This the sort of thing I was looking for as a regular and reasonably advanced user of Logic. Most of the review content I could find was rather superficial for an experienced user. I have tried to cover things that are not listed on the Apple site.
Ian
Before I installed L9, I took a complete backup of my main Mac hard disk drive using SuperDuper just incase it all went Pete Tong - fortunately I have not needed to use the backup.
Q: |
A: |
Does installing v9 remove v8 ? |
No, both stay on your Mac and L8 works fine. |
Does saving a project in L9 mean I canŐt use L8 ? |
Mostly No ! When you have saved a file in L9, L8 will open it but it does give you a warning. I would advise backing up and/or saving to a new project file name. |
Will my plugins still work ? |
So far I none of my plugins fail to work fine. |
Does L9 run in G4/G5 Machines |
Although L9 appears as a Universal Binary, the word is non Intel processors are not supported. I have not tested this, but I suspect it is good news for G5 users - you now have a REALLY GOOD excuse to upgrade. Tell the wife itŐs AppleŐs fault. |
Does eMagic AMT8 work ? |
Yes. This is an OS Level thing. |
Is L9 stable ? |
So far from my tests yes. No show stoppers. |
Revolution or Evolution ? |
Most definitely evolution - in a good way. |
Disclaimer: while all things with my upgrade seem to be working well, you should still exercise caution when upgrading any key part of your setup and do a backup before proceeding. This review is just my opinion, if something does not work for you do not take it out on me.. please !
All plugin's tested work fine. Including NI (Massive, Absynth, Battery, Kontakt, GuitarRig), Virus TI, WaveArts, BFD 1 & 2, Korg Lagacy, Sampletank.
After 15 + hours constant use with lots of projects including recording an playing back, no crashes. And only 1 overload when the track got to a BFD2 part that had not finished loading its drums. Looks like an improvement over 8.
I have had one strange episode when L9 would not pay an audio track (some hand claps recorded in audio), I quantized it and it played !! I have not been able to repeat this.
Should have been there before but welcome. Only problem is Project notes do not seem to un-dock so putting gtr TAB or similar is a problem. Track notes can be seen on the mixer with a new small icon in bottom left of the mixer window. New icon for this on the tool bar. Screen shot shows Project notes on right hand side and track notes under the mixer channel.
Additional options and easier to manage an allow grouped tracks to be locked for drum editing.
With printing of effects and automation (optionally) - very very useful. In many ways better than Freeze.
Export option for easy export to other DAWs. However does only work in non-real time, so will not work with External Sound sources such as Virus TI (shame)
From Browser view you can select another logic project and import one or more tracks, its settings / content etc.
Very powerful way to move parts of an audio object around, stretch them etc. There is now a Flex tool in arrange tools floating menu. There are plenty of videos and information on this on the Apple site.
Using the Flex mode (set to Slicing), you can quantize audio in the arrange view. You can also create quantize template from an audio region then apply its timing to other parts. Process is simple and logical. Very handy for staccato pieces and recorded drums.
With ability to use Flex tool inside a take and a new quick swipe toggle icon on each part.
Takes audio region and slices it, creates EXS sampler instrument and Midi track to sequence the EXS instrument. Very nice to mess with loops or take a loop and change the dynamics of a particular slice. EXS instrument gets saved in your project folder.
Allows a project to be slowed down or sped up by % - sort of works, but creates audio artifacts and does not work so well with Virus TI. As the web site says this may be ok for recording a tricky fast passage with a slower tempo then speeding it up again, but you would not use it to create a finished track.
Using the fade parameters for audio objects you can speed up (0-100%) or slow down (100-0%) over a designated time. You can also use a fade curve as with volume fades. Nice effect for turn table slow down effects. Saves lots of messing around with samplers etc to get this sort of effect.
Two new options on the bounce dialogue to capture fx tails at end of song.
Lots of AMP Models as well as Cabs, Mic and mic placement. Plus 20+ stomp box effects, some very nice - from my tests there seems to be excessive noise compared to Guitar Rig.
Overall my first impression of these are that they are a big improvement and probably justify the upgrade if you are a guitar player and do not have Guitar Rig (or similar). Time will tell for me, but I suspect I will continue to use Guitar Rig due to itŐs sound and integrated approach to the entire stack (ie Amp/Stomp/Fx all in a single rack).
CPU Usage: I ran a few tests with 20 tracks with Amps and Stomp boxes and they definitely use less CPU than Guitar Rig.
Logic 9 has option to have different device for in and out - so could allow input from GTR controller such as Guitar Rig and the new Apogee one and output to main device (such as my Hammerfall). This could prove very useful, I have not had time to test it yet.
Logic 8 |
Logic 9 |
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Some of the menus have moved to new and more logical places - so far I have not had a problem finding anything.
Ctrl Click Menu changed dramatically as shown below:
Logic 8 |
Logic 9 |
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The top 5 items on the new menu appear to be last options used.
Option Menu:
Logic 8 |
Logic 9 |
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As you can see track automation options are now moved. They on the Arrange Window Menu
Logic 9 is a good evolution from v8 and addresses some of the lack of elastic audio criticisms leveled at Logic. Some of the smaller features such as bounce in place and project notes are the most useful for me. I am sure the big headline is the Guitar Amp and Stomp Boxes, but as a Guitar Rig user these are less interesting.
Stability and compatibility has been very good so far which is critical and very welcome. None of the changes that I have spotted cause me any problems or make Logic any harder to use (which is not always the case with an upgrade) which is also good news.
While the upgrade is a little expensive if you already have a good Guitar Amp processor, overall I would recommend the upgrade to all Logic users.
