20 September 2007

Illogical, Captain

Apple has announced the long-awaited update to Logic, its high-end music-composition and recording application.

Snip from the press release:
Logic Pro 8 now features an intuitive, single-window interface for instant access to powerful music creation and production functions. New audio production tools have been added to speed up common tasks. And surround production capabilities have been enhanced with support for True Surround software instruments and effects.


Along with a nearly 50% price cut, Apple has included Soundtrack Pro 2, enabling a full-fledged post audio workflow.

What I find interesting is the quote in the release from sound designer Frank Serafine, who has done quite a few big movies:
It is a very sophisticated new way of editing sound and I am currently switching over my Pro Tools|HD rigs to do all the post production sound, dialogue editing, sound effects editing and the final mix all on the Soundtrack Pro platform for my next movie project and future projects.


Now, I do field mixing for a living, but I also do post for short films, and hope to expand that area of my repertoire in the future. It would behoove any production sound mixer to familiarize themselves with post; it is, after all, the whole reason we do any of this in the first place. In-depth knowledge of the needs and capabilities of audio post can only make you a better field mixer.

The quote caught my attention because, until now, Pro Tools has been considered the only game in town for serious audio post (notable exceptions being Nuendo and Fairlight's own consoles), and is widely accepted as an industry standard. Hearing that someone like Serafine is willing to trade out his rigs for SP2 is kind of a big deal. I'll be very interested in seeing if anyone else follows suit.

Link, via postmagazine.com.

2 comments:

rizzo said...

I find this interesting too, because I have heard of soundtrack pro and it's compatibility with FCP. I know that Protools is the widely accepted standard and I would wonder if the 'big' guys would use a cheaper alternative. I use Protools and Nuendo, mostly the latter.

syncsound said...

Rob,

You know, many of the caveats that had been expressed about Soundtrack Pro had to do with how well is played with others. Now that they have added OMF and AAF import/export, I'm curious if STP2 will start to look more attractive, especially since, like Nuendo, it's a native app.

-Christian