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.

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.

JoeSoft's Hear is a sound-engineering tool that can alter any audio playing through your Mac. It has many different ways of doing this and is easy to use.

The source of the audio could be any application - a song playing through iTunes or something streaming via Safari. Hear works with your Mac's hardware to change the sound and not individual apps.

Array of tools

You get a broad range of effects and features inside Hear. You can quickly apply a preset configuration under titles such as Action, Large Hall or Romantic and when you do, audio instantly changes, perhaps with more echo, reverb, or some similar effect depending on the preset.

You can also mute Mail, so if an email arrives it doesn't disturb your film-watching. It holds limited appeal for improving sound coming from iTunes or other apps with their own inbuilt EQs.

The software can also help when using Skype, which is prone to thinly recorded headset-generated signals. Also botched recordings made years ago can be polished to make them more presentable.

Unfortunately, you cannot save changes to individual files, as this is not an editing tool, only a playback tool, though JoeSoft tells us that this kind of feature is being considered for a future update.

Limited appeal

The problems we had with the app had nothing to do with its build or stability, which struck us as first class, but more to do with a lack of pressing need for it.

We listen to many different sources of audio everyday on our Mac and, frankly, we just can't be bothered to change the profile of all these files throughout the day, especially as preset configurations can't be saved for individual apps as you go along. And the price seems high for software that lacks these functions.

That said, it's the first such app we've seen so, for some, it might be useful.

Logic Studio is Apple's most powerful and complete music software package to date. It comprises a suite of tools: Logic Pro 8, a professional sequencer; Soundtrack Pro 2, a post-production program; MainStage, a live performance application; and a selection of superb utilities, instruments, effects and loops.

At the heart of Logic Studio is Logic Pro 8, a considerably updated version of Apple's top-flight sequencer. Users of older versions will immediately notice a number of changes in the interface. The old Arrange window has been replaced with a new one that offers instant access to a number of the software's other functions.

It takes a little getting used to, but play around with the buttons, tabs and parameters and you'll soon find your way around. The new interface is definitely more intuitive to use and helps speed up a variety of common tasks - in fact, beginners will find the new version more approachable than earlier versions of Logic.

Instruments and effects

Logic Pro 8 comes with an arsenal of instrument and effect plug-ins. At the heart of this selection is the EXS24 Sampler, which has sampled versions of just about any instrument you can think of; pianos, electric and acoustic guitars, keyboards, electric and acoustic basses, synthesisers, drums and percussion - there are 1,300 in total.

The latest version of EXS24 has an enhanced, more intuitive interface, and you can also use Logic's EXS Editor to create additional sounds, if you've got the time to sample your own instruments!

Logic Pro 8 boasts an impressive range of virtual synthesizers, including an enhanced version of the ES2, a software synth capable of creating analog-style sounds, timbres associated with modern dance music, and all sorts of other synth tones, ranging from atmospheric pads to weird effects.

And if you're up for serious sound creation, there's also a new version of Sculpture, an advanced physical modelling synthesizer that can create all sorts of unusual sounds.

Logic Studio 8 effects include a brand new Delay Designer that offers up to 26 individual delay taps and fine control over each delay time. Logic's state-of-the-art reverb unit, Space Designer, has also been enhanced for multichannel audio processing.

All of the other regular Logic effects plug-ins are still available, alongside a new range of 'surround' effects. And, of course, Logic Pro 8 still has Audio Unit capabilities, so you can load up all of your favourite third-party plug-ins.

There's also a massive sound library available boasting 18,000 royalty-free Apple Loops and 5,000 sound effects, which can be integrated within your music.

The loops, which automatically match the sequencer's tempo settings, cover a wide range of styles played by drummers, percussionists, guitarists, keyboard players, orchestral musicians, horn players, world musicians and singers.

A lot of the pitched loops - guitar and keyboard riffs, for example - might not appeal to everyone, but they're still useful to have, especially during those 'lack of inspiration' moments.

Takes and Quick Swipe

There are two other new Logic Pro 8 features worth mentioning: Takes, where you can set the sequencer to record in Cycle mode and automatically record alternative MIDI or audio takes; and Quick Swipe Comping, which enables you to click-drag across a desired part of a particular audio take to automatically use it in your final version. These features can dramatically streamline the often tedious business of overdubbing.

Additionally, Logic Pro 8 has merged the features of the former Track and Environment mixers into one mixer window that has three view settings: Single, where the display is limited to the selected track; Arrange, where all active channels are displayed; and All, where every single channel that exists in your project is displayed. In this way you can focus on a specific track or have a look at them all.

Unsurprisingly, Logic Pro 8 is a joy to use and you can produce stunning sounds, particularly with the ES2 and Sculpture instruments. Better still, it no longer comes with a dongle, the device that once protected it from piracy. In many ways, though, that's a good thing, as dongles were a pain for users anyway!

Bundled software

Of course, Logic Pro 8 is just one of several superb programs that make up Logic Studio.

