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Logic Pro X - What's new in 10.5


des99

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The only change to the Step Editor in 10.5, as far as I'm aware, is that it was taken out of the consolidated window tab, and is now only available as a separate window..

 

Any idea why it was removed from there? Seems strange.

Was this an error on Apple''s part?

Or are they "deprecating" the Step Editor?

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Or are they "deprecating" the Step Editor?

Yes that's my guess, if you want to call it that. Doesn't seem strange to me. They had to make room for the new tab and can't have everything showing there. Moreover the editor hasn't been updated in years, is rather old school and most Logic users never use it.

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Apple should have a mechanism that sends information about how users work in a logic program, what functions they use most often. I also think that the step sequencer is a rebuilt hyper editor. I prefer to program the drums by drawing notes in a piano role. It's a pity there are no velocity bars like in ultrabeat. The step sequencer in ultrabeat is much better than a modified hipeditor. I know what I'm talking about logic working since version 5.5 and I know it very well, but you may not agree with me.
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Loving the update. Question about the drum machine designer and q sampler. When i'm using the logic browser and have DMD open when i'm dragging samples in cells, when I click back on the browser to find a new sample in my many folders the DMD plugin disappears and I have to double click the DMD plugin again to drag a new sample to a new cell, any way I can keep it open while making kits?

 

Same issue here. Very annoying. Does anybody have a solution?

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Or are they "deprecating" the Step Editor?

Yes that's my guess, if you want to call it that. Doesn't seem strange to me. They had to make room for the new tab and can't have everything showing there. Moreover the editor hasn't been updated in years, is rather old school and most Logic users never use it.

Mmm, ok? When I need to edit, for example, a mod wheel or pitch bend because it’s a bit too late or too early, I always go to the step editor and grab the whole controller data in that area and move them with my key command to move objects left or right( can’t remember the name of the KC) until it’s perfectly placed. Is there an easier way?

 

Blink

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Mmm, ok? When I need to edit, for example, a mod wheel or pitch bend because it’s a bit too late or too early, I always go to the step editor and grab the whole controller data in that area and move them with my key command to move objects left or right( can’t remember the name of the KC) until it’s perfectly placed. Is there an easier way?

Select and drag your region automation left or right in the Tracks view? Easier to me may not be easier to you. If you've gotten used to a workflow I can see how doing it some other way may sound more complicated to you.

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Mmm, ok? When I need to edit, for example, a mod wheel or pitch bend because it’s a bit too late or too early, I always go to the step editor and grab the whole controller data in that area and move them with my key command to move objects left or right( can’t remember the name of the KC) until it’s perfectly placed. Is there an easier way?

Select and drag your region automation left or right in the Tracks view? Easier to me may not be easier to you. If you've gotten used to a workflow I can see how doing it some other way may sound more complicated to you.

Yeah that could work for rough edits but the grid lines won’t be as customisable. But I rarely need it to be hair-tight. Could work… thanks.

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Yeah that could work for rough edits but the grid lines won’t be as customisable. But I rarely need it to be hair-tight. Could work… thanks.

There are options for snapping your automation in the Snap pop-up menu. Use division and adjust the division in the LCD display? Not ideal I suppose... trying to come up with solutions.

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Yeah that could work for rough edits but the grid lines won’t be as customisable. But I rarely need it to be hair-tight. Could work… thanks.

There are options for snapping your automation in the Snap pop-up menu. Use division and adjust the division in the LCD display? Not ideal I suppose... trying to come up with solutions.

Thanks, well, the Step Editor is not gone yet so I’m all good for now. :D

 

Blink

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Note - I've been using the Step Editor (formerly Hyper Editor) to edit MIDI drums since about 1990 with C-Lab's Creator/Notator (forerunner to Logic) and I loved it, particularly for doing naturalistic drum editing with subtle groove and timing variations.

 

I could not do this in the Step Sequencer, that's for sure, as it's not a MIDI editor. I could make relatively simple drum machine type patterns in it (I haven't really explored it in detail yet) but as it's not a MIDI editor it's clearly terrible and not the tool for editing/creating MIDI drum performances to sound like a real drummer.

 

However, it does have some great features for more generative and random stuff, and I'm keen to explore it further. But Step Editor it most certainly is not.

 

I think maybe for the people confusing the two, they are probably used to seeing it, or using it to create "simple" drum patterns, (by simple I mean quantised or EDM-style drum machiney patterns, rather than real natural drummer stuff) and in this regard, the step sequencer with a more modern interface is a better tool for this purpose than the old Step Editor, and has a lot of cool new stuff that wasn't possible before.

