Logic 9 – Gearjunkies Review

Since Apple has released Logic 9 some time ago, we have been playing and working with Logic to get to grips with all the new features and functions within this DAW. Below is what we came up with during our time working with Logic 9!

This latest version of Logic (version 9) has recieved a lot of new features. With this review we will focus a bit more on these new features like the Flex tool, the Drum replacer, the new Guitar features and the bounce-in-place. But are these features as logical as the name of the application says?

The packaging
The first ‘change’ you notice is that the new packaging is a lot smaller. It is almost like a mini mac. This smaller package means the manuals are smaller as well. But then again, version 9 contains 9 DVDs instead of 8 before.

Installation
If you do a clean and full install of Logic 9, you need 49 GB of diskspace. Almost 38 GB of those 49 GB is a gigantic database of loop content, synths and grooveboxes. Furthermore you have to take your time, because depending on the installation you choose, you will need about 2 to 5 hours of installation time. This also depends on how fast your machine is! A nice installation feature is that the program selects the best installation method as it checks your system, to avoid double installations.

Flex Tool
This tool is one of the biggest changes in Logic 9 (we think). The Flex Tool lets you alter the timing of your audiotracks in a very easy way. It almost feels like your audiotrack can be stretched or shrunk like an elastic band. Nothing is more easier.
Another use of the Flex Tool is for ‘slicing’. With this feature you can slice up an audiotrack without pitch changes. The sample gets divided in slices which you then can move from eachother. Especially usefull for drums and beats.

Convert to Sampler Track
With this feature you can convert a track to a sampler track. Logic will slice the track automatically as intended. This feature cuts up the selected audio region into transient slices and sets up these individual slices on a separate EXS24 sampler instrument track. Once in the EXS instrument, you have full control over the usual filter, ADSR, LFO parameters etc. to get flexible sound shaping possibilities.

Bounce-in-place
With this feature you can bounce an audiotrack, which means you can render your audio track with all effects and edits applied. Another application of this feature is to bounce your software instrument so you can save on CPU power! If this feature is used Logic will make an audio track automatically and mutes the old instrument track.

Selective Track Import
Just imagine, you are working on a project and would like to import several tracks and (mixer) settings from another project. Well now with Logic 9 you can! Open a project in your media browser, and hit ‘import’. Here you can then choose what you would like to import to your current project. Logic even imports all the plug-in, send and automation settings. How cool is that?

Drum Replacer
With this feature you can easily replace drums, hence the name Drum Replacer. So if you have recorded a drum session but the snare drum doesn’t like you would want or expected it to sound. Just select ‘Drum Replacement/Doubling’ and choose your pre-recorded snare drum sound, then choose a drum sound for the apple library to replace each snare hit. Thats it. Same performance, different and better snare sound.

Not sure how this works? AudioTUTS has a good tutorial on how this feature works here!

Amp Designer and Pedalboard
This new version is clearly trying to attract guitar players with these two impressive plug-ins: Amp Designer and Pedalboard. Amp Designer allows users to mix and match amp heads, cabinets, EQs, reverbs and mics to create unlimited tonal possibilities.
Pedalboard is a pool of 30 famous stompboxes authentically reproduced. All of which can be easily routed and rearranged to the desire of the user and transcribed to a live performance environment via Apple MainStage 2.

Conclusion
New users will pay 499 Euro and an upgrade for existing users costs 199 Euro. A fair and competitive price when looking at other DAWs. Especially considering you get this immense and huge database of sample/loop content and software instruments. Should you upgrade? Again that is a decision everyone has to make on their own. If you are happy with Logic 8, we don’t think there is an immediate need to upgrade. Furthermore version 9 can maybe be a little over-the-top for new users. It has just too many (new) features. Plus the manual wasn’t always very clear, especially for users without prior Logic experience.
However apart from all the extras you get with Logic 9 we noticed that a lot of little annoyances and irritations that came with Logic 8 were non-existent with version 9. After working with Logic for some time we can say it is indeed a logical DAW.

Special thanks goes out to Wytse Gerichhausen and of course Apple Europe for the review software.

 

 

 

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