Apple Logic Pro 9

The price of entry for professional digital audio workstation (DAW) software has become lower?much lower. Apple recently separated its flagship Logic Pro application out from the rest of the original Studio package, and is selling it for an unbelievable $199.99 through the App Store. Taking that price into consideration, Logic Pro 9.1.7 sets the standard for its sheer power, its plug-in and audio loops bundle, and its overall flexibility. Unless you need Pro Tools for compatibility with other studios, or simply because you're more familiar with it?perfectly valid reasons to go with Avid?Logic Pro is our favorite mainstream DAW and a clear Editors' Choice.

Versions, Installation, and Hardware
First, a word about what Logic Pro doesn't contain, for those who were familiar with the older Logic Studio 9 package, which cost $499.99 (and is still available, but only in Apple retail stores). MainStage 2 is now a separate $29.99 download, while Soundtrack Pro and WaveBurner have been discontinued. The cut-price Logic Express 9 is also gone, since that program retailed for the same price as what Apple is now charging for the full-blown Logic Pro 9. You still get the entire plug-in bundle, including the EXS24 sampler and Sculpture synthesizer, plus tons of additional content. There's no paper manual, but there hasn't been since Logic Studio 9 was originally released.

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For this review, I tested Logic Pro on three Macs: a Core i7-powered MacBook Pro 15-inch (Thunderbolt, early 2011) with 8GB RAM; a two-year-old MacBook Pro 13-inch with a 2.26GHz Core 2 Duo processor and 4GB RAM; and a 24-inch Apple iMac (Nvidia GeForce 9400M) with a 2.66GHz Core 2 Duo processor and 4GB RAM. There's no PC version available, and hasn't been since 2002, when Apple first purchased Emagic. Mark of the Unicorn recently announced Digital Performer 8, which had been a Mac-only program for 20 years but will be available on the PC for the first time this coming Spring. So that leaves Logic as the sole major digital audio workstation that's Mac-only?a situation we don't ever see changing, given Apple's ownership.

Installation is a breeze compared to before. First, there's still no copy protection. That's not unusual for Mac apps in general. But it's novel in the realm of digital audio workstations, where Avid Pro Tools 10 requires a PACE iLok key, and Steinberg Cubase 6.5 requires its own proprietary eLicenser key. Having no copy protection is a godsend, especially if you're on a MacBook Pro with just two free USB ports?and USB hubs aren't always an answer, because too many audio devices (not to mention other peripherals) prohibit using hubs in their user manuals.

Logic Pro's initial 413MB download is quite quick, although deceptive, as most of the extra content is available as in-app downloads totaling 19GB. That includes all six Apple Jam Packs, which contain over 15,000 royalty-free loops. Logic Studio 9 used to require over 40GB, but it turns out more than half of that was entirely because of royalty-free library music and effects included with Soundtrack Pro. Beginning with Logic Pro 9.1, the program now offers a full 64-bit mode, which vastly increases the number of plug-ins instances you can run on any machine with more than 4GB of RAM. (To enable this, bring up Get Info on the Logic Pro main app in the Applications folder with Command-I, and uncheck "Open in 32-bit mode.")

It's also easy to get started with Logic Pro without any additional hardware. Granted, Windows 7 PCs are excellent recording systems; the days of Mac-only recording studios have been gone for years by this point. But one clear advantage Macs have is in configuring audio interfaces. I've done this with countless interfaces, and countless PCs and Macs, over the years. While it's not always perfect on the Mac side, especially right around major OS revisions, I run into less trouble less often on a consistent basis. And no matter the interface, it always seems to coexist perfectly with the Mac's system sounds, and hot-plugging the interface always works reliably as well.

Another advantage is that with a Mac, you can use the built-in sound card in lieu of a separate interface. Not only is it relatively clean sounding?no hiss or thin sound here?but it works perfectly fine for virtual instrument playback, with low playback latency, for composing music "in the box," if not for recording live instruments. That's something that I've never been able to get to work reliably on the PC side, even when using supposedly low-latency, third-party ASIO drivers like ASIO4ALL?though I've seen occasional reports of success in various forums across the Internet. Either way, you'll still want at least a pair of headphones and a small USB-powered MIDI keyboard for Logic Pro 9, at the very least. During testing, I had no problem alternating between using an M-Audio Fast Track ($149.99 list, 4 stars) to record and monitor audio, and just using the built-in headphone jack for virtual synth playback.

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