GarageBand for iPad is a recording studio that attempts to merge aspects of its Mac-based cousin with an intuitive touch-based iOS interface.

For the beginner, GarageBand is a lot of fun. Anyone lacking musical ability can leap right to the selection of 'smart' instruments, which do all the hard work for you. You create drum parts by dragging drums to a grid, and it will auto-strum or fingerpick simple guitar chords and play arpeggios on a keyboard for you. All you need to do is tap the name of the chord.

Up to eight tracks can be added using the track editor, and individual tracks can have effects applied and volume and panning adjusted. You can also augment your smart instruments with a (slightly limited) range of built-in loops.

To take things further, you must work with some form of more manual input, and it's here that GarageBand is a bit hit and miss.

The drums are poor – the on-screen kits are perfectly 'hittable' but you only get six; worse, GarageBand's trumpeted accelerometer-based expression (tap the screen harder to make an instrument more forceful) lacks consistency and can't be disabled for drum tracks, making it nigh-on impossible to record uniform patterns.

By contrast, GarageBand's fantastic for guitarists: armed with an iRig and a beaten-up old electric guitar, we hugely enjoyed experimenting with the app's selection of amps and customisable stomp-boxes.

Despite the iRig's quiet output, we made a decent noise; the only pity was a lack of any timing assistance.

For electronic musicians, the app's so-so. The instrument selection is best suited to dodgy 80s synth pop, and the lack of pattern editing in the track editor forces you to continually re-record to deal with errors, rather than dragging notes around; on the plus side, keyboard parameters can be tweaked, the customisable on-screen keyboard interface is excellent, and Apple has sensibly provided quantisation options to tidy up timing.

Elsewhere, we enjoyed mucking about with the sampler, found voice recording workmanlike (and limited when it came to effects) and considered the app's approach to song construction-user-defined 'sections', somewhat akin to the desktop version's regions – awkward.

We also had occasional performance issues, especially when working with a lot of effects. Recordings would sometimes cut out, and the app often has to pause to 'optimise performance'.

This probably all sounds quite negative, so you might be surprised to hear that we nonetheless recommend this app. It's not perfect, and electronic musicians are far better catered for with NanoStudio or BeatMaker. But for the musically curious, this is a great toy, and for guitarists, there's huge value in the amps and stomp-boxes.

It's also pretty clear that with a few tweaks, GarageBand could offer a similar amount of depth to its Mac cousin for a fraction of the price, and with the far more intuitive interface offered by the iPad.

Frankly, we can't wait to see what Apple has planned for GarageBand's first major update.

Every aspiring re-mixer has dreamed of this software. Plug mixed music – an MP3, a CD track, a WAV file – in one end, watch as it's broken into its component parts (complete with unnecessarily flashy graphical effects), then muck about with the track's individual instruments to your heart's content.

Move notes, change chords, remove parts you don't like, or extract the vocals for mixing into another track. No fuss – just one-click remixing. At least that's the theory.

Unfortunately, MP3s run through the Hit'n'Mix mangle end up bruised beyond their initial beauty. They're split, yes, but only into vague approximations of their main instruments – about 50 per cent of the theory in action – and a selection of tracks consisting of compression artifacts and essential harmonics. Instruments are rarely, if ever, sorted into proper groups, which means the individual volume mixers are difficult to use without a lot of manual work.

Off key

But poor grouping is the last of Hit'n'Mix's worries. The individual notes are the real problem; clicking to play them on their own reveals them to be ugly, washed out, and unworkable outside their original context.

Move a single muscle of the track and you'll hear the jarring glitchiness left behind; change its overarching style – from major to minor, or even to 'summer' – and the whole thing ends up a peculiar mess. This is true of everything from MP3s to 320kB/s WAV files, and it's true of every style we tested, from electronica to heavy metal to single-instrument classical pieces.

We can't fault the concept, and the manual is very apologetic about the things Hit'n'Mix can't do. But when changing even the cleanest recording turns it into a garbled mess, it's not unfair to suggest that this should have stayed on the drawing board a bit longer.

