14 DAY TRIAL // Cupertino-based Apple announced on Thursday the launch of a new version of the Logic Studio, which now comes with enhancements to the Logic Pro and MainStage, as well as with over 200 new features meant to simplify complex tasks. According to the company, Logic Pro 9 includes the new Amp Designer and Pedalboard plug-ins, while a new set of Flex Time tools has been added to enable users to modify the timing and tempo of audio much easier. MainStage 2 comes now with Playback and Loopback plug-ins, while the Logic Studio has also been leveraged with the inclusion of Soundtrack Pro 3 and Compressor 3.5.
“The new Logic Studio is ideal for professional musicians, live performers and GarageBand enthusiasts who want to take their music to the next level,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. “Guitar players are going to love Amp Designer and Pedalboard and the new Flex Time tools allow you to quickly improve your recordings and create tighter performances.”
The new Amp Designer and Pedalboard plug-ins come with new recording and sound design functionalities for guitar players. The Amp Designer is meant to recreate 25 legendary amp heads and 25 paired speaker cabinets for sound emulation. Users will have now the opportunity to create their own custom rigs through the mixing and matching of amps, cabinets, reverbs and EQs. As for Pedalboard, it comes with 30 guitar stompbox pedals so that users will produce a wide range of effects, including overdrive, distortion, fuzz, delay, chorus, flange, phaser, tremolo, treble boost, wah and more.
Flex Time, a collection of tools, will enable musicians to manipulate the timing and tempo of audio, for increased performance, and one of the options that it offers is the move of waveform without slicing and editing. The timing of an entire performance can be fixed or adjusted through Audio Quantize, while Varispeed allows for the seeding or slowing of an entire multi-track production. Users will also find out that recorded tracks can be moved between different Logic projects with Flex Time.
MainStage 2 delivers the possibility to turn the Mac into a live performance rig by using all the instruments and effects in Logic Studio. The new Playback plug-in offers a backing band, so that users will be able to perform live along with pre-recorded audio. At the same time, the Loopback plug-in enables the recording, layering and jamming of the performance. Soundtrack Pro 3 comes with Voice Level Match, File Editor, Advanced Time Stretch, and other tools and features. Both Soundtrack Pro and Compressor are part of the Final Cut Studio too, enabling the collaboration between Final Cut and Logic users.
Logic Studio can be purchased via Apple Store, Apple’s retail stores and Apple Authorized Resellers, for the price of $499 (US). Logic Studio and Logic Pro existing users can upgrade for $199 (US). The software solution works on machines running under Mac OS X 10.4.9 or later.
Download Apple Logic Pro Updater 9.0 Download MainStage 2.0 Download Apple SoundTrack Pro Update 3.0 Download Apple Compressor Update 3.5