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Better Integration For Melodyne And Logic Pro X

Celemony has announced Melodyne 4.2 which introduces tighter integration with Logic Pro X 10.4.2. They tell us that ,with both apps using ARA technology, Melodyne can be used more seamlessly as part of the Logic workflow. Numerous other details have also been improved (also for other ARA and non-ARA DAWs), so the free update is recommended to all Melodyne 4 users. Here’s more details in Celemony’s own words…

ARA Audio Random Access™ allows a DAW to work with Melodyne to exchange information about the audio file, pitch, rhythm and other attributes, making the workflow feel less like a plug-in, and more like an integrated feature. With ARA in supported apps like Logic, all changes to your song structure, like moving, looping, copying or comping tracks and regions, are reflected in Melodyne. This significantly streamlines the editing and creative process for users of both products.

“Naturally we are excited to see leading apps in our industry support ARA Audio Random Access so that our users can enjoy the benefits of Melodyne integration” says Carsten Gehle, Technical Director and Co-Founder of Celemony Software GmbH. “We are delighted for Logic Pro X to join our community of supported products.”

The most important workflow advantages of running Melodyne with ARA in Logic Pro X include:

Open tracks without transfers: Load Melodyne as an insert effect, start playback and the entire track will appear automatically in Melodyne. There is no further need for transfers.
Melodyne follows all changes you make to the track: Melodyne compares its contents to those of the audio track and accurately replicates any lengthening, shortening or movement of regions.
Copied, looped and aliased regions: When regions are copied, looped or aliased, the Melodyne content behaves accordingly as a real copy or as a ghost copy (loop.)
Region-based mixing: Regions edited with Melodyne now support all the mix functions of the region inspector in Logic: gain, mute and fades.
Takes & Quick Swipe Comping: Now you can edit takes with Melodyne before committing yourself to a choice between them, which gives you a more realistic assessment of their respective merits, leading to better results.
Removes need for transfer files: Thanks to ARA, there is no longer the need to manage and keep transfer files, archive them or pass them on to collaborators.

The ARA integration of Melodyne and Logic requires the latest versions of both programs: Logic Pro X 10.4.2 and Melodyne 4.2.

More information:

Logic Pros Review: Cypher2 has stellar sound design tools & 500+ MPE presets

FXpansion recently released the new Cypher2 software instrument for all major DAWs. It comes packed with hundreds of new 5D touch sounds and sound design capabilities, so we couldn’t wait to give it a run for Logic Pros. The fully-featured instrument features an impressive array of effects along with a powerful oscillator section and more. But at the same price as Logic Pro X itself, is it worth it? After getting a chance to go hands-on with the ROLI Seaboard Block controller, we have been obsessed with 5D MIDI. The emergence of MPE has created a whole new product category on both the hardware and software side of things. Gadgets like the Seaboard Block and plug-ins like Cypher2 have drastically broadened our creative horizons. In many cases, it almost forces new creative ideas out of you. The ability to naturally slide your fingers across a playing surface that still maintains the general sensibilities of a traditional keyboard in combination with the software to support it has proven itself to be more than a passing fad. So naturally we have been on the hunt for amazing new Software instruments that support MPE and the Seaboard. One such example is FXpansion’s Cypher2. The instrument has been around for years in some capacity or other. FXpansion, however, has issued a brand new version jam-packed with 500 5D presets (plus another 800 standard presets) along with an extremely deep and expressive modulation system for multi-touch sound design. Oscillators: Cypher2 features 3 analog-modeled, multi-waveform oscillators. Each of which include thru-zero FM, ring mod, a noise generator and an interesting sync feature. All three oscillators can also be used as LFOs, which is music to any sound designer’s ears and great news for beginners browsing the presets. This is an extremely capable and fully-featured oscillator section. Cypher2 can go from your typical workhorse analog synth sounds to dreamy digital wind instruments and haunting vocal choirs, with no problems at all. You can hear it in action right here. There are a couple standout features here as well. The adjustable sync mode on oscillator 2 and 3 is amazing. As opposed to an on/off toggle switch, it is entirely variable. So if the rotary knob is set to 100%, you get your typical “Sync sound” setup. But you’ll get varying degrees of sync (or soft sync-like tones) between 0% and 99%. While not unheard of in synth design, it is a nice touch that yielded some interesting tones and harmonics for us during testing. Dual Filter/Shaper: You’re essentially looking at a pair of Shaper/Multi-Mode resonant filter units with a nice balance/mixer section. While the filters themselves both have a discreet drive function, the Shaper sections are basically complete distortion/saturation modules. There are loads of different Shaper/Distortion types: Diode, OTA, OpAmp, and HalfRect with a low-pass filter setting as well as DiodK, RectK, FoldTK, FoldSK and SoftK modes with a key tracking filter control. Effects: Cypher2 features an extremely powerful Effects section. It has split FX A and FX B Chains with three effects each. Each chain is set to run in series (the output of FX A feeds into FX B), but you can also opt for a parallel routing path. And just about all of the controls and all of the FX can be modulated. There is a massive list of Effects here as well. You’ll find everything from various EQ options, to compressors, reverbs and delays, among many others. But there are a couple we would like to point out. The Amber Chorus is fantastic sounding. It uses various algorithms to mimic “classic bucket-brigade delay (BBD) chorus circuits” found in vintage instruments through the years. Secondly is the Amber Formants effect. This is essentially a 4-band formant filter that can invoke an almost vocal-like or string tone to almost any synth patch. The presets make great use of the two effects and I found them both to be real game changers when it comes to creating interesting 5D sounds. Modulation: Cypher2 features an extremely deep modulation system. It is both advanced and quite intuitive at the same time. I tend to be picky about the way plug-in synth makers implement modulation routing, and I think FXpansion has done a great job here. As opposed to one of those modulation matrix style editors that’s off in another window from the main synth editor, you can do just about all of routing from right on the main page. There are 16 TransMod slots along the top of the UI. Each of them can modulate just about all parameters on the synthesizer and can be optionally multiplied or scaled using an additional source. There are also an additional 8 hard wired Mod slots on top of that. However, you can basically multiply all of that by 8. Within the TransMod section you can have up to 8 Quick-preset slots that can carry different settings for everything mentioned above. Meaning you can save up to 8 variations on a single patch’s modulation routing state and morph between them at will. Create a patch you love, copy and paste its modulation settings down to a new slot with some alterations and maybe nudge that randomization X/Y matrix. The sound possibilities are endless here whether you’re a pro or not. Modulation Options: Another nice touch here is the Parameter context menu (right-click on parameter). You can also right click on a parameter and choose a TransMod from the menu. Great for its immediacy, this can also be helpful and a more direct solution for some new sound designers. Find the control you want to add some movement to, then select what you want to do that with from the pop-up menu. This might very well be a more intuitive approach for those who are a little less familiar with synth routing. You have to click and drag on the light grey pop-up overlay that surrounds the particular knob in question to adjust the modulation depth no matter how you choose to do it. While you can still easily adjust the knob itself by clicking and dragging as usual, I found this method to be slightly hard to get used at first. Sometimes I was grabbing the knob as opposed to the grey overlay by accident. But I got used to it within about a couple hours of tinkering. Easy Mode/Presets: Expansion has included an excellent Easy Mode page in Cypher2 for beginners. However, it is also great for those just looking to rip through some sounds quickly. While nice for auditioning the presets available, you also get some nice macro controls to customize the sound in an extremely simple and straight forward fashion. Each patch has up to 5 contextual controls that will alter the sound to some degree ranging from FX settings to modulation depths/rates and more. For more advanced users, those controls are the P1, P2, P3 and Base X/Base Y from the Euclid processor that are built-in to that particular preset. You’ll also find some nice alternate color themes in there as well. Should You Buy It? I went in to this one with fair level of skepticism. There was a marketing tie-in with ROLI and it seemed as though they wanted $200 for a bundle of presets for an old software instrument. As fantastic as the new presets are, and they are, that is very much not the case. The variable Sync, Shaper, unique built-in FX options and insanely deep modulation possibilities were real standout features here. But the Sequencers and Analog Noise Generator are also really nice touches as well. Cypher 2 is easily our new go-to 5D software instrument on the Mac. With its incredibly advanced modulation system, refreshingly unique on-board FX and brilliant presets, it’s almost impossible not to recommend this one. Even if you’re not as interested in such a deep modulation setup, the Easy preset page provides an amazing resource for easily customizable sounds. And on the other hand, this is clearly a very complex and nuanced synthesizer professionals can sink their teeth in to. It’s certainly not cheap, but if you’re looking to invest in some serious software instruments, Cypher2 is worth it. Cypher2 is available now for $199. You’ll see a free demo available there as well if you want to give it a spin first. The Logic Pros are: Justin Kahn and Jordan Kahn. Want more Logic Pros? Check out the archives here and stay tuned for a new installments.

Surface Studio 2 vs. iMac Pro: Which all-in-one rules them all?