Try the free version before dropping £80 on the full thing; you might get more out of it than us.

NanoStudio's arrival on the iPhone in July was swiftly followed by MacFormat scurrying off to a darkened room, to spend hours composing exciting electronic music.

The £8.99 app was a revelation – loads of great built-in voices, a six-track sequencer, effects, live recording and pattern editing – and it made redundant the need for GarageBand on iOS.

With the app being pricey, the developer decided to create a 'demo' for PC and Mac, which became NanoStudio 1.0. What you get with NanoStudio for the Mac is essentially the iOS version: dozens of voices, pads and pitch-bend that can be manipulated live, knobs to twiddle and effects to apply.

When you're done recording, you can edit patterns in a GarageBand-like fashion, amend the mix, and export everything as a WAV.

Unfortunately, controls are accessed by mouse-clicks only – there's no Mac keyboard or USB piano-style keyboard support; and the workspace is tiny, as per the iPhone version. This makes using some aspects of the app decidedly quirky, although we still found it usable, which shows how much thought went into the iOS version.

It's way more than a mere demo, but just short of classic status; but since it's free, it's still a no-brainer.

Although rumours of a new version of Logic Studio have been buzzing around Apple forums for the past six months, its sudden arrival has come as something of a surprise.

There was a lot of talk of a beta version of the app that boasted "superior audio-editing features" and "a breathtaking range of new instruments and effects", so were any of these rumours actually true?

Well, Logic Pro 9, the latest version of Apple's top-of-the-line music software program, and the main focal point of Logic Studio, does indeed boast some significant updates aimed at users interested in audio editing, music production, guitar recording and live performance.

Flex Time

Logic Pro 9 introduces Flex Time, a new collection of features that enables you to manipulate timing and tempo quickly and intuitively. With the new Flex Tool you can push audio around with your mouse by clicking and dragging a waveform. You can use it to correct dodgy timing in an audio performance or 'quantize' the timing to a groove.

There's also a Varispeed feature that allows you to slow down an entire multi-track project effortlessly – audio files and all – without changing the pitch. This is particularly useful if you want to record a challenging part at a more comfortable tempo that suits you.

FLEX TOOL: You can use the Flex Tool to manipulate the timing of audio files quickly by dragging with the mouse (Click here for high res version)

GarageBand users will be delighted to hear that their projects will open up in Logic Pro 9 and Logic Express 9. They can continue working on them with the option of adding better instruments and effects plus superior editing and mixing facilities. 20,000 Apple Loops and six Jam Packs are also included.

At the more professional end of the musical spectrum, Logic Pro 9 introduces a host of new production tools including: Selective Track Import, for transferring setups and track content between different projects; Drum Replacer, for replacing or doubling unsatisfactory drum tracks with triggered samples; Convert To Sampler Track, for turning an audio region into a sampler instrument with a MIDI track to trigger it; and Bounce In Place, which makes effects-rendering much quicker and far easier.

And for guitarists, Logic Pro 9 introduces Amp Designer, a virtual guitar rig consisting of 25 amps, 25 virtual speaker cabinets and three virtual microphones. These can be freely mixed and matched according to taste, and a microphone's orientation and distance from the speaker cone can be adjusted.

In addition, a virtual 'pedalboard' can be used to create many popular effects including overdrive, distortion, delay, flange and chorus. Hundreds of 'out of the can' presets are included.

GUITAR GEAR: Logic Pro 9 comes with an arsenal of tools that would keep most guitarists happy. These include virtual amps, cabs, microphones and effects (Click here for high res version)

But, of course, Logic Studio isn't just about Logic Pro 9. It also includes two other major music applications: MainStage 2, a virtual live performance rig aimed at rehearsals and live gigs, and Soundtrack Pro 3, a multi-track audio studio for video production.

MainStage 2 handily lets you use Logic's instruments and effects in a live context. The latest version now features two great new plug-ins called Playback (which provides musicians with a virtual backing band, allowing them to perform with pre-recorded audio), and Loopback (which allows musicians to record, layer and jam along with their own performances).

