Apple Logic Studio 9

Declan
August 10, 2009

Rating: 9/10

Whilst not a total sea change, logic 9 is still a valuable upgrade for any logic user.

The improved time-stretching abilities aren\'t as gimmicky as apple has illustrated in their promotional videos but is a highly polished addition to the logic arsenal.

The amp modelling is very accurate. I found the AC30 modelling to be exceptionally close to my real amp. The guitar pedals are also welcome - providing an excellent studio resource but also good fun.

Its in the subtle tweaks were logic studio shines though. Improved non-destructive fading being one thing that springs to mind.

Main Stage 2, whilst a vast improvement over its predecessor still falls a little short of being a great all round live tool. Its still impressive though.

Alexander Yevstifeev
September 30, 2007

Rating: 10/10

Logic studio is a remarkably powerful yet easy to use audio production solution. The main upgrades from logic pro 7 are not the instruments or effects, but the layout and the ease of use. For example, the ability to assign a first and secondary cursor and switch be pressing the apple key is a lifesaver.It makes cutting, zooming, or drawing almost instantaneous operations to execute. Also, the intuitive placement of the channel strips for both the selected instrument and the entire track automatically at the side of the window allows for easy visualization and editing without opening another window.

In fact, everything that had its own separate window in pro 7 has been seamlessly integrated into pro 8. This in invaluable as it saves time and effort during midi editing and sample editing. In each case, all the needed information automatically comes up to the screen, for example the piano roll (previously the matrix) and the individual midi data pop up automatically when clicking on a midi track, while still showing the arrange window and channel strip. While this does make the windows rather small if your monitor is not very high resolution, you can open full windows with any of this information if you wish.

Searching for presets and loops is also more efficient as it is all available on one side of the screen in a tab menu called "lists" This is useful for searching for any kind of data needed.

Aside from the interface aspects, Logic pro is a tool that makes it astonishingly easy to create music that sounds easily better that an average recording. It is remarkably easy to use, and withing 10 minutes of opening the program, I was able to create a latin tune that sounded so real and so good that I couldn't tell the difference from it and a live recording. And I am by no means a seasoned Logic user. And with Space Designer, an amazing reverb plugin, you can take the clean crisp sound Logic creates and give it that perfect live feel, or whatever feel you want.

Of course, Logic studio doesn't just include Loic Pro, It comes with Mainstage, and Soundtrack pro, and the content from 5 jam packs. This content is what makes Logic so great for making any style of music you want and making it sound great.

Mainstage, in its infancy, is a great sounding program with nice features, and easy, seamless integration with any audio hardware controllers. It has customizeable sounds, piano, bass, beats, and pads for any performance need, in almost and style. It is slightly buggy, however, as in some cases the hardware controls controlled more than what they were assigned to, but overall a great program. A few update patches to fix the bugs, and mainstage will be ready for the road. I cannot comment much on soundtrack pro, because
I do not use it, but for the features and price tag of $500, Logic studio is a steal.
Some kind of midi keyboard is a must with this program, as with all DAW software. I recoment the Novation ReMote LE, it integrates so well with mainstage.
It's intuitive layout, massive sound library, and just downright fantastic sound makes anything possible for anyone with some basic keyboarding skills and the will to use them.