Logic Studio

Apple today introduced the next version of Logic Studio, with major upgrades to Logic Pro and MainStage and more than 200 new features.

Here’s what’s new:

• Logic Pro 9 features new Amp Designer and Pedalboard plug-ins that provide realistic virtual guitar amps and stompbox effects.
• A new set of Flex Time tools allow Logic users to easily manipulate the timing and tempo of audio.
• MainStage 2, Apple’s live performance application, includes the new Playback and Loopback plug-ins to provide backing tracks and creative, real-time loop recording for performing on stage.
• Logic Studio also includes the new Soundtrack Pro 3, with new multitrack audio tools for video production, and Compressor 3.5 for encoding in a variety of formats.

This looks like a great update to Logic Studio and Logic Studio’s $499 will continue to put pressure on other DAW developers to add features and keep prices down.

Apple has published a set of video demos on Logic Pro 9, the new guitar plugins and Mainstage 2. Read more…

Apple has an interesting profile on DJ Paul Van Dyk. It looks at how he’s working now, and also provides a current look at the gear he uses:

“I’ve developed the same passion I have for making music as I have for DJing over the last 15 years,” he says. “It’s the ultimate thing to be able to combine both. I can use my production skills as well as my skills as a DJ together to create new things live. The whole experience of me playing music is much more intense because it fits the atmosphere of the moment, of the set, of the venue, and of the crowd.”
Paul Van Dyk’s Studio Gear

When he’s not on the road, van Dyk turns out tracks at his Berlin studio. The electronic music laboratory is packed with old analog gear and the latest Macs running Logic Studio.

Hardware

• MacBook Pro
• Mac Pro (in the studio)
• Logic Studio
• Ableton Live
• Spectrasonics

Outboard Gear

• Euphonix EuCon Console
• Allen & Heath 3D Mixer
• Evolution UC33e USB MIDI Controller
• Akai MIDI controllers

Vintage Outboard Gear:

• Roland Juno 60
• Roland Juno 106
• Roland TR-808
• Roland TR-909
• Roland TB-303

“My music production starts in Logic,” he says. “I usually nail down a speed, then get a nice drum loop going for some rhythm. Then I lay down chords or a bass line or some piano—some stuff like that. When I feel the musical idea I have is coming across, and I can feel it, I get to properly blowing it up and doing drum programming and better bass line sequences.” Read more…