browser.

The main part of the interface shows either the Tracks area or the Live Loops grid, and along the bottom is the View Control Bar, enabling you to toggle the appearance of other views within the interface. These include the Browser or the Inspector, which can be displayed on the left, alongside a tall, thin Fader view, giving you a channel strip‑like control for the currently selected track, as on the Mac version of Logic Pro.

Three buttons in the centre of the View Control Bar set what interface categories to show in the lower part of the display: the Plug‑ins area, Mixer, or the Editor, which shows either the Audio, Piano Roll, Drummer Editors, or the Step Sequencer, depending on the type of Region selected in the Tracks area. These views can be stacked simultaneously if your iPad’s display has sufficient pixel coverage.

A final button to the right of the View Control Bar affords access to the many Play Surfaces. These are on‑screen control surfaces that appear below the View Control Bar, making it possible to play and record parts just like you might with a hardware MIDI controller. As well as a piano‑style keyboard with optional modulation and pitch‑bend wheels, there are also Drum Pad, Fretboard, Chord Strips and Guitar Strips Play Surfaces, all of which are easily configurable, with some being reminiscent of GarageBand’s Smart Instruments. A nice touch with the Keyboard and Drum Pad surfaces is their ability to dynamically reveal additional rows of keys or pads as you increase the vertical allowance.

Play Surfaces provide an on‑screen alternative to MIDI hardware controllers. Here you can see a two‑manual keyboard, playing Korg’s Module Pro running as an AU Extension.

Play Surfaces won’t replace the need for hardware controllers — and it perhaps goes without saying that any USB class‑compliant MIDI device can be used with Logic Pro — but they can be useful in situations where convenience might not permit the presence of a separate physical device.

Gain Of Function

The idea of tools has been carried over from the Mac version of Logic Pro to the iPad in the guise of so‑called functions. Where tools dictate the role of the mouse click, functions inform the purpose of a finger tap.

The Tracks area’s menu bar contains several function buttons, specifying what happens when the handles of one or more selected Regions are adjusted. With the default Trim function, you can adjust the start and end points of Regions; but if you want to loop a Region or stretch its contents, the Loop or Stretch functions can be used instead. And if you’d rather make some of these adjustments numerically without using the different functions, you can always access a Region’s parameters in the Inspector.

A numeric input dialogue makes it easy to edit parameters, using either the scroll wheel or the numeric pad. Other context‑specific controls conveniently appear when necessary, such as the Tap Tempo button when editing the tempo.

If you select a Region with the Split function, a pair of scissors appears in the upper part of the Region that can be dragged horizontally to set the split point, or vertically downwards to perform the division. If you tap and hold the scissors on a Region, the Tracks area will zoom in horizontally (springing back again when you release your finger), which seems like a great way to perform finer edits. However, if the Snap value is set to, say, a quarter‑note resolution, this setting persists even during the brief moment of zoom.

In addition to using the Split function on individual Regions, it’s also possible to split many selected Regions simultaneously based on the location of the playhead. Simply select the desired Regions and then tap one of them to bring up the shortcut menu, which offers easy access to several context‑specific commands. In this case, tap Split, followed by Split by Playhead. Again, this is pretty much identical in concept to how you might work in Logic Pro on the Mac, except that you’d right‑click to open the shortcut menu instead.

Complementing the function buttons are two modifier buttons to assist with selecting multiple objects and copying. As with GarageBand, you can select multiple objects like Regions by tapping and holding the first object, before tapping additional objects with another finger to select those as well. However, you could also do this by enabling the Multiple Select button, which toggles the selection status of objects as you tap them. Furthermore, if you have the Multiple Select button active and you tap and hold an object to select it, you can drag out a selection box to select other, nearby objects. And should you want to create a copy of a Region when you drag it, as opposed to moving it, you can activate the Copy button.

A further behavioural trick offered by the Function and Modifier buttons is the ability to use them as momentary buttons. If you tap and hold a Function or Modifier button, perform the desired action and release the button, the previously enabled button state will be restored. For example, if you want to copy a Region and have the Trim function selected, you could tap and hold the Copy button, drag the appropriate Region, and release the Copy button to re‑enable the Trim function button. This is rather neat, although the momentary state only works if you perform an action whilst the button is held down; if no Region had been copied in the previous example before releasing the Copy button, that button would remain enabled when you release your finger.

The ability to use the Modifier buttons momentarily is very much akin to holding down a modifier key on the keyboard whilst dragging an object with the mouse. And, indeed, if you have a keyboard paired with your iPad (such as Apple’s own Magic Keyboard), holding down the Shift or Option keys activates the Multiple Select or Copy Modifier buttons.