Soundtrack Pro 2 is a program for working with audio and video tracks. You use it to synchronise music created in Logic Pro 8 to video, as well as edit dialogue and create sound effects.

Its main interface features a timeline where you can see your audio tracks being played alongside the selected video. Once you're happy with a particular blend of music and sound, you can save your audio project so that it's ready to be imported into a video.

Soundtrack Pro 2 enables you to create soundtracks in 5.1 surround, as well as simple mono or stereo. You can also use it to analyse and fix problems such as clicks and hum in your audio files.

MainStage is a virtual live performance rig aimed at rehearsals and live gigs. It enables you to use Logic's instruments and effects in live performances. Keyboard players can use a MIDI keyboard to play any of the software instruments, while guitarists and other musicians can put their instruments or voices through any of the effects. The simple interface helps you to organise and access your sounds quickly.

Logic Studio's production utilities include an Impulse Response utility for capturing the acoustics of rooms, a Wave Burner app for professional CD mastering with a SuperDrive or CD burner, and an Apple Loops Utility that helps you to view and manage the tags used in Logic Studio's Apple Loops.

Great value

It's hard not to be blown away by the sheer power and scope of Logic Studio, but the most extraordinary thing about this package has to be its price.

When you consider that Logic Pro 7, the earlier iteration of Apple's flagship sequencer, used to cost £699 by itself, that its nearest rival, Steinberg's Cubase 4, still costs £649, and that the new, improved version comes shipped with a suite of other superb music production tools, all for less than half the price, you can't fail to see what a bargain Logic Studio is.

Rebranding the software sequencer as a complete studio suite is a stroke of genius by Apple - the current package's blend of power, range, versatility and price completely blows all the other professional music software competitors out of the water.

The asking fee of £319 should make professional multitrack recording available to many more musicians and it's even likely to tempt consumers who fancy playing around with a serious piece of music kit.

So this is a slightly confusing release because, while there are many changes, the core feature-set hasn't been altered. Although there's been some engineering under the bonnet, it's not obvious on boot-up what it is.

This is a good thing from the point of view of familiarity, but there are also bad points - because some of the more irksome quirks of the interface haven't been changed - such as the fact that if you change the software synthesizer in one of the virtual instrument slots, the MIDI channel assignments disappear.

So, other than a redesigned interface, with a more streamlined look, and a new Control Room feature that makes monitoring on multiple speaker sets easier, the ergonomics are almost identical. To be fair, however, some annoyances have been improved.

Loops now default to the correct number of bars when you load them and set Musical mode. In the mixer, you can now shuffle around the order of insert plug-ins by dragging and dropping - no more leaving empty spaces at the start of the list just in case you feel like dropping in some EQ or compression later.

There have been similar ergonomic changes in the Score Editor, which has had its palettes and menus reorganised, but doesn't offer any new features.

Added features

Two significant new additions are the SoundFrame sound manager that, in turn, is part of the MediaBay database. Databases in sequencers are unlikely things because, almost by definition, most musicians don't have the mindset or the time needed to catalogue and label sounds. So the fact that you can search any of your software or hardware presets by tags may be an underwhelming feature.

MediaBay is slightly more useful because you can preview loops, MIDI files and presets. More useful still is that it's now easier to put together effects and patch presets, and to then reuse them within different projects. You can also now create track presets with effects, mixer and synthesizer settings all predefined for different musical applications.

The new VST3 technology is the big draw, however, and there's a new collection of plug-ins to show it off. VST3 is backwards compatible with VST2 plug-ins, so all your old effects will still work, but it's the new arrivals that make the difference - the sound quality of the VST3 collection really takes Cubase to a new level.

There isn't room to list all of the new features, but the best include the Vintage Compressor, which does an excellent job of warming up cold digital sounds, and three new software synthesizers called Mystic, Spector and Prologue, using FM, additive and simulated analog synthesis.

The sound quality of Mystic and Prologue gives many hardware synthesizers a run for their money, so finding these tools bundled for free is impressive. Unfortunately, it's not all good news. These new features - and some of the internal changes - mean that Cubase 4 has taken a significant performance hit. Projects that played smoothly in version 3 choke, click and stutter in Cubase 4.

The import routine for version 3 projects does a slightly quixotic conversion job, so screen layouts and some plug-in settings may need to be corrected by hand. There are also some worries about stability. Where Version 3 was almost bulletproof, Cubase 4 is unhappy with certain softsynths, and crashes more often than it should.

The bottom line is that to get the best from Cubase 4, you'll need a significant hardware upgrade - and adding cool new plug-ins isn't so useful if you're left with fewer tracks overall. Realistically, if new hardware isn't an option, you may well discover that you'll get more music finished by staying with version 3.

If you're in the market for a hefty increase in both disk speed and processor power, however, then Cubase 4 has a lot to recommend it. Richard Wentk

Famous for its legendary Cubase music production software, Steinberg has now set its sights on the entry-level market with the introduction of Sequel.

