Watching all the attention showered on Final Cut Studio for the past few years, I’ve often wondered when Logic Pro 7 would get some love. Well, here it is, love included. Not only is Logic Pro 8 full of exciting features, improvements and upgrades, it is now part of its own suite, Logic Pro Studio, which includes Soundtrack Pro 2, a dedicated music performance package called Mainstage, and a bundle of excellent instrument, effects, sound libraries and production utilities. Priced at $499, you get all this for about half the cost of the previous Logic Pro 7 alone.

Logic Pro Studio is set up to become everything to audio producers, composers, musicians and audio engineers that Final Cut Studio has become to video and film pros. In Logic Pro 8, you can perform multi-track audio or MIDI recording, compose to picture, add sound effects to picture, create original sounds and instruments, add all kinds of filters and effects, perform stereo and surround mixes, output to various file formats, burn CDs and much more. Using the additional power of the Logic Pro Studio suite, you can round-trip files to Soundtrack 2 for further audio processing or audio post work or output to Compressor for reformatting.

The first things previous users of Logic will notice are major improvements in the interface. Previously, it was frequently necessary to use several overlapping open windows. Logic 8 uses a familiar tab-based system of bringing windows to the surface. You can view both the Arrange Window and the Audio Mixer, Score View, Hyper Edit, or Matrix Editor (now called the "Piano Roll"), by selecting the appropriate tabs. It’s much more intuitive. For those new to Logic, this is a great time to be starting out: not only is it reasonably priced, but the learning curve is going to be far lower than for previous versions.

The set of templates for quick setups is also greatly improved. An amazing orchestral template sets up MIDI instruments for a whole symphony orchestra, stacked in the order you would see in an orchestral score and ready for note input. There are similar templates for hip-hop, rock, etc. Once loaded, they’re easy to customize.

To build a score, you play MIDI parts on a MIDI keyboard, either in real-time or done a note at a time. Logic Pro provides multiple ways to view your music, including full printable music scores that are generated in the "Score" window.

As a core audio-based program, Logic relies on CPU power for plug-in processing. With the distributed audio processing feature in Logic 8, the program can use multiple computers on a network to provide virtually limitless plug-in processing power. Logic can now also perform sample accurate audio editing and time stretching and compression in the arrange window, features in which it was lagging behind other digital audio workstations for some time. It’s compatible with almost any professional quality audio interface, including Dididesign Pro Tools HD. It can act as a front-end interface for Pro Tools HD and fully utilize the TDM (time division multiplexed) plug-ins.

Soundtrack 2 is also included in the package, now optimized as a multi-track recorder and editor for video. It’s also a more complete and non-destructive audio editor than Logic and is excellent for building audio effects. A simple key command moves files between the two programs.

There are simply too many individual features to list in entirety, but overall, the quality and price at which these features are provided offer unbeatable value. Previously, a library like this would have easily cost more than the whole package. The effects, especially the compressors and delays are dramatically improved, as is the quality of the instrument sounds. Professional musicians have used Logic on laptops as stage instruments for years. Logic’s instruments are optimized for stage use, which may not matter too much in the video world, but is very cool from a musician’s standpoint. The main point is, it sounds that good.

David Leathers is a writer, producer and musician in the Los Angeles area. He's been working on NLEs since 1990. His company, Eye Square Productions, specializes in audio and video post.