By George Petersen

AFTER WAY TOO MANY YEARS, APPLE FINALLY did a real makeover on Logic, its flagship music/audio production software, now offered as the “Logic Studio” bundle of production tools. It’s sort of the Final Cut Studio approach, which includes FCP, Soundtrack Pro 2, Compressor, DVD Studio Pro, Motion and more–pretty much a script to screen package.

And there’s a lot of good news here. Gone is Logic’s clunky look, instead Logic 8 uses a single-screen interface that’s streamlined and fast. The surround mixing is elegant and there’s a vocal comping feature that’s just amazing. Also in the bundle is Soundtrack Pro 2 (the same version from the FCP Studio bundle), Studio Instruments, Studio Effects (with some 80 plug-ins) and Studio Sound Library, with 18,000 Apple Loops and 1,300 sampled instruments. At $499 it’s almost stupid NOT to buy this package—whether you own a Mac or not.

But what really floored me was the not-so-lowly MainStage. Intended to simplify using software instruments onstage, this standalone app provides a live performance rig for guitar/keys/bass. Virtual keys instruments and guitar/amp/effects modeling is nothing new, but what’s the big deal?

First of all, ya gotta wonder why this is in a studio production bundle anyway. Someday, Apple might wise up and include this with its iLife software, but that’s not the point. I was absolutely amazed by the keyboard setups and their ability to do splits. Again, no biggie—I even have left/right-hand organ/bass splits on my vintage ’60s Farfisa organs. Custom splits are nothing new and nearly any decent keyboard controller can store/recall different split presets for different songs. Yet the real trick with MainStage’s split keyboard mode is its ability to do intelligent splits.

Many of us have experienced the frustration of playing a bass line that as it moves up the scale, will eventually start playing piano notes. But playing left-hand bass/right hand melody parts on a keyboard that can move the split as you play, keeping you in range is pure magic. Evidently MainStage runs some algorithm that tracks your hand movements and moves the split point accordingly. It’s awesome and is probably worth the program’s $499 bundle price. Of course, once your include all the other apps—Logic 8, Soundtrack Pro 2, etc.—this is one amazing bargain.

When not working on Mix stuff, George Petersen records and performs with the SF Bay Area-based rock band ARIEL. Click here www.jenpet.com and check ‘em out.

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