Product Reviews

Finally, after three years of gossip, rumour and wild speculation, Logic Pro 8 is here. It has a new umbrella name, Logic Studio, and a couple of interesting new friends in its smart box; the debutante Mainstage and the more familiar Soundtrack Pro 2. The XSKey dongle is no longer required. And the total price has dropped by over half.

Those are the headlines; what of the details? In essence, Logic Studio is an application-wide refinement, concentrating on streamlining the workflow and avoiding the temptation to pack in ill thought-out innovations of dubious value.

There's certainly a lot of it: the full install will eat up 46GB of your hard disk. Even the most bare-bones, just-the-applications install demands 7GB. Most of the extra content consists of Apple's Jam Packs (all five titles are included in the box), sound effects, surround loops and music beds, much of which can be installed on a different drive. Any legacy versions of Logic are retained on your hard drive, although the improvements in Logic Pro 8's audio timer engine are a compelling reason to leave the 6 or 7 versions behind, with longer songs now handled much better.

Immediately on launching Logic Pro 8, we were struck by the crisper, cleaner interface. The visual style is lighter and graphically tighter - Logic Pro 8 now looks every inch an Apple Pro application, cut from similar cloth as its peers, Final Cut Pro, Motion, Aperture and so forth.

Principally, having been the butt of 'multiple windows' jokes for years, Logic now presents a single-window interface, with tabbed access to the most commonly used working environments at the bottom (Mixer, Sample Editor, Piano Roll, Score, Hyper Editor) and icons to launch other useful functions at the top, such as the Library browser windows, shortcuts to List views (Event, Marker, Tempo and Signature), the Colours palette and a button to launch the Bounce dialog.

Most tools and tasks in version 8 are no more than a mouse click away, especially given the proliferation of context-sensitive, well-stocked right-click menus. However, you are still free to configure multiple windows, appropriate for dual-monitor set-ups or favourite screensets.

Many feature requests that users have been crying out for have been introduced, such as sample-accurate audio editing in the Arrange window, post-pan sends in the mixer, instant track configuration for multi-out instruments, and improved notation capabilities. Additionally there is more helpful ReWire support whereby devices in your Reason Rack can be directly accessed through Logic's Library browser.

There are also many unexpected delights (the What's New document covers 35 pages) such as the fact that the mix window can be set to mirror the layout of the arrange window, hiding or showing tracks accordingly. There is also a new low-latency mode, an automated instant fix when overdubbing to avoid having to disable multiple plug-ins across a mix.

Naturally, a new version of any sequencer wouldn't be complete without new plug-ins. Logic's compressor is now a very cool tool, with its sidechain, parallel compression feature and different operating modes like opto, VCA and FET for a variety of flavours.

Other features include the new Delay Designer, MicroPhaser, Echo effect and Binaural Panner plug-ins, plus an improved Space Designer and true surround versions of existing core plug-ins to go with Logic's ability to import, record and bounce surround productions directly to DVD-Audio.

Some of Logic's instruments have also been given the surround-sound touch, notably ES2 and Sculpture, while others such as the EFM1 synth and Ultrabeat drum machine have gained improved functionality.

Regarding third-party plug-ins, all bar two of the 135 Audio Unit instruments and effects on our test Mac passed the validation process, the rest loading and operating flawlessly in Logic Pro 8. There are issues with some multiple-output plug-ins, such as BFD, but the companies concerned are working on immediate updates.

There are also plenty of great new audio features in Logic Pro 8, such as multitake recording and Quick-swipe comping whereby you simply select the parts you want to stick together and Logic automatically compiles them, adding suitable crossfades for glitch-free playback.

It's not all good news. The system requirements are high: Mac OS X 10.4.9, QuickTime 7.2 and a fast G4. Even so, many users, us included, have experienced below-par performance on otherwise respectable machines, resulting in disconcerting delays between triggering an action and Logic actioning the request.

Aspects of Logic's new workflow modus operandi will also confuse seasoned users, as some functionality (for example, the Audio Configuration window) has gone, replaced by new processes. The changes are largely for the better but a period of adjustment (and time spent with the excellent new manuals) will be required. More annoying is that the Transport bar is now permanently locked to the bottom of the screen.

In addition, you still can't highlight more than one track at a time in the Arrange window for moving or deleting. And there is still no offline processing for audio files, although there is excellent integration with Soundtrack Pro 2 whereby a file can be exported from Logic, processed in Soundtrack Pro 2 and automatically reintroduced to Logic in a neat, round-trip operation. There are other wrinkles documented on various web forums but many of these will doubtless be ironed out in future updates. Certainly they should not detract too much from what overall is still a near-perfect upgrade.

Logic Pro 8 is not the only app in the box: Mainstage makes its debut. An extension of Logic Pro designed for live performance, Mainstage lets musicians run their software plug-ins and instruments live and have the essential parameters displayed through a full-screen interface.

Mainstage's optimised full-screen view provides beautifully rendered, high-resolution 3D graphics that are easy to read at a distance, although the trade-off is that Mainstage won't even launch on a Mac that doesn't meet the specific graphic card requirements (OpenGL support is essential), even if Logic Pro will.

Mainstage's controls have a Learn function, so you can quickly assign hardware controllers to on-screen objects. However, because Mainstage can only receive, not send, Midi signals there is no external Midi device control: a missed opportunity in our view.

Naturally Mainstage comes with dozens of templates, using Logic's comprehensive plug-in/instrument bundle, and these presets take full advantage of the split and layer possibilities. There is also full support for third-party Audio Unit plug-ins.

It should be noted that much of what Mainstage offers could already be achieved in Logic; it's just that it's a lot easier and better looking in Mainstage. However, its performance currently lets it down, as the same sluggishness and half-second pauses exhibited in Logic occurred here too. When switching presets in a live environment, you need to be confident that your software will respond instantaneously: nobody needs any added stress in that situation.

Still, while Mainstage may not be quite as ready for prime time as Apple would have us believe, it is only a version 1 product. It is also reassuringly reliable with less complex patches and is definitely worth experimenting with, if only to imagine the future possibilities.

The third element in Logic Studio's triumvirate is Soundtrack Pro 2 (MacUser, 11 May, p52), the only Apple application to feature in both Studio boxes, Logic and Final Cut. Its highlights are multitrack audio recording, surround-sound mixing, the Conform tool (which dovetails audio edits with Final Cut Pro film edits), the Multitake Editor and the Spectrum View. You can also view synchronised HD or SD video in full-screen mode on a second monitor.

For good measure there is tape-style scrubbing for pinpointing the perfect edit, custom fades and crossfade curves, comping tools similar to Logic, the Lift and Stamp file attribute cloning tool and sound restoration tools (click, pop and hum removers). There's decent metering too which in line with the overall interface design, allows for visual clarity. And Soundtrack Pro 2 can simultaneously output stereo and surround mixes. All told, Soundtrack Pro 2 is a very fine application and to have it in the box as a complementary tool adds considerable power to Logic's punch.

Which brings us to our ultimate conclusion: the new retail price of £319 for the full product - Logic Pro 8, Mainstage, Soundtrack Pro 2 and 39GB of audio content - is an unbelievably good deal. Apple makes its money on hardware, so encouraging the uptake of machines by delivering world-class, integrated software at a price that seems like a misprint makes sound business sense.

Apple has worked hard to address three years' worth of forum posts, ticking off most people's long-standing objections to Logic while adding many welcome new features.

Granted, there is still some fine-tuning to be done but without a doubt Logic Studio already justifies its five-mouse rating.