All-in one systems are at their best when they have everything you need in a compact, attractive package with plenty of screen detail and real estate for any computing task you require. With such demands, you often need to pay for the privilege, but both Microsoft and Apple have some great hardware options for the discerning all-in-one buyer. To find out who does it best, we pitted the Surface Studio 2 vs. iMac Pro in a classic head to head. For a look at some other great all-in-ones, check the round-up up of our favorites. Design Despite both being all-in-one systems, the approach to where the real meat of the hardware is located is slightly different in both the Surface Studio 2 and iMac Pro. Where the iMac Pro utilizes a thin, all-aluminum frame at its base and packs all of its processing and storage capabilities behind its 27-inch screen, the Surface Studio 2 has a base station at the bottom of its hinge which houses most of its powerful components. That means its display is thinner, although the iMac’s stand is arguably the more minimalist of the two. With the more robust base on the Surface Studio 2 and a lighter display, Microsoft is able to offer great versatility in the orientation of the device. Using its “zero-gravity” hinge, the Surface Studio 2 can be effortlessly moved from a standard, upright display, to something more akin to a desk-mounted tablet, making it much easier to use accessories like the Surface Pen or Surface Dial to interact with on screen elements. The iMac Pro can change its tilt angle, but it doesn’t feature any kind of fold-flat functionality. Regardless of orientation, both designs are attractive with clean lines and silver accenting the black, rounded-corner bezels of the display. They’re a far cry from the bezel-free laptop and desktop displays which are becoming more commonplace in other market sectors, but space restrictions in all-in-one designs make that much harder to achieve. The port selection between the two is far more varied, though. The Surface Studio 2 has four USB-A 3.0 ports, a full-size SDXC card reader, a headphone jack, and a Gigabit Ethernet port. The iMac Pro, on the other hand, has four USB-A 3.0 ports, as well as four USB-C ports, all of which support the high-speed Thunderbolt 3 standard and are equally compatible with USB 3.1. It also comes with a standard 3.5mm headphone jack, an SDXC card reader, and 10-gigabit Ethernet. Performance Both systems sport powerful hardware, but there are some stark differences in their options and pricing structures. The entry-level Surface Studio 2 starts at $3,500 and comes with a seventh-generation Intel Core i7-7820HQ quad-core CPU, 16GB of RAM, a terabyte of SSD storage space, and a GTX 1060 graphics chip with 6GB of GDDR5 memory. That’s a powerful configuration, but there are even greater options. You can double the RAM, double the storage, and swap out the GPU for a GTX 1070 for more graphical power. The top-tier model with all the bells and whistles is priced at $4,700. The iMac Pro has a much higher starting price point at $5,000, but comes with a more impressive array of hardware. It sports an eight-core Intel Xeon W-2140B CPU, with 32GB of RAM, an AMD Radeon Pro Vega 56 graphics card, and a terabyte of SSD storage. That’s more powerful than even the top-specification of the Surface Pro, but it is more expensive, too. From there the only limit is how much you want to spend. Options include faster processors with more cores (up to 18), up to four times the memory, a Radeon Pro Vega 64 GPU with double the GPU memory, and up to 4TB of solid state storage. Such a maxed-out configuration comes with a price tag in excess of $13,000. Each system, regardless of configuration, has its own single display choice. With the Surface Studio 2, you get a 28-inch 4,500 x 3,000 resolution PixelSense screen, which is roughly specced the same as the first-generation Surface Studio. However, this one gets much brighter and has greater contrast, so should have more depth in its image. It uses the 3:2 aspect ratio, so is better for web browsing and productivity, though less desirable for media viewing. That’s almost the opposite of the iMac Pro’s display, which is both higher-resolution and in a more traditional 16:9 aspect ratio. It’s one of Apple’s “5K” retina displays with a resolution of 5,120 x 2,880. Its brightness is comparable to the Surface Studio 2’s at 500 nits, though it is a little smaller at 27-inches diagonally. Operating system As much as the design and hardware of these two systems is important, the core of the debate between these two all-in-ones is whether you want a Windows or MacOS environment. There are ways to have both, but most will opt for either platform with a notable preference for it over the alternative. If you’re on the fence, there are some factors to consider. The latest version of MacOS, Mojave, pairs well with existing Apple products like iPhones and iPads, and can take advantage of MacOS exclusive apps like Logic Pro X and Final Cut Pro X, both of which can be purchased with an iMac Pro as part of a bundle. The Surface Studio 2 has the advantages of the latest version of Windows 10, which means its compatible with a wider range of software, including both productivity software and games. Although the Surface Studio 2’s hardware is weaker than the iMac Pro’s in certain configurations, it is a perfectly viable gaming machine. That’s not exactly what it was designed for, but the gaming ecosystem is far more robust on Windows and if it’s something you plan to do when you aren’t using the Surface Studio 2’s more creative features, it’s a far better platform for doing so on than the iMac Pro. What are you willing to pay? It’s likely that your choice of MacOS or Windows will be a huge deciding factor in which all-in-one you opt for, but outside of that decades-long debate, cost is the biggest factor here. The iMac Pro is unarguably the more powerful machine, even with its base configuration. It has more cores and more threads on its CPU, more powerful graphics chips, more memory, and greater storage capacities. But all of it comes at a cost. You can buy the most powerful Surface Studio 2 for less than the base model iMac Pro, and if you don’t need that much memory or graphical capability, you can save a lot by opting for the more modest configurations. If you do decide to go with the iMac Pro, consider that we may see a refresh before the end of the year, so it may be worth holding out a few more months to find it that prediction holds true.

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