 

However, while there is some overlap, (and perhaps those people *only* see the overlap), conceptually they are very different beasts entirely, which is why the Step Editor was replaced/upgraded/overhauled and is still there.

 

I expect the step editor tab was removed for a few reasons:

- Apple are proud of the new step sequencer, it's more modern and cool and they want to show it off

 

- People might get confused between the Step Sequencer, and the old Step Editor (hence this discussion shows they were probably right!). They may also erroneously think of the Step Sequencer as a MIDI editor just like the Step Editor next door, and then get frustrated they can't actually edit MIDI with it!

 

- Not that many people were actually using the Step Editor anyway, so it makes sense to tuck it away, and still have it available for those people that do use it - or for the use cases when it's the most appropriate tool

 

The fact is that many things the Step Editor was originally designed for back in the day - like editing MIDI CC controller data - now can be done in many other, newer, or more convenient ways which weren't around at the birth of the step editor. But really, compared to the piano roll for drum editing, the display and accessibility of notes with their velocities together meant it was/is actually a pretty good MIDI drum editor, but was overlooked as too much bother for most people to use - who generally wanted Cubase's more simplistic drum pattern editor (which was a Roland TR-style grid). So it became a bit maligned with Logic users, unfairly imo.

 

But of course - use whatever tools work best for you - if people didn't like it, they always had other tools instead.

 

Anyway - the step sequencer is pretty cool, and like I say, I'm keen to dive in a bit deeper with it, and do all kinds of things you can't do with the Step Editor...

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  • 1 month later...

My God.... this thread feels like a cold shower.

I really hope they don't remove the Step Editor, that's THE reason I just spent 300$ on logic 2 weeks ago.

The other tools imo are targeting users who, as des99 said, make simple beats, that just sound like drum machines in the end (the step sequencer), or users who don't really have the skills to make their own drum parts by themselves (the Drummer) - tools that feel like toys to me.

 

I know it makes me sound like an old grumpy uncle, but In the 90's I programmed drums for covers of bands such as Yes, Genesis, Rush , etc, with the equivalent of the Step Editor, in Notator. Several bands would buy my midi files, as they sounded quite good and natural, thanks to the power of Notator.

 

So far, I don't see that happening with the Logic Tools or definitely not with the same ease.

It is frankly disappointing.

 

(BTW anyone knows if an emulation of Notator exists for mac, I'd buy it right away.)

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I used the (as it was called then) Hyper Editor in Creator/Notator to do drums, and the Step Editor in Logic is almost exactly the same thing, it's just a more sophisticated overall environment now.

 

Once you get Logic set up for you, if you prefer to work in the Step Editor (perhaps in conjunction with other editors too), you should feel perfectly comfortable with it. Remember, all these different tools let *you choose* how you want to work, they don't dictate anything, or force you to use them. It's just marketing wants to demonstrate the new shiny things and the users like to talk about new stuff - few people are singing the praises of stuff that's been in Logic since the beginning, no matter how cool those things may be.

 

I loved Creator/Notator in it's time, and still have some warm nostalgia for those tools and times, but really, it is very limited compared to Logic these days, in pure sequencing terms. You can more or less replicate that environment in Logic anyway (use folders for each pattern - just import some Creator/Notator songs into Logic and you'll see how they set it up.)

 

Imo there's nothing disappointing* about Logic, it's an *incredible* music producing environment. You've only been with it for a few weeks, so you're literally in the early days where the learning curve makes things seem like a big of struggle.

 

* In broad terms ;)

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Personally, I don't know what Notator had that Logic have lost along the way?

After all, Logic is no more no less than Notator's grand-grand-son, isn't?

 

Ye, I would say Logic is indeed it’s great grandson. It did have really great MIDI timing, tight as a gnat’s ass, with the Atari built in MIDI ports and the Unitor, maybe even better than present DAWs. And an “Arrangement” workflow that Logic did not approximate until the Arrangement global track.

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The Atari computer had certain things at the OS and hardware level that facilitated that tight timing. It definitely did have have that, but any reduction in midi accuracy really came from the platform itself, not from the sequencing software itself. Current DAW's have perfect midi timing when rendering software instruments which is what most people do now anyway. If you use external midi devices, then the timing is not as good as the Atari computer and never will be, though when they started adding Midi timestamping into various midi interfaces and the CoreMidi framework...it basically brought the timing within sub millisecond precision (knock on wood when I say that), which is as we say..good enough for government work.
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