The Plug‑ins area shows each plug‑in used in the currently selected track, from left to right, represented as tiles, each showing a custom user interface with the most important parameters visible.

Plug It In, Plug It Out

When it comes to shaping the sound of a given track, you can naturally turn to the more traditional Mixer view. However, Logic Pro For iPad offers a new, track‑based approach for working with plug‑ins, sends and outputs, accessible in the new Plug‑ins area in the lower part of the interface. This area is an evolution of Logic Pro’s Smart Controls, comprising three views called Track, Sends and Output.

The Track view shows a series of tiles, each representing an insert plug‑in, from left to right. This approach is reminiscent of the Device view in Ableton’s Live; although rather than each tile showing a full user interface, a few key controls are provided, giving easy access to commonly tweaked parameters. For example, Tape Delay’s tile provides four controls: the wet and dry levels, the note duration of the delay, and the amount of feedback. You can always see the full set of controls for a plug‑in by tapping its name to open it in Details view. Many of Logic’s plug‑ins have retained attractive facades, such as ChromaVerb, whilst some of the more generic‑looking offerings have been reduced to simplified rows of touch‑friendly controls to maximise the available screen real estate.

ChromaVerb’s user interface fills the Details view, reducing the plug‑in chain to a simplified row at the bottom of the display.

If an Instrument track is selected, the Plug‑ins area’s Track view contains additional controls for adding an Instrument plug‑in as well as MIDI effects plug‑ins. And indeed, Logic Pro For iPad contains the same nine MIDI plug‑ins as the Mac version; there’s even an implementation of Scripter, which makes me as happy as a littleneck clam.

Logic Pro For iPad even includes MIDI plug‑ins: here you can see the Arpeggiator plug‑in being triggered by the Chord Strips Play Surface.

Adding a plug‑in is a simple matter of clicking the Add button, and further options are available by tapping and holding a plug‑in’s tile. You can quickly access relevant Presets and Patches making use of that plug‑in in the Browser, in addition to removing or replacing it with another, or inserting a new plug‑in before the selected one.

To reorder the plug‑in chain, it might be tempting to try tapping and holding a plug‑in tile until all the tiles begin to wiggle, but sadly a more mundane approach has been adopted. Clicking the Edit button in the Plug‑ins area’s menu bar shrinks the tiles horizontally, adjusting their appearance to show just a name and removal button, making it much easier to tap and drag a tile to reposition a plug‑in within the chain.

One limitation is that Logic can only address the main output, even if your interface has several. With my RME Babyface Pro (ensuring Logic Pro’s ‘Run in Background’ setting was enabled) I could re‑route Logic’s output to other outputs via RME’s TotalMix FX app, but there’s no way to use secondary outputs in Logic Pro for headphone mixes and so on.

Touch & Go & Go, Go

Debuting in Logic Pro For iPad are two new plug‑ins with interfaces specifically enhanced for touch: Sample Alchemy and Beat Breaker. Based on Alchemy, Sample Alchemy is a new instrument where you can take a single audio sample and resynthesize it into a playable instrument, using four different generators to transform the source material based on granular, additive or spectral techniques. Beat Breaker is a multi‑effect offering a ReCycle‑style way to remix drum loops, splitting real‑time audio into slices that can be rearranged, repeated, rewound and reworked as desired.

Beat Breaker’s Main Editor lets you define patterns that specify how incoming audio is manipulated by the effect, mapping input beats to output beats. Each pattern can contain up to 32 slice markers, which are basically signposts for the start and end points of an output beat.

Beat Breaker is a new multi‑effect plug‑in that can split incoming audio into slices, to be manipulated in a number of different ways.

Three different modes are provided to configure how a pattern employs the slices for playback: Time, Repeat and Volume. Time lets you adjust the playback speed of a slice, and map what input beat to trigger as the output beat from a given slice marker. Repeat mode can set how many times a beat is repeated (and thus divided) within its duration, while Volume mode unsurprisingly lets you alter the volume for a given slice, with a slope factor specifying the depth of a fade in or out, based on a curve that sets the rate of the fade. A set of 10 Pattern buttons can be assigned to trigger different patterns stored as presets, along with an 11th button to disable pattern playback altogether, leaving incoming audio to pass through the plug‑in unmodified.

The Automating Dance

As you would expect, Logic Pro For iPad makes it possible to automate various mixer and plug‑in controls, either by enabling one of the relevant automation modes to record on‑screen control movements or by editing automation points manually. And, just like the Mac version, there are two types of automation available depending on whether you want that data to be associated with a track or a Region.

