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

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More new features

Although you can still merge audio files using the Glue tool, the new Bounce-in-Place option is better. With this, you can choose whether to include inserts, volume and pan automation, and any effect tail, and whether to create a new track or not. There's a project-wide version that will Bounce-in-Place all tracks, and you can bounce Audio Instrument tracks.

The swipe comping system introduced in Logic 8 is slicker now, with the option to copy or move your existing comp to another track – great if you don't want to flatten your comp. Also handy is the Move option, which extracts the used bits, leaving the remainder behind.

Space Designer gets some new 'Warped Effects' impulse responses, including drone tones, moving spaces, textures, drum transformers, ghost rhythms and impulses captured from speakers and analogue circuits. And don't forget that Logic Studio includes the Impulse Response Utility for recording and generating your own spaces and effects.

One of the most novel new features is the speed fade. When applying a fade-in or fade-out, you can click on the labels in the inspector to reveal the speed-up or slow-down options. Select your fade time as normal and you'll instead get a turntable-style start/stop effect. On the subject of fades, the fade tool is now context-sensitive (Apple refer to this functionality as "click zones").

Combining different projects has never been easy in Logic, but the new selective track import feature resolves this – just use the media browser to find a project and hit Import. This will reveal a list of all tracks, busses, auxiliaries and so on in the project, and you can import the content, plug-ins, automation and I/O settings on a track-by-track basis.

Audio into MIDI

The new Drum Replacer and Convert To New Sampler Track features both analyse audio transients and produce a MIDI output.

Imagine you have a multi-channel drum performance and the snare sound doesn't cut it. Highlight the snare track and select the Drum Replacement/Doubler option from the Track menu – this will analyse the audio and open a small settings window.

Here, you select Snare from the available drum types and also the threshold for the triggering. The transient markers will appear on the region and a newly generated MIDI part complete with EXS24 instrument will open on a track below. It even opens the correct section of the library in the browser, so you can pick a sound.

Convert To New Sampler Track is a similar concept. If you have a loop that you want to split into slices, triggering each as a sample, highlight the audio region and select Convert To New Sampler Track from the right-click menu. Select Transient Markers and you'll get a fresh EXS24 and MIDI part on the track below, complete with your loop, split at transient points and mapped across multiple MIDI notes.