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Brand New Logic Studio - Exclusive Review

July 2009

It’s been nearly 2 years since Apple’s Logic Studio was announced.  Many of you will know that Logic Studio is the bundle name for the set of audio products Logic Pro, MainStage, Soundtrack Pro and WaveBurner.  On July 23rd 2009, Apple announced Logic Studio 2, which upgraded Logic Pro to version 9, Soundtrack Pro to version 3 and MainStage to Version 2.  This note will look primarily at Logic Pro 9 and what it offers to its different users.

The fundamental purpose of Logic has not changed.  Like all Digital Audio Workstations, it’s four tools in one: composing, recording, editing and mixing.  This upgrade doesn’t do much for the composers (and by that I also include those who score to film).  However, for those using it for recording and editing, there are some great new tools.  As with the last release, you get huge libraries of loops, royalty free music and sound effects but, in Logic Studio 2, you also get the Voices Jam Pack, which you previously had to buy separately at £68.

Let me start, like most recording sessions, with the drum tracks.  Logic has always been a bit behind ProTools in sorting out kit problems and many Logic users might have previously turned to other tools for slicing and fixing drum timing tracks.  However, a combination of Audio Quantisation and the Flex tool make tidying up drum parts a breeze. 

Audio Quantize can do two quite different things.  It can either fit a drum part to an exact grid, giving the kind of precision you might want in a dance track or you can use it to sync it up to another track, perhaps a human groove that you really like.  Get something with the right kind of feel, make a template of it and then quantise to that template.  You can turn an ordinary track into the driving precision of Keith Moon if that’s what presses your buttons.

Flex Time takes a leaf from Melodyne and makes moving individual hits backwards and forwards in time.  Flex Time is just a new tool in the tool menu and using it is pretty much automatic – Logic leads you through the process.

One more trick for drums is replacing or layering drum sounds.  This has been a little messy in the past but manageable.  Knowing that this is a common thing in the editing stage however, the Logic developers have made it just about as easy as it can be.  Select the original audio track, set the drum type, pick a sound from the library and click OK.  Neat…

For those of you who use a lot of software instruments, you might find Bounce in Place of real use.  To get an audio version of a MIDI track, you can now just bounce and import it in a single hit.  Not only will having an audio version of a track mean less CPU overhead, it also means that a bunch of new tools are available to you for editing and mixing.

While we’re on software instruments, sadly, Apple has not given us the long needed upgrade to EXS24 (so you’ll still need tools from Redmatica if you’re a heavy duty sampler technician).  However, you do have a neat new tool, Convert to Sampler Track, which takes an audio track and automatically creates a sampler instrument from it.  That way, you can take individual audio sections, whether they are vocals, drum hits or any other type of material, and create an instrument.  You can then play individual beats from the original, just to morph your sound or create something new.  Having converted audio to an instrument, not only do you have all the controls on the EXS parameters page but you can use Transform and other MIDI tools to completely rework your material.

If you’re a guitarist, Logic 9 has some great new tools mainly for you.  Catching up with Native Instrument’s Guitar Rig Pro, you can now use virtual versions of classic amps, cabs and mics to turn your licks into grunge, muscle or vintage sounds.  Also, you can create your own stomp box with dozens of built-in pedals and, as always, you can automate any part of these using Track Automation.  Added to the hundreds of Amp Designer presets and improved support for tab and chord grids, guitarists may well be the happiest set of users in this upgrade.  If you’re looking for a real stomp board to work with your virtual one, Apogee have announced he GiO, which connects via USB to your computer and works seamlessly with Logic Pro 9.  Keyboard players might also find this of great use, since it’s also a remote transport controller.

Alongside some of these headline features, the developers have taken some time to simplify and rationalise parts of the system.  Despite the huge amount of new code, I’ve been working with Logic Pro 9 pretty solidly for 2 days and haven’t had a single crash.  It’s even more stable with the Vienna Symphony Library, an area where Logic could crash several times a day.  It looks like a very solid release with few comments on the forums about problems.  I wouldn’t normally recommend taking a new version straight out of the box but I’m going to stick with this one for some time.

Although Apple say this is a release for Intel machines only, it seems to run pretty well on G5 boxes.  It’s likely to be the case that Apple won’t support Power PC chips any more, especially as the new operating system, Snow Leopard (to be released this Autumn), will be Intel only. If you’re considering upgrading and use MainStage, please bear in mind that MainStage requires OS X 10.5.7 so you won’t be able to use the new facilities unless you are on the latest version of Leopard.

So, a really good upgrade and one that drummers, guitarists, editors and producers will enjoy.  There’s always something left on the shopping list in every release but, for its main user base, this upgrade is a must have.  The upgrade from Logic Studio is £159 and a new license is £399.  If you don’t need Soundtrack Pro, MainStage or the Jam Packs, Logic Express 9 offers most of what Logic Pro 9 offers but at a cost of £159 (or upgrade from Logic Express 8 for £79).

Further information (including videos): http://www.apple.com/logicstudio/

MacProVideo.com 30 minute video overview: http://www.macprovideo.com/news/1130

Review written by Peter Morris

Apple Certified Trainer (Logic Levels 1 and 2)

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