Apple Logic Studio Review

The release of Apple Logic Studio a couple of years ago heralded a complete graphic redesign of Logic; updated instrument and effects plug-ins; tons of new content; bundled applications MainStage, Soundtrack Pro, and WaveBurner; and a variety of enhancements. (Read my review at emusician.com.) And all that came with a dramatic 50-percent price reduction.

Although the changes in the new Logic Studio are not quite as dramatic, it does sport the same low price tag, and it offers a significantly upgraded feature set for Logic Pro 9 and MainStage 2, improved Soundtrack Pro 3 integration, and graphic automation in WaveBurner 1.6. Furthermore, the content is expanded, and guitar players will rightfully be jumping out of their seats to get ahold of the new Amp Designer and Pedalboard (stompbox) plug-ins.

In the main part of this review, I'll concentrate on the features and content in Logic Pro 9. Electronic Musician executive editor Mike Levine will cover Amp Designer and Pedalboard in the accompanying sidebar, Modeling Paradise. You'll find coverage of MainStage 2's new features in the Online Bonus Material at emusician.com.

Before starting, several things are worth noting. PowerPC Macs are no longer officially supported, although some users have reported successful installs on those machines. Mac OS 10.5 (Leopard) is required. Because of compatibility issues, Final Cut Pro users will need version 7 for compatibility with Soundtrack Pro 3. For this review, I installed the full Logic Studio package on a 2.66GHz quad-core Mac Pro with 8GB of RAM.

Flex Time is probably the most far-reaching addition to Logic Pro 9. This transient-detection, time-stretching technology enables features such as the Flex Tool, audio quantizing, drum-track slicing, Speed Fades, Convert to Sampler Track, and Varispeed.

Varispeed, the simplest of the processes enabled by Flex Time, is similar to the classic tape-recorder function of the same name. It increases or decreases the tempo of the entire project (not just Flex-enabled tracks), and, of course, it follows the project's tempo changes. The range is half- to double-speed, entered as either a percentage or a target tempo. Modes include speed alone; speed and pitch (like tape Varispeed); and speed, pitch, and MIDI (where non-drum MIDI tracks are transposed in semitones). Although the results are less than stunning, Varispeed is quite useful for recording parts at a more comfortable tempo or for auditioning a tempo shift. Logic's new Speed Fades use Varispeed to create turntable-style speed-ups and slow-downs (listen to Web Clip 1).

Like other elastic audio implementations, Flex Time starts by analyzing audio files for transients, sudden audio spikes indicative of audio event onsets (think drum hits). Logic analyzes all audio regions on a track the first time you enable that track for Flex Time editing, which you do by turning Flex view on and selecting a Flex mode for the track. Three modes—Rhythmic, Monophonic, and Polyphonic—indicate the material they're best suited for. Three more modes refer to specialized processes: Slicing for typical REX-style beat slicing, Tempophone for special effects similar to granular processing, and Speed for tape-speed manipulation.

Figure. 1. Different Flex Time modes allow Logic Pro 9 to time-stretch almost any kind of audio.

Audio quantizing is another dead-simple Flex Time application. Once Flex mode is enabled for a track, you select one or more regions, ensure Flex is enabled in the Region Parameters box, and choose a quantize setting. Logic then automatically quantizes the appropriate transients. If you group several tracks and enable phase-locked editing for the group, then Logic will maintain the phase relation between parallel regions.

To move audio events manually, convert transients to Flex markers and then drag them in either direction to move the corresponding event, stretching the audio on one side and compressing it on the other. If you click on a transient marker in the lower-half of the waveform display, it creates Flex markers for it and the two adjacent transient markers—a nice touch. That lets you easily move an event with minimal disturbance to the rest of the audio file. You add, delete, and move transient markers in Logic's Sample editor, and you can place Flex markers anywhere in an audio clip (not just at transient markers).

Creating and moving Flex markers is great for adapting the feel of one clip to another. But for adapting audio to tempo curves, you simply need to enable Flex Time and choose the mode best suited to the material (see Figure 1 and listen to Web Clip 2).

Flex Time also figures in two new drum-oriented features: Slice to New Sampler Track and Drum Replacer. The former creates an EXS24 sampler instrument from the slices defined by transient markers, simultaneously builds a MIDI clip to play the slices with their original order and timing, and installs the instrument and clip on a parallel MIDI track. Drum Replacer creates a parallel (or replacement) MIDI clip based on an audio file's transient markers and uses it to trigger a drum sample of your choosing. It is intended for individual drum stems, but you can get some interesting special effects with drum mixes or even non-drum clips.

Moving individual tracks and track setups (plug-ins, sends, automation, and so on) between songs is much easier in Logic Pro 9 and is accomplished completely within the destination project. Locate the source project in the browser, double-click to reveal its content, select the track(s) and setup items to import, and choose to add to or replace existing content. Tempo and groove conflicts are easily solved with Flex Time.

Figure 2. You can temporarily disable Quick Swipe comping to make edits to your takes such as the Flex Markers shown here.

