Product Reviews

Version 4.5 of Emagic's audio and MIDI sequencer, Logic Audio Platinum, adds a number of excellent new features and includes important bug fixes. For users of version 4.0 and above, tailored upgrades are available as free downloads from Emagic's Web site.

For those unfamiliar with Logic Audio, working in the Environment window is often seen as a black art, but familiarisation is critical to get the most out of the program. Among other things, the Environment window allows you to interact with virtual mixers for audio and MIDI tracks. You can also create custom objects to perform specific tasks on your equipment. Version 4.5 implements a new class of environment object called Audio Input Objects. These are extremely simple in function, but arevery powerful.

In essence, Audio Input Objects provide the means to just listen to (rather than set up a track to record) the signals received by your hardware's audio inputs. The practical application is that you can feed the audio from your MIDI equipment into your audio interface input and hear it on the same output as the audio tracks you've recorded on Logic. Use the bounce facility on the Master output section and you'll create a track that contains the sounds from the audio tracks and MIDI sources. In addition, you can apply effects to the Master output to the Audio Input Objects.

It all works brilliantly, although there were one or two occasions when the audio crackled after it had been stopped. This appeared to be caused by the effects not initialising

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properly on stop. Briefly playing the sequence and then stopping cured it every time.

To achieve the same result in previous versions of Logic Audio (and most other rival sequencers) you had to make an audio recording of the MIDI synth audio. You then had to play this new audio track back together with all the other audio tracks to create a mix file from them. Audio Input Objects are a significant step forward for user-friendliness that will not only save time but disk space as well.

Version 4.5 has doubled the number of Virtual Synths that Logic Audio Platinum can support to 16, CPU permitting. These instruments are selected as plug-ins from Audio Instrument channels within the Environment window. They can be used alongside audio and MIDI configurations, including Audio Input Objects, and end up in a bounced mix and processed with whatever effects you have available.

The inclusion of surround panning controls expands the creative options for musicians involved in delivering soundtracks for film, television, games and the lamented DVD SA music format. The surround setup is initially selected from the Audio preferences menu. To preserve the movements of the surround panning, Logic Audio allows you to create separate tracks for each surround channel using the 'bounce mix' feature. You can automate the surround panning movements, and modifier keys enable circular movements of any radius and straight lines to travel across to the opposite position.

Documentation is scant, to say the least, but Emagic assures us there's more to come. This is a significant release and needs in-depth documentation, although there's just enough information in the readme file to muddle through.

Logic Audio Platinum 4.5 is a solid update to an excellent product. More than just bug fixes, this version provides some time-saving features and productivity enhancements. However, the surround functions will require a multi-output audio card and extra monitoring. Hence, only a few well-heeled professionals will discover whether the panning functions are really a creative tool or are just a mere gimmick.