MAINSTAGE: The latest version of MainStage features two new plug-ins, Playback and Loopback, that allows you to play along with prerecorded audio or your own performances (Click here for high res version)

Soundtrack Pro is for synchronising music scores to video. Version 3 adds new audio-editing tools including Voice Level Match, which corrects mismatched voice levels by extracting volume information from the vocal content of one clip and applying it to another.

A new Advanced Time Stretch feature stretches and compresses audio with precision, while an enhanced File Editor includes new tools to make sophisticated edits and fine-tune volume adjustments.

Up and running

Installation of Logic Studio is straightforward, although it can take some time if you want to install all of the apps and required content (9GB) plus any additional content (up to 38GB!). It requires Mac OS X 10.5.7, which leaves all Panther and Tiger users out in the cold.

Once launched, Logic Pro 9 looks reassuringly familiar, although you'll notice a few different buttons and minor cosmetic differences around the Arrange Window. The Flex Tool is a joy to use on out-of-time vocal tracks – you simply click on the audio region you want to edit, select the Flex Tool via the Tool button and click the beginning of a word to move its starting point to a desired location.

A word or phrase can also be lengthened or shortened by dragging the mouse. The Auto Quantize feature is a useful tool too, making it easy to synchronise material that would previously have been unsyncable to your track.

Authentic sound

The guitar amps and effects sound authentic and sit well in a mix. And Logic's regular instruments and effects are all present and performing well – in fact, the EXS24 sampler now loads presets at a lightning-fast speed. None of our Audio Unit instruments (AUs) was affected by the program. Mainstage 2 and Soundtrack Pro 3 are both useful and easy to use.

PERFORMANCE: Logic Pro's performance is now better than ever before. Check out the sampler loading times! (Click here for high res version)

Overall, the new Logic Studio offers exceptional flexibility and value for Mac musicians. It's also a great choice for GarageBand users who want to take their music to the next level, as well as guitarists who want to buy a serious music software studio.

Capo 1.0.2 enables you to slow down songs dragged from iTunes, without affecting pitch, so you can easily hear the notes and learn how they're played.

The app isn't alone in its field, but it betters Amazing Slow Downer and Transcribe by way of a stunning user interface.

A single window houses album art, a timer detailing your location in the song, speed and pitch controls, the waveform and playhead, as well as volume and playback controls. Attention to detail is stunning. For example, playback speed can be snapped to one of five presets, but a slider accessed via a mouseover enables you to choose values in-between.

Pitch controls work similarly. Smaller increments are used for matching tuning and larger ones for changing key. In the waveform area, you can drop markers, which come in verse, chorus and bridge varieties, and if you find a particular part of a song tricky, loop it via a drag-selection and click.

Capo's useful touches soon become apparent: the vertical bars in the scrollbar that represent markers; the keyboard shortcuts; and separate play/pause toggles for playback and playing a selected loop.

Aside, from a lack of song and loop export, Capo has no negatives, and while one might argue for extra features such as note-taking, we'd happily forego those for the solid and refined experience on offer.

While the world was busy discovering GarageBand, professional Mac musicians had been given a three-year head start with Ableton's Live. Live is like GarageBand with all the features you always wanted, and then a box load of extras.

It works with clips of audio and MIDI and puts them on a 'session' grid. Unlike most sequencers, the grid can be played live, so you can assemble a collection of clips for a verse and a different collection for the chorus and switch between them with a single mouse click.

HARDCORE SESSION: In Session mode clips are arranged vertically, and controlled by a virtual mixing console (Click here for high res version)

Live is smart enough to interface to most MIDI hardware, so you can attach knobs, buttons, keys and sliders to most of its features for extra performance potential.

It's also smart enough to follow tempo and key changes, so you can change the tempo and all of the clips will stretch or shrink to fit it. If you want more conventional and linear music making, you can also switch to an 'arrangement' view, which gives you track-based editing of both MIDI and audio.