Quick Swipe comping has been improved to let you temporarily turn it off for normal editing of takes and then turn it back on to continue creating and editing comps. For example, you can use the Flex Tool to adjust a few notes within a take and then instantly return to comp building (see Figure 2). I did have some stability problems with Quick Swipe comping as was my experience with Logic Pro 8, but when it works it's great.

The much-requested bounce-in-place feature lets you quickly render effects and software instruments to audio. It works on a region or track basis and deposits the new audio file on an adjacent track, automatically muting the original. Bounce-in-place differs from track freezing in that it produces an easily edited audio file at the project settings rather than a hidden 32-bit freeze file.

You no longer have to use Markers to make notes about your project. The Media area of the toolbar now sports a new Notes button, which reveals a list area with tabs for track and project notes.

You'll find two important additions to Logic's audio content: the Voices Jam Pack and a collection of 450 warped IR presets for Space Designer. Voices offers vocal clips and effects from sources as varied as classical choirs, Bollywood vocals, and vocal percussion (listen to Web Clip 3). The warped Space Designer presets include drones, moving textures, and analog-circuit emulations, among others (listen to Web Clip 4). Like many manufacturers, Apple no longer provides fully printed documentation. You get a small Exploring Logic pamphlet and a PDF, an abbreviated but handy Mac Help version of the manual, and the full 1,336-page manual in PDF format (downloadable from Apple's Logic Pro Support page). Logic Studio is an excellent upgrade to all parts of this reasonably priced bundle. The new features in Logic Pro 9 and MainStage 2 are especially impressive, but the other applications in the bundle are also improved. If you're a Logic Studio user, the upgrade is a no-brainer. If you're a potential new user, you're bound to find useful features to augment your rig.

Len Sasso is an associate editor of Electronic Musician, in which this article originally appeared. For an earful, visit his website, swiftkick.com.

Company: Apple

www.apple.com

Product: Logic Studio

Assests: Elegant implementation of elastic audio with Flex Time. Improved performance with MainStage. Amp Designer and Pedalboard plug-ins offer hugely improved guitar amp and effects modeling. Large amount and variety of content. Great price.

Caveats: Built-in browser navigation can be cumbersome.

Price: $499 (full); $199 (upgrade)

Figure A. Amp designer offers a wide array of amp and speaker cabinet models, and lets you position one of three mic models.

With the addition of the Amp Designer and Pedalboard plug-ins, Apple Logic Pro 9 has taken a quantum leap from earlier versions in its guitar amp and effects modeling. The sounds produced by these plug-ins can hold their own with any third-party modeling software.

Amp Designer offers a simple interface featuring a graphic depiction of the selected amp head in the foreground and the chosen speaker cabinet and mic model in the back on the right (see Figure A). Pull-down menus let you swap out heads, cabinets, and mic models. Clicking on the EQ or reverb labels at the top of the heads let's you switch between many different EQ and reverb types. All of the models have tremolo.

Although the amps are all labeled "Logic," the graphics make it obvious which ones are being emulated. You get several different Fender types as well as Marshalls, Mesa/Boogie, Vox, Orange and Hiwatt amps, and even a Sears Silvertone model. Unlike the actual amps, all of Logic's models have the same set of controls. This detracts a bit from the realism of the simulations, but it makes the comparison of tones between amps much easier, especially because the controls retain their settings when you switch models.

Overall, I was impressed with the sound of the models and the responsiveness of their knobs. I was particularly surprised at how natural the clean sounds were (listen to Web Clip 5). It's been my experience that amp modelers tend to do better at emulating distorted tones than clean ones, but Amp Designer does both well.

Kudos also for the ribbon mic emulation, which sounds round and warm. The mic model that you choose—you also get a dynamic and a condenser—can be moved around virtually to any position within 3in. or 4in. from the front of one of numerous speaker cabinets. I wish the mic could move back a greater distance in the virtual room.

Figure B: Pedalboard features 30 stompbox models and flexible routing, providing you with a huge range of effects choices.

The Pedalboard plug-in offers 30 excellent-sounding modeled stompboxes. Choose your pedals from the collection on the right side of your "pedalboard" (see Figure B), and then drag them to the main section to make them active. You can easily change the order.

Some of the pedals appear to be modeled from specific stompboxes (the Fuzz Face, for instance) whereas others are hybrids. You get a ton of fuzz and overdrive pedals and lots of modulation effects such as chorus, flanger, rotating speaker, and ring modulator. You also get several delay models, a spring reverb pedal, and a couple of wah pedals. I was a tad disappointed that there was only one compressor and no octave divider. But, as a whole, the collection is comprehensive and the pedals sound great (listen to Web Clip 6).

Routing is a breeze in Pedalboard. You can split the signal and send one feed to one line of effects (A) and the other to the opposite side (B). If you pan the outputs on the Mixer pedal, you can create huge stereo effects. You can even divide the signal by an adjustable frequency range, thereby sending only certain frequencies to the A or B effects.

Amp Designer and Pedalboard rock, literally and figuratively, and give Logic users a guitar-sound toolkit of prodigious proportions. Apple also announced Logic 9 support of the new Apogee Gio ($395), a USB audio interface and foot controller that comes premapped for the two new plug-ins.

—Mike Levine