Tempo and importing audio woes!!

By any chance, did you just update to Catalina and try to import MP3 files in Logic? If so, this a well known issue. A workaround is to convert the file to an uncompressed format (WAVE or AIFF).

If this is not your issue, please explain.

WD

Hi Pancenter,

does this happen with all compressed formats?

I think so but I don't regularly follow all the technical/devs discussions on the subject. The situation may have evolved. But MP3 files are mostly identified as a problem in user forums.

My educated guess is:

Logic can relies on external scripts or routines for some operations like importing/exporting files, drag and drop... Some can be low level macOS or Core Audio stuff or linked to higher level applications like QuickTime or iTunes. This is not always well documented and even then not always consistent. That also can explain different behaviors for similar operations. Ex: Drag and Drop vs File > Import. No surprise here; devs are used to deal with that.

Catalina introduced deep changes to audio handling and applications. Ex: iTunes is now split in Podcasts, Music... I suspect an old call used by Logic just got broken with the changes. That's why a recent Logic update may has fixed it. Only a good developper running Logic aside with a debugger can tell how deep and complex the issue was.

Again, I'm only speculating but I'm fairly sure it is something like what I described. As an example, I read in a devs forum about an issue with importing audio to the new Music app when using Automator/Applescript. They discovered that a variable set to "iTunes" get instantiated by default to "Podcasts" at a lower level! The fix was obvious but the cause was not. In fact, many users reported related problems in other forums.

As for MP3 licensing, there is maybe some truth there. There are usually some constraints on use cases linked to those licenses. This may put limits on the modifications you can make. As a hint, as a far as I know, the only way to effectively convert from MP3 on macOS was iTunes!

I hope that shed some light.

WD

No need for third party conversion softwares. There are many tools already available in macOS. A simple way is to use the Music App: Convert music file formats in Music on Mac - Apple Support.

WD

Did you say Logic 10.4.0? Expect other problems in Catalina. Logic 10.4.8 is the most stable version in Catalina.

You're welcome.

As Pancenter suggested, you may update to the current Logic version (10.4.8). Before, make a backup copy of the Logic App from the Applications folder just in case.

WD

Curious, does this happen with all compressed formats?

If it only happens with mp3 my suspicious nature kicks in as Apple has to license mp3 encoding (I think, not sure)

Yes, very helpful... thanks