Logic Pro 9: what you need to know

It's been only two weeks since Logic 9 has hit the Apple Store, but it's already time for a quick recap of the situation.

This post is about the best new features, the fake new features, the mysterious disappearance of the manual, the mysterious reappearance of the manual, where to buy it cheaper and how to buy it for even less, what happens with the Logic Certification, G5 compatibility and much more. So keep reading...


Ok, you are probably trying to answer one main question: is it worth upgrading? All in all... YES.

The main real new feature is flextime, which is what Ableton introduced first about eight years ago, immediately followed by Cubase, and more recently by Digital Performeer and Pro Tools with its 'elastic audio'. About time! But it works very well and in many ways it is easier and quicker to use than any of the others, so it's great to have it.

Another important new feature is that now Logic is really optimized for multi-core processing: this means that finally it makes sense to have an eight-core MacPro, and even a basic dual-core iMac will be able to spread the load of synths and effects on all its processing power, instead of a lame one core for audio tracks and one for plugins as it's been the case until now.

And if you had been finding Guitar Amp Pro a bit limited, there are lots of groovy guitar amplifiers and effects, which now sound really good. To my eye the 'Logic' logo makes them look a bit naff and, well, some of them come straight from Garage Band but hey, whatever.

Now for the fake new features: drum replacer and sample slicer are little more than scripts automating what was always possible with the functions that logic already had, so while we welcome the improvement (in fact we love it) it's hardly a revolutionary change; and then loads more of Apple Loops – not new Apple Loops, but in fact the same Jam Packs that have been for sale from the Apple Store for ages, and that now come free just to mock the losers that bought them at the time.

Lots more features of course, and it would be too long to list them here. The best way to see all of them in action is to check 14 of Apple's own videos, conveniently collected on this page. These are short, to the point, informative and strangely missing the unbearable American enthusiasm that normally comes with training videos (have you ever watched anything from MacPro videos?).

Now for pricing: Logic Studio 2 (which includes Logic Pro 9) retails now for £399.00 from the Apple Store. It's easy to forget the incredible amount of professional tools that you get for this money (just about ten years it was normal to spend £240 for the privilege of adding EXS24 to your copy of Logic. That's right, your copy of Logic Platinum which you had bought for near a thousand pounds!) – Nevertheless, with the exchange rate it's more money than it was for Logic Studio.

Thankfully Digital Village has already slashed the price to £332, which means that you save enough money to buy a midi keyboard and have enough change for coffee and cakes. The upgrade price from version 8 is £159 from Apple, and £134 from Digital Village, so you can guess where did I buy my upgrade.

Finally, if you happen to know anyone currently attending University, the educational discount for them brings the price down to an astonishing £119.00 – that's for the full version, not the upgrade. Some will say that with the educational version you can't upgrade, but I would point out that the upgrade costs more than buying a new copy!! So you'd expect that this price will be available to students attending a Logic Certified Training course right? No it's not. Educational pricing on Logic is available to those who study to be a vet or a historian, not to those who study how to create music with Logic. Go figure.

My advice? Go outside a University, approach the first person who looks like he/she might have a student card, and buy them a beer in exchange for a little favour.

Speaking of things that make absolutely no sense, the new Logic Studio comes with no manuals. Good for the planet, and good riddance, not having 1500 pages of useless weight in the box. It's all in PDF these days, isn't it? Well no, it isn't. Logic Studio comes with a single little Getting Started booklet and the PDF documetation is exactly the same booklet and nothing more.
"So where, what, how..." I hear you ask. Easy. It's all online. You have to go to http://documentation.apple.com/en/logicpro/ to read the manual online, one – fucking – page – at – a – time. If it sounds like a bad idea you have to try to actually read a few pages: it is an incredibly, incredibly, bad idea. It is the most stupid thing I have ever seen.

I suppose it will not matter after all: if you know Logic inside out you never need the manual, but why not include a PDF?

Finally, we have reports of Logic installing fine on G5 (despite being officially Intel-only) and installing fine on OSX 10.5.6 (despite theoretically needing 10.5.7) and we are looking forward giving it a go ourselves. Stay tuned.