The company was best known for its music sequencer, Logic. Logic stemmed from Creator,[2] then Notator, made by C-Lab[3] (the company's forerunner) for the Atari ST platform. In 1992, Emagic Soft- und Hardware GmbH was founded and Notator Logic[4] was launched for Atari[5] and Macintosh, followed by a version for Windows. The "Notator" was dropped from the name and the product was redesigned from the ground up, and the product became known under the name "Emagic Logic".[6][7] Original copies[8] of Emagic's Logic software retailed for US$699 (equivalent to $1,518 in 2023),[9] and with plugins ranging from $99 to $299.[citation needed]
The other major software product that Emagic offered was SoundDiver, an editor/librarian for hardware synthesizers.[10] It communicated via MIDI and offered easy patch and sound management. While there was a beta version for Mac OS X, production of SoundDiver was discontinued in 2005.
Emagic formerly offered a line of audio interface hardware, the Audiowerk PCI cards, as well as USB units. A potential post-acquisition successor to these products, the unreleased Asteroid FireWire interface, was the subject of the Apple v. Does trade secret litigation.
Acquisition by Apple
Emagic was acquired by Apple in July 2002.[11] The announcement included the news that development of the Windows version would no longer continue, rendering Logic 5.5.1 as the final version available for Windows. This announcement caused controversy in the recording industry with an estimated 70,000 users having invested in the Windows route not wishing to reinvest in a complete new system. Despite much speculation in various Pro Audio forums however, exactly how many users may have abandoned Logic upon its acquisition by Apple, or abandoned the Windows platform for the Mac version, remains unknown,[12] but Apple Pro Apps revenue has steadily increased since Apple's acquisition of Emagic,[13] (roughly $2 billion a year as of Q1 2014).
Logic 6 was released in February 2003,[14] serving as the first major release of Logic following Apple's acquisition of Emagic. The following year, it released Logic Pro 6, which replaced Logic Platinum and consolidated over 20 different Emagic products, including all instrument and effect plug-ins, Waveburner Pro (CD Authoring application), and Pro Tools TDM support, into a single product package. Apple also released a scaled down version of Logic called Logic Express, replacing Logic Silver and Logic Gold.
Logic Pro 7 was released on September 29, 2004, the first version of Logic to be released under the Apple brand, with technical support being provided through AppleCare+ instead of Emagic.[15] As Emagic's products had been transferred to its parent company, it discontinued all of its older products, but continued to provide technical support until late 2005.[16] Emagic became defunct on June 12, 2006.
