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Logic Pro 9 retains its predecessor's look and feel.

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Both Amp Designer and Pedalboard are graphic-rich designs, so although there are no endorsed emulations, the styling makes it clear that classics from Fender, Marshall, Vox and Mesa are among those that have been emulated.

Pedal sourcing is less obvious, but with five different flavours of fuzz and multiple modulation pedals on offer, there's a real 'sweet shop' aspect to this plug-in. There are other nice touches, too, such as tempo sync for the modulations and delay, and an adjustable split frequency option on the Splitter device.

"Although Logic already had the basic Bass Amp and Guitar Amp Pro effects, Amp Designer is more like IK's AmpliTube or NI's Guitar Rig."

Users of Apogee's new GiO controller also benefit from built-in support, including pedal assignments. The only downside is that Amp Designer doesn't enable you to design a stereo rig with two amps, cabs and so on.

Sonically, things compare well to bespoke packages such as AmpliTube. Piercing leads (the Brown Stack is particularly nice) and fat modern metal (the Modern American Stack) are complemented by more retro sounds (eg, Small Tweed Combo).

On the pedal front, there are a couple of sweet fuzz pedals (Happy Fuzz Face and Candy Fuzz), and we reckon the Robo Flanger is a winner too.

Flex time

Flex Time is Apple's name for a collection of tools that use its new Flex timestretching engine. There are various modes – Slicing, Rhythmic, Monophonic, Polyphonic, Tempophone and Speed – with all but the last designed to help you adjust the timing of audio without affecting the pitch. The options are available from the Inspector window and as a track view (a bit like automation), and there's a new Flex tool on the toolbar.

When you select a Flex mode for a track, Logic analyses the audio and creates a set of transient markers and Flex markers. By using the Flex tool, you then adjust the timing between the automatic markers.

"Using the Rhythmic mode on multitracked drums, combined with channel grouping and the new phase-locked audio setting, we found Flex Time to be extremely impressive."

Stretching on one side of the cursor compresses the audio on the other side, and the stretched section turns orange, while the compressed part goes green. The Flex tool is context-sensitive, so you can add additional Flex markers or groups of Flex markers where you choose. If you don't like the results, you can reset them to the 'neutral' position, delete them or simply deactivate Flex mode.

Using the Rhythmic mode on multitracked drums, combined with channel grouping and the new phase-locked audio setting, we found Flex Time to be extremely impressive. The Slicing mode uses exactly the same tools, but you're simply moving audio, not actually stretching it.

Audio Quantize is a new option that appears once you select a Flex mode. In addition to typical quantise options, you can also apply groove templates derived from other tracks.

The Flex Time system offers one more trick: a new varispeed feature on the transport. This enables you to change the speed/pitch or just the speed (timestretching) of the whole song.