The arrangement view can remember your playback moves in the session view, so it's a very easy way to demo a song and then rework it later.

Everything is editable and there are hundreds of presets, clips, effects, synthesizers and sounds.

An impressive collection

New in Live 8 are grooves, which change the rhythmic feel of a clip, and an improved audio-warping engine that creates smoother time stretching. Time stretch still needs manual fine-tuning, but the sound quality is getting impressively smooth.

New effects have been added for more creative sound editing, including versatile dynamics and multiband compression, a vocoder and a frequency shifter. Rounding off the package are changes to workflow, including improved editing and better crossfades and track grouping.

USER INTERFACE: Ableton Live 8 offers more tweaks than you can shake a maraca at (Click here for high res version)

Live comes in three flavours. LE includes a couple of software synthesizers and 20 studio effects. Full offers all effects and adds extra loops, and Suite adds a collection of software synthesizers and more instruments and samples. The boxed version of the programme includes a manual and more sample content.

The collection of softsynths includes two samplers, a virtual analogue synthesizer, and a couple of physical modelling synthesizers. The EIC library of presets is good. The preset synthesizer collections are rich, as are the drum, percussion and orchestral sounds.

Live 8 would be perfect, but we had problems with CPU spikes and slow speeds and crashes. Ableton's record on bug fixes is good, so it's likely these problems will have been fixed by the time you read this. But if you want to use Live 8 professionally, try out the free demo first.

The Live lowdown

Live is an excellent complement to Logic Studio. It's unbeatable for live performance, and gives Logic a run for its money when it comes to studio work. However, its synths aren't as comprehensive as Logic's, and they don't sound as good. The audio and MIDI effects are matched, and Live's clip-based mixing and performance system is unique.

Hundreds of pros use Live 8 and it may not be perfect, but it is very, very good.

This is the 25th year of Cubase, and, instead of celebrating with a cake decorated with MIDI leads and jack-plugs, Steinberg have produced one of their most intriguing updates yet.

Cubase 4 was slated for being less than bulletproof. Now that there's been time for the VST3 plug-in technology to settle down and to swat a few bugs, Cubase 5 is focussed on adding creative features.

With loops and drum sounds playing such a huge role in music, there's a new drum sampler called Groove Agent One, which lays out 64 samples on virtual pads. The clever feature here is ease of use.

You can assign any of the virtual pads to any sound, and then edit pitch, volume, pan and filtering with a few mouse clicks. Setting up drum sounds on a keyboard-oriented sampler can be torture in comparison. Paired with Groove Agent is a new rhythm programming MIDI plug-in, which must be one of the most intuitive and musical grid editors we've seen.

If you want more loop action there's a new loop mash-up effect – called LoopMash, oddly enough – which semi-randomly slices and dices grooves into other grooves. It looks good and can add creative spice to repetitive drum programming – but it takes a while to tame.

Pitch imperfect

Elsewhere in the box are some new pitch correction plug-ins. These are Steinberg's own take on the AutoTune and Melodyne effects used by professionals, and unfortunately they're more of a miss than a hit.

In theory you can convert a vocal line to an accurately pitched and modulated MIDI file with a single click. Except, in practice you can't. The core autotuning and pitch correction effects demand careful handling, otherwise you can turn your vocals into a pseudo-Cher robovoice even when you're not trying to.

A new sampled reverb plugin is more successful. Visually this looks almost obsessively detailed and designed, with photos of the locations that were sampled to create the different kinds of ambience. It sounds good, but it's not burdened with parameters – which is a good thing, because it makes it easier to get the sound you want.

Filling out the extras is a sample collection with 1.6GB of miscellaneous general-purpose loops and samples. This sounds like a lot, but most of that space is taken up with huge sampled instruments, including a grand piano.

The loop collection itself is relatively modest. Another couple of DVDs include a 16-bit version of the HALion sampled orchestra. Getting a MIDI orchestra to sound like the real thing is always a challenge, because each instrument can be played in many different ways.

