analogika

Yes! I'd bought Logic Platinum 5 (and no additional plugins) as a cheap crossgrade from Mark of the Unicorn's Performer (not "Digital Performer"!), so I was an extremely happy camper when Apple bought Emagic shortly after my purchase, and then threw me "one with everything" for a low upgrade fee. At the same time, I could completely understand the outrage of studios who had budgeted thousands into plugins over years over the fact that these were now bundled for, essentially, "free". Ah, it was more expensive than I remembered! Logic 7 got the Setup Assistant, which meant that you didn't have to know how to build and patch a complete real-world studio from scratch to operate it. Once again, right up my alley. 🙂

I think with the exception of ES1, all of those plugins were additional purchases. Logic Platinum was pretty barebones and mostly only came with processing — Platinumverb, Platinum compressor, etc. If you bought all the plugins and virtual instruments, the package ran about 5000€ (Space Designer alone was 360€ IIRC). The first thing Apple did after they killed the Windows version was to roll ALL the plugins into the package and sell it for 1000€.

I know, right?

I think the controversy stems from the unintended symbolism of destroying the tools of creativity — in an age where computers are all but eliminating the need for actual creativity in many (perhaps even most) use cases. I've watched all the precious and legendary hardware tools turn, one by one, into postcard-sized swatches of pixels and code over the past decades, so that aspect doesn't bother me (nor you, apparently). But what's happening today is a whole different dimension: it's taking the people out of the equation. And while Apple's ad explicitly does not do that, the context today is a lot different from 2008, when LG made the exact same ad: To be honest, the fact that Apple just released an ad virtually identical to what f$@%ing LG did fifteen years ago somehow annoys me more than the "controversy" or the unintended implications of this new ad…

What do you mean "in the features"? If you're looking for any new features that aren't "plugins", I suppose the only one we know of so far is stem separation…

This is literally exactly what is happening now, except in reverse. If it's not problematic that rearranging tracks in the arrange window rearranges mixer channel strips, why would it be if it were the other way around? FWIW, I think the current way to do it is completely boneheaded. Yes, I'd like stacks to look the same in both the mixer and the arrange window, but having to create a track for a channel strip that I'm never going to automate and will just clutter up my work area, only to be able to move the stupid VCA next to the tracks it controls, is just stupid.

It's - AI stem separation - Auto Bass (AI?) - Auto Keys (AI?) - Studio keys - studio bass - ChromaGlow AI-based simulation of all sorts of interesting analog artefacting (we'll see what this is), not just in the master channel strip. - integrated Dolby Atmos That's not really that minor, and I assume it's chock-full of new frameworks under the hood laying the groundwork for a bunch more AI-based processing in upcoming point-upgrades.

Logic Pro 10.8.1: Logic Pro X 10.4.8: Details and buttons differ, but colouring looks the same to me.

I'm a little surprised you're not part of the beta program and running v. 11.2 pre-beta by now.

You'll be in the middle of mixing the next band by then...

Hang on... Compatibilty Open projects from Logic 5 or later — has this always been the case? I remember having to open Logic 7 to save some songs in a newer format — was that just for Logic 4.8 stuff?

Tech support nightmare. If everything goes well, breathe deeply, never let on, and file under "Let's Not Do That Again".

Err. Thank you. Fixed.

For further testing: Duplicate the project and remove all instances of EastWest. Does it work properly? Then EastWest is probably the (or at least an) issue. Duplicate the project and remove all instances of Kontakt instruments EXCEPT EastWest. Does it work properly? Then EastWest is probably not the issue.

Open up the system Utility "Activity Viewer" and from the Window menu, select "CPU History". Then play the project again. You will see how individual cores of your CPU fare, and you can see if a particular core is actually overloading. In the Logic Settings, under "Audio", set "Processing threads" to "Automatic" if it isn't, and if it is, try "8 (8 Performance Cores)", or if your M2 Pro only has six performance cores, "6 (6 Performance Cores)". The reason I suggest this is to make sure Logic isn't using the low-power efficiency cores to try and play sounds that may overload them. I doubt that will fix the issue, but.. My hunch is that you will have to pony up and pay for the EastWest upgrade to get it working properly. That's how the software industry finances development — by making you (eventually) pay for upgrades that you need for compatibility with newer machines/systems.