Eulogy to a German masterpiece condemned to death. And hello Steinberg!

[Macker]

For Logic Pro users, in case you haven't already seen this, Apple has added a new statement to the Environment's introduction in their Logic Pro 11 manual (my highlighting):–

We few serious Environment users had already of course noticed the recent relegation of the "Open Environment Window" menu bar item to an Alt-click option. Well that might have meant merely that Apple don't want to frighten away 14 year old Jax - in mom's basement - with his precious dreams of becoming a celebrity pop music producer. Sure, let Jax feel more at home in Logic, less intimidated by technical stuff he doesn't understand. But it's now obviously more serious than that. Apple is going to take away Logic's Environment totally.

Looking back at all those weird and sometimes very annoying Environment bugs in various versions of Logic Pro X, in all honesty I find it impossible to rule out deliberate spiking of Environment code - the narc approach to so-called "deprecation". And it's still going on. The latest bug that's popped up is the graphic display of certain Environment Objects (I'm seeing it on my text and button faders) sometimes becoming stuck and unresponsive for a few seconds; and they stay stuck after I stop the transport while it's happening. Yep, nice toxic work.

Why is Apple so mad keen to get rid of Logic's Environment? Has it perhaps always been buggy, poorly designed or shoddily coded? Absolutely not.

I've worked extensively in the Environment ever since E-Magic's truly excellent Logic Audio Platinum v3.5F in 2001. I can assure you, the Environment back then was a masterpiece of realtime software engineering. Apple haven't added significantly to it since then. In stark contrast to Cubase, which I was trialling alongside Logic for quite a while back then, Logic was pretty much bulletproof.

The Environment just kept becoming more and more useful to me as I got to know it - it all worked so beautifully. A wonderful visual programming language - very fast and CPU-light (probably with lots of inline ASM, and running at very high priority in realtime privilege). Way more user-friendly and expandable than, say, Max/MSM. Today's built-in scripter in Logic simply cannot compete with that kind of speed, efficiency and capacity. Superbly crafted Environment code back then seemed to behave more like Texas 74 series logic chips than software (I used to design with those beauties in the '70s)!

But we Environment users are a tiny minority among Logic customers. We have no clout. Our long-term ownership of Logic is not directly contributing to Apple's monumental wealth. And Apple seems hell bent on dumbing down Logic ever more, presumably until young Jax in the basement can more easily get those Dopamine hits he craves, and can yell "Made it Ma! Top of the world!" (I don't suppose he's ever heard of Jimmy Cagney, lol). And there's the possibility that Apple have long had a "not invented here" itch that's been almost impossible to scratch, given the Environment's uncompromising and practically perfect design. Who can say for sure?

I've been stashing away a lot of different Logic versions, locked and in locked folders to prevent Apple from perpetrating their nasty trick of hunting down all copies of Logic for update purposes. I can hang on for quite a while - long enough to get my Situater Environment Subsystem out there and used, so long as there are a few composers who also lock away these precious last versions of Logic with the Environment.

Apple have no interest in me as a DAW customer. I have no interest in what becomes of their ever dumber DAW. I have Cubase Pro and Dorico: they will become my workhorses.

[rAC]

@Macker What makes you think that Apple is deliberately ‘spiking’ the environment in Logic? And sofaras “Apple perpetrating their nasty trick of hunting down all copies of Logic for update purposes” goes - I call that BS. I may not be skilled in the processor codes of Texas 74 series chips - whatever the hell they were BUT I can manage to backup and store every version of Logic I want to without any difficulty and I am certain that Apple is not hunting down my older versions.

Yes maybe the Environment was fabulous in the early years of Logic, so was CPM and DOS in their early years. But look and think about the processor changes, file system changes, OS changes etc since. And as someone who came to the Environment later - while finding it occasionally useful for my purposes - I have found it to be pretty clunky to use and prefer where possible to use other ways of achieving the results desired. What exactly are you doing in the Environment that doesn’t yet have an alternative method within Logic but does within Cubase? You talk of speed efficiency and capacity - and then complain about delay blaming ‘toxic work’.

BTW a Cubase 14 trial for me lasted 3 uses 2 of which ended with crashed Cubase. I hope you have better luck with it.

[Macker]

Just a footnote to explain that my post above is intended merely as a heads up concerning a certain official notice of deprecation of a major feature in a particular DAW; to which I've taken the liberty of adding my brief eulogy to that feature.

Since the VSL forum is not the right place for detailed discussion - let alone truculent or toxic argument - on any DAW insofar as VSL products and their current usages are not specifically relevant to the OP, perhaps any member wishing to discuss the matter further would propose a more relevant forum in which to do so.

P.S. Since it's still not possible to edit our posts past 900 seconds after posting (!), I append this edit in the OP for any readers whose comprehension of English syntax may lead to misunderstanding the OP:-

• Para 6, sentence 4 should read:– "Today's built-in scripter in Logic simply cannot compete with the Environment's runtime speed, efficiency and capacity."