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

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Apple's diversification into mobile phones, music retail and the consumer computer media experience led many to speculate that its professional software development would suffer, but this has been far from the case.

With new versions of Logic Studio and Final Cut Studio released last month, pro audio and video apps are clearly alive and kicking in Cupertino.

Logic Pro 9 is one part of the updated Logic Studio, along with other music-related tools such as MainStage 2, Soundtrack Pro 3 and WaveBurner 1.6. We'll be focusing on Logic Pro 9 here, but note that you can't buy the software on its own. There's a cheaper cutdown version, however, called Logic Express.

One caveat to be aware of is that Logic is now officially Intel Mac-only, although internet reports say that it does actually work on PowerPC machines.

Overview

In the new version, Logic's underlying capabilities remain similar, so you can enjoy a potential 255 audio tracks, 255 software instrument tracks and 99 external MIDI tracks. These are complemented by over 70 effects plug-ins, a bundle of soft synths (including those that are also found in GarageBand) and over 4500 presets.

The additional content includes all six Jam Packs (including the Voices package), 16GB of sound effects and 6GB of surround sound music beds. This translates to more than 20,000 royalty-free, tempo-clocked Apple Loops and 1700+ EXS24 sampler instruments. The specs are impressive and, out of the box, Logic Pro 9 has something for everyone.

"Although there are subtle changes to a few graphical elements for Logic Pro 9, for the most part, it looks just like its predecessor."

There are plenty of other features that make Logic an attractive option. If you're after extra processing power, you can combine networked Macs to share the load. For interfacing, there's solid ReWire implementation, and if you plan to transfer songs to another platform, there's XML, OMF and AAF support. Recording, editing and mixing in surround is also fully supported.

The workspace system introduced in Logic Pro 8 now feels like second nature and, although there are subtle changes to a few graphical elements for LP9, for the most part, it looks just like its predecessor.

Guitar amps and effects

However, there is at least one visually impressive addition: the Amp Designer plug-in. 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, offering 25 amps, 25 cabinets and three mics (condenser, dynamic or ribbon).

The elements can be mixed and matched, and the mic position adjusted, and over 200 presets categorised by amp type and style are included.

Stomp effects are implemented in a separate plug-in called Pedalboard. This features 30 pedals of various types (distortion, delay, modulation and filter) that you can chain together (up to ten at once), with splitter and mixer modules for creating more complex dual and panned setups.