Apple exec confirms Logic Pro X getting Touch Bar support by 'early next year'

AppleInsider

People wanting to use the new MacBook Pro Touch Bar with Logic Pro X will have to wait for an update coming by "early next year," according to an Apple marketing director, Xander Soren.

"Thanks for reaching out," Soren wrote to an AppleInsider reader in response to an email question about Touch Bar support, and whether Apple is even still planning to continue Logic development. "I'd like to assure you that we are fully committed to Logic Pro X, and we will be bringing Touch Bar support to Logic by early next year."

Rumors have suggested that Logic Pro would be getting Touch Bar support in early 2017, but the email appears to be the first official word from Apple.

When Apple demonstrated the MacBook Pro on Oct. 27, it showed first-party apps like GarageBand and Final Cut Pro X utilizing the Touch Bar, but made no mention of Logic, despite it being an obvious potential use case.

The Touch Bar is a multitouch display replacing the function keys on a Mac with context-sensitive controls. While these might normally just provide single-tap options, support for things like sliders and thumbnail browsers could simplify audio production work.

Apple has gradually veered away from supporting the professional segment. The Mac Pro, for instance, was last updated in 2013, and a year later it discontinued its photo workflow software, Aperture, effectively handing that market over to Adobe's Lightroom.

To grab the lowest prices on Apple's new MacBook Pro with Touch Bar, see AppleInsider's Mac Price Guide.

spamsandwich

  
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blastdoor

If Apple has a coherent plan for the Mac and for professional/business users, they sure have done a good job of keeping it a secret. 

williamh

Did Apple's developers find out about the Touch Bar only after 3rd party developers?  Is this really the best that the world's largest (by market cap) and most profitable company can do?

spheric

Of course. The Logic development team is in Rellingen, near Hamburg, Germany. These sorts of new hardware developments tend to remain internal to Cupertino.

jcdinkins

blastdoor said:

If Apple has a coherent plan for the Mac and for professional/business users, they sure have done a good job of keeping it a secret. 

You've done a good job at being a troll so...

blastdoor

jcdinkins said:

blastdoor said:

If Apple has a coherent plan for the Mac and for professional/business users, they sure have done a good job of keeping it a secret. 

You've done a good job at being a troll so...

so.... do you have anything remotely substantive to say? 

Is there a clear plan that I've missed? Can you tell me what it is? 

bdkennedy1002

spheric said:

Of course. The Logic development team is in Rellingen, near Hamburg, Germany. These sorts of new hardware developments tend to remain internal to Cupertino.

But they can't keep a secret about anything else.

macpro

I'd have though along with FinalCut Pro  X, Logic Pro X would have been one of the first apps to support the Touch Bar.  This is a MacBook Pro after all.

edited November 2016

flaneur

bdkennedy said:

spheric said:

Of course. The Logic development team is in Rellingen, near Hamburg, Germany. These sorts of new hardware developments tend to remain internal to Cupertino.

But they can't keep a secret about anything else.

A perfect jackass comment for MacRumors. You would fit in much better over there.

I don't believe I've ever seen a useful comment from you here. 

rogifan_new

23 Apple apps have been updated to support touch bar.

https://9to5mac.com/2016/11/04/macbook-pro-touch-bar-apple-apps-screenshot-gallery/

ddawson100

rogifan_new said:

23 Apple apps have been updated to support touch bar.

https://9to5mac.com/2016/11/04/macbook-pro-touch-bar-apple-apps-screenshot-gallery/

That was super interesting. So basically redefining the context menu. Right-clicking on things to bring up another menu is going to start looking so dated. 

I wonder what this button does. It's pretty common across the toolbars.



Edit: urg, I don't know what I'm doing and having trouble adding an image in-line.

edited November 2016

spheric

That's a CPU load display.

ddawson100

spheric said:

That's a CPU load display.

Please explain. Are you saying that pressing that button would pop up another windows on the main display showing the CPU load? Why would that be on so many of the touch bars? I can't see how that would be relevant in any of the apps. Anyway, just curious.

spheric

ddawson100 said:

spheric said:

That's a CPU load display.

Please explain. Are you saying that pressing that button would pop up another windows on the main display showing the CPU load? Why would that be on so many of the touch bars? I can't see how that would be relevant in any of the apps. Anyway, just curious.

