Given how much of a song and dance it likes to make about a lot of its hardware launches, Apple’s Logic Pro update roll-outs tend to be remarkably understated. As such, the fact that the company has just casually dropped version 10.7.5 shouldn’t come as any great surprise.
Admittedly, this isn’t a ‘full point’ release - these tend to be bigger - but there are some potentially useful new features nonetheless.
Chief among these is probably free tempo recording, one of several Smart Tempo enhancements. This enables you to record audio in a new or existing project with no metronome or defined tempo, regardless of the overall project tempo mode. So, you no longer need to be a slave to the rhythm.
You can add a free tempo recording button to the control bar, and when you click it, recording starts immediately, with no count-in or click. The selected track is soloed and no other sound is audible as you record.
Once you’ve finished recording, you can decide whether you want to apply the tempo of the recorded region to the project, apply the project tempo to the region, or proceed without analysing the region tempo or changing the project tempo.
The idea is that you can use free tempo recording to quickly capture ideas without worrying about a click, record material that doesn’t have a fixed tempo or timing, or go on to make new content follow the tempo of your recorded performance in an organic way.
Elsewhere in Logic Pro 10.7.5 there’s now Ableton Link support, which will make it easy to create synced jams involving other DAWs or the many iOS apps that are also compatible with the standard.
There’s also personalised Spatial Audio support: if you’re running macOS 13 or later, this promises “an even more precise immersive audio experience over headphones by using a customised head-and-ear-measurement profile that users can create on supported iPhones.”
Other enhancements include the ability to record the output of MIDI plugins, edit the gain of audio regions with the Gain tool and use nested track stacks within both folder and summing stacks.
There are a couple of new sound packs, too - Beat Tape (Hip Hop) and Modular Rhythms (Synth Drums) - and the 35 individual stompboxes that are included in Pedalboard are now available to use as individual plugins on both audio and software instrument tracks.
The Logic Pro 10.7.5 update is free for existing users, though Apple does recommend that you back up your currently installed version and your projects as a precaution. The price for new users is $200/£175
You can find out more about what’s new on the Apple website.
