Mojo’s Pick of the Week – Logic Pro X 10.3

Posted on February 15, 2017 by Mojo

My pick of the week is the latest, greatest version of Apple’s digital audio workstation, Logic Pro X 10.3. This is no minor point release, but an overhaul of an already world-class DAW. You must have OS version El Capitan (10.11) or greater to install it, but reluctant as I was to leave the comfort of 10.9, even that upgrade was a performance bonus.

The actual list of new features, enhancements, and bug fixes in 10.3 is so long I’m not even going to try to cover more than a few standouts. The full release notes are here:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT203718

Some of the more obvious changes are with the UI itself.

The colors are different – the background is lightened from the bold darkness of 10.2, it’s now somewhere between the look of v9 and X. This is to make it easier to see in different lighting conditions.

And the buttons and tools all have a simplified 2d look that goes along with the aesthetic of the last couple OS versions. The whole thing is very responsive and slick.

My personal favorite changes in 10.3:

When you move the ends of a region, a ghost region appears so you can better see where you are in the audio file waveform.

There is a new standalone loudness meter that measures in LUFS (Loudness Units).

The cursor icon now changes more obviously and intuitively for the different selected tools.

You now get the choice of stereo vs dual mono in each stereo track, and true stereo panning. (What was it before? I don’t even know!)

Less obvious changes:

Faster startup and shutdown times
Less unexpected quitting when switching between projects
Touch bar support for the latest MacBook Pros
64-bit summing engine and support for 256 busses per project
Ability to process clips separately within the same audio track

Bottom Line

If you have OS X 10.11 or higher, this is a great update to a great DAW. And if you don’t, I recommend updating. My mid-2012 MBP is so much happier with El Capitan, and so am I. And though I’m not 100% thrilled to be re-re-learning my daily use DAW, I’m loving the new features so far.

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Favorite Free Plugins

Posted on December 2, 2015 by Mojo

Maybe you missed out on the Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals. Maybe like me, money is a little tight this time of year (read: all times of the year). Maybe you wanted to ask for plugins for Christmas but your loved ones give you the “no speak English” blank stare when you bring up anything related to music production. Never fear, I’m about to lay down my list of favorite FREE plugins, that have been making it into my mixes over the last decade or so!

Disclaimer: I use Logic Pro on a Mac, so these plugins will be slanted towards what is available in Audio Unit (AU) format. If you use VST plugins, you actually have many more free plugins available!

Compressors

Rough Rider (Audio Damage)
This deceptively simple, mostly transparent compressor is always on everyone’s list of must-have freebies. I use it for parallel compression a lot on the “New York” setting.

Limiter No 6 (Vladislav Goncharov)
I would pay decent $ for this compressor/limiter, it is so good. Vintage sound, HF limiting, mid-side processing, and a true hard limiter. It’s one of my absolute favorites.

MJUC Jr. (Klanghelm)
This is one of the newest additions to the Klanghelm lineup, a vintage passive-circuit bus compressor that I can easily see becoming a fast favorite. I went ahead and bought the full version.

Camel Crusher (Camel Audio)
One of the first plugins I ever downloaded, and I still use it all the time to give beef to a track as an aux send. Kind of a compressor-saturator. Sadly no longer available, I just found out when writing this! Great replacement free saturator and compressor can be had from Klanghelm.

EQs

Slick EQ (Tokyo Dawn Labs)
New to the table, great little EQ with curve characteristics that change based on the country/style setting. This video gives you all the tricks.

SonEQ (Sonimus)
Vintage sounding Pultec -type EQ that allows you to boost and attenuate lows at once. Supplanted by non-free SonEQ Pro which I like a little less but is a good bargain. Sonimus makes great inexpensive plugins such as Satson. [Note – this was re-released in 2017 as a 64 bit plugin! Still free!]

Guitar Amp Sims

LePou Amp Sims
These are really excellent amp sims in several styles: Hybrit, Le456, LeCto, LeGion, LeXtac. The website is a blog, so you have to dig a little to grab them, but well worth it.

AuraPlug Freetortion Pedal Sims
The site is now called Audiorammer apparently. Excellent pedal simulators: California Sun, EddieVsHeaven, Fuzz-Stone & Fuzz-Stone Germanium version, RedSkull, and Whamdrive.

TSE Audio Pedal Sims
These guys make a nice Rat (R47), Tube Screamer (TSE 808), and SansAmp (TSE B.O.D.) simulators.

Other

Panipulator (Boz Digital Labs)
Brilliant transparent stereo – mono – phase switcher. I use this to test mixes in mono, or remove one half of a stereo track.

Ambience (Magnus Smartelectronix)
Really excellent reverb with a shit ton of great presets for all occasions. Meant to go right on the track, adjust wet/dry if using on an aux.

Head Crusher Free (Audio Assault)
This is a saturator that adds drive and beef to bass and drum tracks, try it and see what it brings to the table. Good on an aux. They have a bunch of other cool freebies too.

These aren’t all the free plugins I have, just the ones that I keep coming back to over and over. I should also mention that the most common plugins I use are the Logic Pro stock EQ and compressor. They’re “free” in the sense that they came with Logic, but not in the sense that you can download them yourself.

What are some of your favorite free plugins?

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