Some new articulation features in the score editor emulate the essentials of this, and combined with the orchestral samples it's easy to create effective sketches that are fine for demos and for string and brass background parts. Fooling someone that they're listening to the real thing is always tricky, but this is an admirable attempt to pack an orchestra in a box. It's one of the better-sounding and more comprehensive orchestral collections – even when at 16-bit quality.

Stiff competition

The problem for Steinberg is that Apple's own Logic bundle offers so much more, and costs around £200 less.

For newcomers there's no contest – even with the new features in Cubase, Logic still wins easily. For established users, the decision isn't quite so easy. If you already have years of time and hundreds of plug-ins invested in Cubase, there's every reason to want this update. And for the few hundred people in the UK who can score orchestral music with dots on staves, the articulation features may be a real time-saver compared to other packages.

But those are limited markets, and elsewhere the competition is overwhelming. This is unfortunate for Steinberg because Cubase is a powerful music-production package.

If it had the market to itself, it would be a winner. But it doesn't, and even though the new features shine, more realistic pricing would make it much more persuasive.

There are a lot of new features in this update: improved scoring, a free budget version of Halion Orchestra to experiment with, LoopMash and a loop programmer tool called Beat It!, which works with the new Groove Agent drum sample player.

Vocalists will be pleased to see pitch correction and much improved vocal-editing tools, while there's also a sampled reverb tool called Reverence that sounds excellent.

There are still some issues to sort out, though. Our main gripe is that you're often left in window hell, with 10 to 20 to manage at once. Even on a giant monitor, you won't be able to see more than a few simultaneously. We think that some form of accessible window manager would make Cubase much easier to work with.

That said, it's still among the best sequencers around, and it can do pretty much whatever you want, even if it takes a while to get there. Most importantly, Cubase 5 makes great music, producing a rich, lush sound that's utterly professional.

Core components of GarageBand '09 are mostly unchanged from the '08 version. The interface has been touched up slightly to bring it in line with other iLife apps like iMovie, but in terms of functionality, there is nothing substantially new.

A new splashscreen better organises what you can do with GarageBand, including a prominent iPhone Ringtone feature. Apple had quietly introduced the ability to export tracks as ringtones in an update to GarageBand '08 but kept it fairly hidden.

By far the most significant and publicised addition to GarageBand '09 is Learn to Play, a fun feature that promises to teach you how to play the guitar or piano. GarageBand currently offers just nine lessons each and they are somewhat on the basic end of the spectrum. Whether Apple will add additional lessons down the road remains a mystery, at the moment, but it does seem like the next logical step.

Back to school

Only the first lesson for each instrument is included on the iLife DVD, the remaining ones can be downloaded free of charge. At between 200MB to 300MB each, the download proposition could be daunting for those on slower connections or with transfer caps, and annoyingly you cannot pause or cancel a download once it has started.

Whether you will have success learning the guitar or piano with GarageBand's lessons depends on what experience you already have, your natural ability, and level of patience.

The guitar lessons are well structured, starting with how to hold a guitar, the desired posture, and how to pick and strum. The lessons even feature a guitar tuner that works off your Mac's built-in mic (or other input source) to gauge how in tune each string on your guitar is and tells you how to improve it.

The lessons take you through learning chords, chord progressions, and single-tone melodies and ends up with teaching you how to play some blues. The biggest problem with the guitar lessons is their inherently passive nature – you may learn chord diagrams, but you won't enjoy the benefit of an instructor telling you what you're doing wrong or how best to position your own hand as you teach your fingers where they need to be.

Piano lessons

Because of the less technical nature of the piano, those lessons will be more straightforward for novices. They also have the benefit of allowing you to plug a USB or MIDI keyboard into your Mac to play along and see how you're actually doing.

However, the piano lessons aren't without their awkward moments: they glaze over teaching you how to read music in just a matter of minutes, so expect to be doing a lot of pausing and rewinding, especially at the beginning.

