The AudioWerk8 and Logic 3.0
Probably as a response to
the maelstrom of discontent among PC users, Emagic decide to release its
own Soundcard, the Emagic AudioWerk 8, an unbalanced 2 in 8 out soundcard
with s/pdif. While the card sounded great, it performed poorly on
my PCs (I have heard it was better on Macs). This was introduced in
near the end of the version 2 series and really got up to serious speed
as we rounded the bend to 3.0. On the Mac, many users were ecstatic
with the Korg 1212 i/o card. I ran Logic 3 on a Cyrix 133+ with an
array of drives totally 1GB with the Audiowerk card. Audio barely
worked, so I upgraded to a Pentium 200 and was able to finally get some
work done, though there were still issues which were not resolved till I
hurled the card into the closet. Eventually, right as emagic was about
to discontinue the AW8, they released new drivers which truly improved the
product.
Yet 3.0 truly whispered the
promise of a full-functioning MIDI/Audio integrated application. The
coolest feature for me at the time, was the ability to non-destructively
slice, cut and paste snips of audio wherever you wanted on 8 audio outputs.
I used Logic 3 extensively as the MIDI backbone building samples for my
hardware samplers. Logic 3.0 came with 11 real time effects that could be
"plugged-in" to the mixer's channel stripped or put on a bus. Logic appeared
to be following Cubase's lead. Cubase had started including its VST
(Virtual studio technology) and the competition between the two rivals appeared
fierce. Logic 3 had 7 single band EQs, delay, flanger, chorus and reverb.
The EQs and delay were excellent, and they really helped usher in a transformation
in popular music, as Logic was beginning be used in professional studios
as an audio sequencer. While the plugins were not much by today's
standards (I did not know anyone that would consider using the software
reverb instead of their hardware verb) the gauntlet had been thrown down.
Logic was on its way towards software plugins and virtual instruments.
Above you see a screenshot
of Logic 3.5. Some noteworthy improvements in 3.5 were the introduction
of the Adaptive Mixer, non-destructive crossfades, and perhaps, most far
reaching, the ability to use DX (if you were on a PC) and VST plugins right
in Logic's mixers.
Logic 4.0
Logic 4.0 was to introduce
more plugins, and had a Platinum, Gold, Silver and MicroLogic version.
PC users now had a choice between different driver models (PC AV, AW, ASIO,
EASI and more if you had the Platinum version.) This eased the soundcard
issues significantly. Also, soundcards were improving dramatically,
as were our computers. Audio interfaces with multiple ins and outs were
released that finally got the latency issues satisfactorily resolved, Windows
98 was finally stable, and CPUs passed the 1 GHZ threshold. It was
in this powerful, but stable environment that Logic 4.0 was released.
To many of us at the time it was a dream come true.
Many of the famous emagic
plugins were introduced in 4.0--the compressor, Fat EQ, Overdrive, Bitcrusher,
Auto Filter, the Notorious Spectral Gate, En-Verb, Platinum Verb and the
creamy Phaser and wonderful Tape Delay and they were all automatable.
The Logic 4 Series was to see the first virtual instruments, sold as add-ons,
which included, most notably, the Emagic EXS sampler. Also, the Logic's
GUI had a total makeover with version 4. It looks quite similar all
the way to Version 6.3. Being on a PC in the Fall of 1999, I can recall
many happy sessions with Logic 4. Musical Productivity on a PC, at
last! On the next page you will read my review, written in 1999,
a few months after the program's release. This indeed was Logic's
shining hour.
Logic 4.5 polished up the
version 4 series nicely. Surround mixer objects came into being which
allowed you to set up your audio interface for 5.1 and 7.1 surround.
Also, Logic incorporated "input objects" in its audio mixer, which, in combination
with a bus object, could let you connect external effects processors and
synths to the output streams without recording them as audio. While
this may seem like a minor point, the result was profound. You could
now connect all your analog gear to Logic's mixer if you had enough inputs,
and for the first time, the user could "mix in the box", that is, do a full
mixdown totally in the virtual domain. Indeed, it was now possible
to go without a hardware mixer.
During the Logic 4 series,
Emagic replaced the old dongle with the XS key. The key was designed
to hold all your Logic authorizations and replaced their old CD authorization
ritual you had to do for your emagic virtual instruments. Towards
the end of series 4, Windows XP was released. Up through version 4.7, Logic
incorporated many of its new virtual instruments Logic 4.8 was the first
XP version and required a special updater. With the release of WinXP,
many audio drivers bit the dust and there was a period of instability, but
thankfully, the major manufacturers had learned a lesson from the horrid
transitions from windows 3.1 to 95 and 95 to 98. The transition period
was short, and with Win XP, logic was about to go full stride.
