Logic Pro 10.8.1 in collab with older versions users.

[eluke]

Trying to organize a team of collaborators (to able to open, work and save each others session files via Dropbox):

What's the oldest version of Logic that can work in collaboration with a Logic 10.8.1 user?

Thanks!

 

 

[fuzzfilth]

First red flag is Dropbox. You *must* compress Projects into ZIP files before you move them to Dropbox, or any other cloud, to avoid data corruption.

I haven't extensively tested this, but I can open a Project that is saved from LPX8.1 in LPX5.1. I get a warning "This Project was saved with a newer version, you may get errors, update your software", which I can dismiss. After saving the Project in LPX5.1, I don't get this message anymore. 

This will certainly be more problematic if features that are new in LPX8.1 are activey used in that Project. 

If you can list these and make sure all collaborators avoid them, you may get by without trouble.

Another option would be to distribute the oldest Logic version to all collaborators and have them use that exclusively.

Edited March 19 by fuzzfilth

[eluke]

Thank you fuzzfilthz! 👊

[des99]

Agree with @fuzzfilth, and additionally, there may be changes of behaviour that can bite you - for instance, the sidechain bug that affected timing in some circumstances was fixed in 10.8.x, so if you use that feature, your timing may be different in Logic versions where that old behaviour still persists.

[eluke]

@des99 good point! Thank you.

[enossified]

Lately I’ve been collaborating with a friend who is using 10.8.1 and I'm using 10.7.9.  We haven’t used any of the new 10.8 features, I don't even know what they are. We are only using the builtin plugins. 

Neither of us gets any warnings other than about the audio interface not being the same as when the project was last saved (he has a Tascam and I have a MOTU).

I got the messages fuzzfilth mentioned when I was still using 10.5 on an Intel Mac.

[polanoid]

The oldest version that can open 10.8.1 projects is 10.5.0.

BTW could be that we're just lucky but I have been collaborating over Dropbox with my bandmates on uncompressed Logic projects for years and never encountered any problem.

 

[eluke]

1 hour ago, polanoid said:

BTW could be that we're just lucky but I have been collaborating over Dropbox with my bandmates on uncompressed Logic projects for years and never encountered any problem.

Me too, for 10 years.
We only have to watch out to never have 2 people opening the same session file at the same time.

[des99]

Of all the cloud services, Dropbox *was* the most Mac friendly, and the only one that would preserve macOS filesystem attributes, back when Dropbox was really good. Unfortunately, they kinda ruined it, and we've definitely had instances of people where Logic projects were corrupted for them, but it's difficult to know the circumstances, as there's many entry and exit points, or situations when you're working on Dropbox files and it's syncing the cloud and your project state can be messed up (Logic doesn't like other things accessing the project file while it has it open, for instance).

If you test, and use Dropbox appropriately, it'll probably be fine, but I'd recommend not to *work on* projects from inside your Dropbox folder, but instead have some process that copies projects from your work folder over to you Dropbox folder, or something similar.

In any case, whatever people decide to do, when working on important files, you should thoroughly test your intended workflow, and don't *rely* on it to preserve your work (ie, always have separate copies elsewhere, in case something gets barfed).