Track automation is accessible in the Tracks area by tapping the Automation View button on the Tracks area menu bar, whilst Region‑based automation editing is handled in the Editors area. This differs in a good way from the Mac version, where both track and Region‑based automation are accessible in the Tracks area. It automatically provides a separate and larger area for Region‑based automation editing, making it possible to focus on a selected Region immediately without having to adjust the zoom settings of the Tracks area.

With the Automation view in the Tracks area enabled, you can create and edit automation points. Here, the selection box has been dragged out to select a number of the automation points within a given range.

With Automation View enabled, the available collection of Function buttons changes to reflect the new editing context, and the Move function is selected by default. You can select an automation point, or the line between two points, by tapping, and then move the selection horizontally and vertically to adjust time and level. Selection of multiple points and lines is handled in much the same way as described earlier for selecting multiple Regions.

You can use the Pencil function to add single points or the Brush function to create multiple automation points as you drag your finger. However, working with automation really comes alive if you have an Apple Pencil. Not only does the Pencil make it possible to edit automation points with far greater precision; it also affords a more natural flow when drawing curves than could ever be achieved with a mouse, trackpad or finger. Working with automation using the Pencil is fantastic, although it’s the one area of the user interface where I wish Apple had gone even further. For instance, the second‑generation Pencil supports a double‑tap feature to change tools; the ability to switch between the Brush and Eraser function by double‑tapping the side of the Pencil really would be the cherry on the icing on the cake.

Taking A Roundtrip

Perhaps the feature on which Apple are taking the biggest gamble with Logic Pro For iPad is Roundtrip, which gives you the ability to work on the same projects using either the Mac or iPad versions. And I use the word ‘gamble’ because there are so many factors both within and outside of Apple’s control to ensure this works correctly and as intended.

In a perfect world, Logic Pro For iPad can open projects from the Mac version that have been saved as Packages (which contain all necessary Project data, such as audio files and other related content, within a single bundle) as opposed to a Folder. Conversely, Logic Pro for macOS can open projects from the iPad version, which are only saved as Packages. And if you’re storing these projects using iCloud, this can work seamlessly from a file management perspective.

However, not every Project can be opened with Logic Pro For iPad, even when saved correctly as a Package. For example, since some features present in the Mac version aren’t currently supported on the iPad, such as Spatial Audio or surround in general (see the ‘Logical Omissions’ box), Projects that use these features can’t be opened by Logic Pro For iPad. (Apple have detailed a list of such incompatibilities at https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT213666.)

When Roundtrip works flawlessly, it’s incredible; when there are issues, it can be incredibly frustrating. As mentioned already, many of the factors contributing to a Roundtrip disruption are outside of Apple’s control, and this is particularly true when Audio Unit Extensions are involved (see box). Therefore, how useful Roundtrip will be to you very much depends on the type of Projects you wish to take from your Mac and open on an iPad. If you plan on mostly starting Projects on your iPad whilst you’re out and about, before bringing them into Logic when back in the studio, the compatibility will be virtually seamless, especially if you’re not using any third‑party plug‑ins.

Not Your Daddy’s Logic Pro

Logic Pro For iPad is a tour de force, demonstrating how a professional music production app should function on a device like the iPad. To say I was blown away by the user interface and its interaction design would be a bit like saying I thought the pontiff was a tiny bit Catholic. And Apple have achieved this without sacrificing sophistication, with Logic Pro For iPad offering almost everything you could want: from Live Loops to Track Stacks, Global tracks for tempo changes, Markers, and a full complement of MIDI and audio effects and instruments along with the associated content libraries.

One question I’ve encountered in conversations is whether Logic Pro For iPad could be used instead of Logic Pro on the Mac. But I’m convinced this is very much the wrong question to ask.

One question I’ve encountered in conversations is whether Logic Pro For iPad could be used instead of Logic Pro on the Mac. But I’m convinced this is very much the wrong question to ask. I don’t think you would use Logic Pro on the iPad instead of using Logic Pro on the Mac; you’d use Logic Pro on the iPad where it makes sense to be working with that app on that device, and I’m quite sure Apple’s intention isn’t for one to replace the other. Indeed, Roundtrip with iCloud support is an obvious example of how the two platforms can be used in concert with each other. And the fact Logic Pro can now be used on a device with a form factor offering even greater mobility and affordability than a MacBook just opens music production to more people and usage situations.

Some will inevitably complain the moment the word ‘subscription’ is mentioned, but in this case I really think it would be churlish to protest about the price. When you consider the features and content on offer, and how easy Apple have made subscription management in iPadOS’s Settings app, subscribing and paying for Logic Pro is likely to be far less frustrating and expensive than signing up for a newspaper.