After spending hours trying both the guitar and piano lessons, we feel that Learn to Play will not so much replace traditional music instruction but just simply augment it. Those with some experience or natural ability may be able to go far with GarageBand's lessons, but it's more likely that most will probably use them only as an initial start or to supplement formal lessons.

GarageBand's Artist Lessons is the one neat feature you won't get from your local instructor. These special lessons feature a prominent musician (such as Sting or Norah Jones) who teaches you how to play one of their songs on the guitar or piano.

Fun for beginners

At the time of press, Apple only offered eight Artist Lessons. We assume that more will be added in the future, especially seeing as Apple profits from these and since three of the four guitar lessons are labelled up as Easy with no Advanced lesson offered, while three of the four piano lessons are Advanced with no Easy ones available.

GarageBand remains an excellent choice for composing music on your Mac or creating podcasts. If you are already familiar with it, this new release will feel somewhat underwhelming but if it's your first time, you're in for a treat. And, for those of us without any musical ability whatsoever, we finally have a reason to join our more musically inclined friends in a program they have so much fun with.

Omnisphere is Spectrasonics' new flagship virtual synthesizer instrument.

It combines a powerful and flexible synthesis system with a huge sound library and a plethora of innovative features.

The prototype caused quite a stir at this year's NAMM show, with renowned musicians hailing it as the most impressive synthesizer they'd ever heard.

Now the product has finally arrived so we can see for ourselves if it really is as good as they say…

Musical software

Omnisphere is an eight-part multitimbral instrument powered by what Spectrasonics describe as their 'new Steam Engine technology' – it can be considered as eight state-of-the-art synths rolled into one.

Each of these parts has two layers and each layer has an oscillator that can be set either to Sample mode (which uses detailed samples as the sound source) or Synth mode (where the oscillator itself generates a wide range of waveforms).

There's also a composite morphing technique, which morphs the harmonic characteristics of one instrument into another, eight independent arpeggiators, a huge 42GB sound library and a comprehensive effects system.

But it doesn't stop there: alongside its regular multitimbral mode, Omnisphere also offers a Live Mode (where you can step through different sounds during a live performance) and Stack Mode (which allows the user to arrange and dovetail up to eight parts over different areas of the keyboard).

Wealth of features

Omnisphere comes with thousands of presets – just search the synth's browsers for specific instruments, timbres, categories, moods or genres. You can, for example, find a spacey piano sound by clicking Keyboards in a Category window, Pianos in a Type window and Ambient in a Genre window.

There are three browsers: the Multi Browser, where you select Omnisphere's multitimbral presets; the Patch Browser, where you select dual layer patches for each part; and the Sound Source Browser, where you select the sampled sound sources for each layer.

Omnisphere's interface contains progressive layers of 'zooming' to accommodate users, ranging from amateur musicians who want to quickly find cool sounds to expert synthesists and sound designers who want the maximum scope for their sonic manipulations.

For the experts, Omnisphere offers a host of synthesis and control capabilities, including variable waveshaping DSP synthesis, granular synthesis, FM synthesis, polyphonic ring modulation, high-resolution streaming sample playback, and an innovative modulation routing system.

It also integrates enhanced versions of Spectrasonics' award-winning Atmosphere sounds. There's even an excellent selection of free video tutorials to download.

Powerful yet user friendly

Omnisphere is a joy to use and one of the most awe-inspiring instruments we've ever come across.

The three browsers are easy to navigate, although you can occasionally wonder which one you're in when you're first playing around with the synth.

Sounded out

The sounds are fabulous, ranging from organic textures to charismatic arpeggiated tones, deep basses and soaring leads. The library also contains a range of unusual sounds including a burning piano (yes, literally a burning piano!) and all sorts of 'psychoacoustic' effects.

The arpeggiator is amazing, especially if you load RMX grooves into it, while the Live Mode is a powerful feature in itself.

Spectrasonics Omnisphere is a fantastic synth, capable of transforming anyone's Logic, Pro Tools or even GarageBand studio into a powerful music making machine.

It's not the cheapest virtual instrument in the world but if you're serious about sound synthesis, you owe it to yourself to check it out!