Oh, never mind. The image wasn't loading, so all I saw was the little icon at the bottom of your post, which showed what looked like. CPU load display. Then I looked at the link and couldn't find it anywhere, so I was going to ask you. I was curious about that spray can myself.

nolamacguy

blastdoor said:

jcdinkins said:

blastdoor said:

If Apple has a coherent plan for the Mac and for professional/business users, they sure have done a good job of keeping it a secret. 

You've done a good job at being a troll so...

so.... do you have anything remotely substantive to say? 

Is there a clear plan that I've missed? Can you tell me what it is? 

i think the plan as we've seen so far is pretty clear -- new laptops with touch interface. software updating to take advantage. what confuses you?

for all the bitching and moaning from trolls and haters, i bet few are actually pro users anyway. i develope software for a living and am somehow doing so successfully on a 2014 MBP and fully-loaded 2011 imac. thus i have to believe most of the noise is just loudmouths moving air. 

edited November 2016

ddawson100

spheric said:
Oh, never mind. The image wasn't loading, so all I saw was the little icon at the bottom of your post, which showed what looked like. CPU load display.

That's on me. I edited my post a few times and finally got the image inline using HTML rather than just as an attachment.

flaneur

blastdoor said:

jcdinkins said:

blastdoor said:

If Apple has a coherent plan for the Mac and for professional/business users, they sure have done a good job of keeping it a secret. 

You've done a good job at being a troll so...

Is there a clear plan that I've missed? Can you tell me what it is? 

Yes, it's there, and you're missing it, along with many others, including the writer of this AI piece. ("Apple has gradually veered away from supporting the professional segment.")

With the laptops, the path is to pack the most power possible in the most portable possible package. They just released proof of this, and one key strategic technology was bet on by Apple back in 2011, five years ago, when they started putting money into IGZO production development with Sharp. This is the "oxide backplane" that Ive talks about in the MacPro design video that more than anything else has made the shrink in the new form factor possible.

I'd say go to the Apple store and compare the new 13-inch non-Touch Bar with its predecessor, in overall size and in the brilliance of the display, snd you will see the path for the pros. But you probably won't see. Roger Fingas doesn't get it, Marco Arment doesn't get it. Why should you be able to get it?

dysamoria

flaneur said:

blastdoor said:

jcdinkins said:

blastdoor said:

If Apple has a coherent plan for the Mac and for professional/business users, they sure have done a good job of keeping it a secret. 

You've done a good job at being a troll so...

Is there a clear plan that I've missed? Can you tell me what it is? 

Yes, it's there, and you're missing it, along with many others, including the writer of this AI piece. ("Apple has gradually veered away from supporting the professional segment.")

With the laptops, the path is to pack the most power possible in the most portable possible package. They just released proof of this, and one key strategic technology was bet on by Apple back in 2011, five years ago, when they started putting money into IGZO production development with Sharp. This is the "oxide backplane" that Ive talks about in the MacPro design video that more than anything else has made the shrink in the new form factor possible.

I'd say go to the Apple store and compare the new 13-inch non-Touch Bar with its predecessor, in overall size and in the brilliance of the display, snd you will see the path for the pros. But you probably won't see. Roger Fingas doesn't get it, Marco Arment doesn't get it. Why should you be able to get it?

Right, because 13" screens are really professional if they're a little nicer (they still don't reach the contrast ratio of old CRTs) and it's really fun to work on print-size images or Logic projects with more than 10 tracks (especially when expanded to show automation) on a 13" screen. 15" might be workable while moving from place to place, but if you want to do large images comfortably at a desk you still have to buy a third-party display and hope it works gracefully with your Mac (since 2013, the track record for this has been poor), rather than have an Apple-designed display made to work with it. ...and hope that the laptop components don't die from heat issues in 2-4 years when you're running the machine hard all days of the week...

Those marginally improved LCD displays are not all it takes to be professional. 

toddzrx

flaneur said:

With the laptops, the path is to pack the most power possible in the most portable possible package. They just released proof of this....

Nice theory, kind of like socialism.  Doesn't work so well in practice.  Apple has significantly reduced the simple, straightforward usability of the computer by going all in on USB-C instead of providing some legacy connectivity such as HDMI or an SD slot.  People that really are using their computer to do work now have to live in Dongle Land, which is a sharp contrast to how Apple used to do business.

koban4max81

Mac Pro......mac pro........mac pro.