Apple (finally) brings Final Cut Pro and Logic Pro to iPad

Apple has introduced two Pro-level apps to the iPad in the form of videotastic Final Cut Pro and audio powerhouse Logic Pro.

It’s slightly surprising both haven’t made it across to the iPad lineup before, though the hardware requirements are quite hefty, with the M1 chip being the minimum requirement for Final Cut and A12 Bionic for Logic. Both also include new touch interactions that probably took a fair while to develop, including a jog wheel within Final Cut.

If you have an M2 iPad, you can also use Apple Pencil Hover to quickly skim through footage. On M1 and M2, you can use Apple Pencil to draw on or write on video footage.

And of course, there’s support for keyboard commands if you have a keyboard teamed with your iPad. On M2 you can also record in ProRes, though we can’t think that anybody using Final Cut would use an iPad to record, but we could be wrong.

In Logic, multitouch is used so you can move multiple faders at the same time. There’s also a new Sound Browser so you can show everything you could add to your project in a single view, plus you can preview any sound before adding it in. As you’d expect Logic Pro comes with a huge selection of instruments (over 100) and effects plugins. There are also a mass of samples, too.

Final Cut Pro for iPad also supports the ability to import projects created in iMovie for and as you’d expect you can export Final Cut projects to Mac, though not the other way around it seems. Logic Pro on iPad is a little more flexible in this regard as it supports what Apple calls ’roundtrip’ capabilities meaning you can swap projects to Mac and back again. It can also work with GarageBand projects. You can also move soundtracks across to Final Cut.

Interestingly, there’s a new pricing model too – Apple is no stranger to monthly pricing with its various subs, and now it’s bringing the same to apps. There’s a one-month trial for each app, after which it’s $4.99/£4.99 per month or $49/£49 per year.

Both apps will be available from 23 May.

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Dan Grabham Editor-in-Chief

About

Dan is Editor-in-chief of Stuff, working across the magazine and the Stuff.tv website.  Our Editor-in-Chief is a regular at tech shows such as CES in Las Vegas, IFA in Berlin and Mobile World Congress in Barcelona as well as at other launches and events. He has been a CES Innovation Awards judge. Dan is completely platform agnostic and very at home using and writing about Windows, macOS, Android and iOS/iPadOS plus lots and lots of gadgets including audio and smart home gear, laptops and smartphones. He's also been interviewed and quoted in a wide variety of places including The Sun, BBC World Service, BBC News Online, BBC Radio 5Live, BBC Radio 4, Sky News Radio and BBC Local Radio.

Areas of expertise

Computing, mobile, audio, smart home