While Logic Pro remains a powerful force in the DAW arena, there have been a couple of precious features missing in recent months. Mainly Elastic Audio - a phrase (and feature) coined by Digidesign, even though Ableton Live, or perhaps even Celemony's Melodyne  the first to bring the feature out into the open. The ability to manipulate audio events  by stretching or shrinking sections on the sequencer timeline has opened the doors to all kinds of creativity - and fixing.

Well now in the latest update to Logic Pro, Logic Pro 9 - part of the Logic Studio suite - we have it. And a lot more besides. This paid upgrade sees the introduction of Flex Time (Apple's name for it), phase locked edit groups (yay!), the Amp Designer and Pedal Board - for the guitarists as well as a whole host of other functions, tweaks and workflow enhancements.

In this review, we're looking at Flex Time, Edit Groups, Convert to Sample Track, Bounce in Place and Quick Swipe Comping and Import - all seriously useful additions to the Logic users toolbox.

I see no point in covering all of that in the words accompanying this review, so I won't. But I will say, that for me (and I am a long time Logic user), this upgrade has been the most useful one for quite some time and will certainly help the pro or power user as well as people starting out. However, we should be under no illusions that Logic Pro- as with all the major DAWs requires a significant time investment in learning how to get the most out of it.

I will point out that in my review I did encounter one bug, and that was in the Convert to Sampler Track function - specifically in creating sample zones by transient markers which are auto generated from significant audio events within the file. This didnt appear to work. Or rather it did, but ignoring any changes I made to those markers in the audio edit window eg: erasing them. I still ended up with the unwanted samples in the resulting EXS24 instrument when processed. This is not the end of the world, but if it's in there I feel it really should work no?

On the whole, I can heartilly recommend this version of Logic Studio, I know some existing users will begrudge paying the upgrade fee, but I disagree - there's so much in there that is of real use, I cant see why you wouldnt. And if you are a new user, there's no difference in the price... (which is perhaps more why some existing users are peeved).

One last thing, you will need to upgrade to OS X 10.5.7 to install this software.

Logic Studio is available now.
Pricing: £399/$499
Upgrade: £159/$199 (from Logic Pro or Logic Studio) for other upgrade pricing see Apple website

More Information

• http://www.apple.com/uk/logicstudio
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