This new package is in direct competition with the likes of the well-established Magix Music Studio. So, the big question is whether there's enough Steinberg magic in Sequel to make it worth the extra £25.

Like Magix Music Studio, Sequel gives you the opportunity to mix and match between built-in virtual instruments and live recording of MIDI versions, or electric and acoustic ones via line-in or microphone inputs, as well as vocals.

Sequel's virtual instruments are excellent and there are no less than 600 to choose from. There's also a vast collection of some 5,000 ready-made loops catering for almost any musical style you can think of.

Going live

One of Sequel's strong points is its Live Performance mode, which enables you to remix or combine whole songs on the fly, as well as individual tracks. For taking your music out into the big wild world, the program is also compatible with Macs as well as both Vista and XP PCs.

You can save your finished mixes in CD quality, 16- or 24-bit enhanced quality WAV audio files, or even export them directly to iTunes, although strangely there's no MP3 export option.

The interface is a little staid compared to the slightly more glitzy environment of Magix Music Studio, but Sequel is nevertheless quite intuitive with its collection of "zones" for accomplishing common tasks. Better still, you get a spectacular range of audio effects for applying globally or to individual tracks, as well as to separate instruments, which are based on the same technology built into Cubase.

On top of effects such as chorus, flanger, phaser, reverb and so on, you can also adjust specific instrument parameters such as cut-off, resonance, attack and sustain.

Deceptively straightforward in appearance, Sequel is a powerful program that'll appeal in equal measure to serious musicians and those with no musical ability or training whatsoever.

Logic Express 8 is the latest version of Apple’s middle-of-the-range music production sequencer. While it boasts more features than GarageBand, it’s essentially a cut-down version of Apple’s flagship music studio, Logic Pro 8.

Like its bigger brother, Logic Express 8 offers MIDI and audio recording capabilities with 24-bit/192kHz resolution, a plethora of onboard instruments and effects, plus compatibility with the Audio Units plug-in format. And, like Logic Pro 8, the new Express comes with a redesigned interface that combines all of its windows into a single, more intuitive workspace.

Instruments and synths

Logic Express has 36 onboard virtual instruments from the Logic Pro collection. First up is the EXS24 sampler, which comes with a large library of sounds, ranging from pianos, guitars, basses, orchestral instruments, choirs, synthesisers, percussion and world instruments to a number of specialist sounds. In fact, you can create a whole multitrack arrangement entirely with the sequencer and the EXS24 alone, without any other instruments whatsoever. An integrated EXS editor also lets you build your own sampled instruments.

Additionally, you’ll find a number of onboard virtual synthesizers, including the highly regarded ES1 and ES2 – good news for dance musicians! Other useful instruments include Ultrabeat, a rhythm synthesiser with an integrated step sequencer (or a ‘drum machine’ in plain English!), and EVOC20, a vocoder-synthesiser (for creating synthetic vocal sounds).

However, a number of Logic Pro’s finest instruments are missing: notably, EVP88 (an electric piano simulation), EVB3 (an organ simulation), EVD6 (a clavinet simulation), and Sculpture, an extraordinary physical modelling synthesiser. EVB3 should probably have been included as the Logic Express EXS24 library has a shortage of organ sounds.

Most of Logic Pro’s effects are also available in Express, although notably absent is the high-quality convolution reverb, Space Designer. However, all of Logic’s more basic reverbs are present and they are suitable for most styles of music. Also worth a mention is Guitar Amp Pro, a virtual amplifier that can emulate the sounds and tones of well-known guitar amps.

It comes with 11 amp models, 15 speaker cabinets, tweakable microphone controls, and an effects section. You can process your guitar’s signal or audio recordings directly through it to get a reasonably authentic rock, pop, blues or jazz sound. Other new Logic Express effects include a pitch corrector, an echo unit, a ringshifter (great for creating Dalek vocal effects) and an equaliser for sound shaping.

Logic Express also boasts two useful, timesaving features: Multitake Management, where you can set the sequencer to record in Cycle mode and automatically record alternative takes; and Quick Swipe Comping, which lets you click-drag across a desired part of a particular audio take to automatically use it in your final version. Other advanced new features include Snap-To-Transient, Graphical Time Stretching, and Sample-Accurate Editing, which all enable you to work more efficiently.

Stepping up

So which music software studio should you buy? Should you move one step up from GarageBand to Logic Express 8? Or plunge in headfirst with Logic Studio? It’s a difficult decision, as both packages are now very appealing. Logic Pro used to be expensive (£699) and its high price helped to limit its appeal to professional musicians. But now that the improved Studio version is available for less than half that price (£319), it’s an attractive proposition for those who’d like to own the Rolls-Royce of software studios. But Logic Express 8, at £129, is still great value – and a comprehensive music studio package to boot.

If you want to create electronic dance music or straightforward pop, Logic Express will do nicely, but if you’re after something with more bells and whistles, check out its big brother. Either way, there’s never been a better time to make music on a Mac.