Apple has released Logic Studio 9 today. Banner features: “Flex Time” audio warping, new goodies for guitarists (plus integration with a new audio interface and pedalboard from Apogee), expanded support for working with video and outputting compression, and most interestingly, tools for making MainStage a feature you might actually take onstage.

I’m meeting with Apple next week, so if you think of any smart questions, do pass them along. I should receive my testing copy then, too, so expect more details. In the meantime, here’s how it looks “on paper,” in a nutshell.

Live Performance

This to me is the interesting one. I loved the idea of MainStage when it came out, but I had a number of complaints in regards to what musicians would actually want to do for live performance. Specifically:

• MainStage needs a way of playing backing tracks, particularly for bands and acoustic players and soloists.
• ReWire is a must, so people using tools like Ableton Live (or Reason, or the awesome tracker Renoise) can work with them in a MainStage rig.
• Better control mapping was needed for real performance – including grouping.
• Musicians need a way of recording their gigs.

Well, guess what? Apple says they’ve added all of that to MainStage 2. ReWire support should make this particularly interesting, as solutions like a Logic-Live rig now become practical. And this is the first DAW to really try to do backing tracks in a way bands can use, even including Ableton Live.

Grouped controls allow you to drag and drop layouts of controls as macros. It’s a nice implementation, and different from what’s currently out there.

There’s also a live loop recorder, tape style. My first impression of this is that this doesn’t appear to match things like the new looper in Ableton Live 8, which can set an entire project tempo – it’s more like a basic stompbox effect, as we’ve seen previously in Native Instruments’ Guitar Rig. Still, that matches the simplicity of some of the other tools here.

Augh… and yes, that is Apple’s now-ubiquitous album art view as the browser mechanism for templates, proving they really don’t know where to stop. At least it seems they haven’t used that for the entire UI.

Of course, performance is everything in these implementations, so it’ll be fun to torture test MainStage 2 and see how it stands up.

And for anyone who wanted Live clips and Sculpture in one session, this could be interesting.

Today is set to be an orgy of computer music-y, Abletronic, drum machine-loaded, Max-patching news, so let’s throw one out to the guitarists. IK Multimedia has two new announcements today that are actually quite cool. The StealthPedal is a Wah pedal that’s actually an audio interface, sort of like a James Bond pen that’s also a gun. And IK also landed the only official Fender-endorsed software amp emulation.

Here’s a quick look at the specs. By the way, I’ve consulted everyone I know (especially as I’m not a guitarist), and basically what we’ve come up with is that a whole bunch of the guitar emulations out there (Apple, IK, NI, and Waves) are pretty damned good. Apple recently upgraded their own guitar emulations, meaning even what you get in GarageBand ‘09 is a big leap forward (and I have it on good authority that they sound terrific). NI has a guitar announcement coming later today, too. I’d choose based on taste, basically; each has a unique personality.

AmpliTube Fender

• 12 Fender guitar amps (Twin Reverb, ‘59 Bassman LTD, Super-Sonic, Metalhead)
• 12 matching cabinets
• 9 microphones
• 6 stomp effects, 6 rack effects (tape echo, Fender reverb, fuzz/wah, triangle flanger, wah, the works)
• Digital tuner, stomp pedal board, amp head, cabinet plus mic, rack effects. (Here’s one point of differentiation: NI, for instance, has more toys here; IK plays it a little more conventionally; that’s a matter of taste.)
• SpeedTrainer, RiffWorks T4 recording included
• “Certified” by Fender
• US$229.99 for the full set, or get the LE (4 amps, 5 cabinets, 2 stomp, 2 mic, 2 rack FX) with the StealthPlug USB audio interface for US$139.99
• Available late February

It’s a pretty stunning deal if you’re a Fender fan.

http://www.amplitube.com/fender

Stealth Pedal

• Looks like a wah pedal – same form factor
• Works as a controller (it’s basically an assignable expression pedal)
• Comes with a double foot switch, and you can optionally add a second expression pedal via a foot input
• Also a USB audio interface (24-bit, 44.1/48)
• “Low-noise” input stage
• Headphone out, volume control, LEDs for use as a tuner or level indicator
• ASIO PC, Core Audio Mac drivers
• Software bundle
• US$269.99
• Available late April

This looks just incredibly functional for someone wanting something compact. There have been controller/audio interface bundles before from IK, NI, and others, but this you can throw easily in your case.

http://www.stealthpedal.com

Electro-Harmonix has made a quick-and-dirty vocal effects box. Usable parameters, good fun, and $200 – sure, it may not be the highest-fidelity vocal box ever, but what’s not to love? Our friend Collin Cunningham at MAKE gets the jump on this one.

It’s got some surprisingly unique features:

• 256-band vocoder “designed by the same EMS genius who made vocoding famous,” they say
• It will harmonically match electric instruments as well as vocals.
• 2- to 4-part harmonization, at the 3rd and 5th (labeled “Low” and “High” in case you slept through Music Theory class)
• 9 programmable presets
• Gliss
• Gender bender male/female formant mod (which actually sounds decent, and could be fun with instruments, as well)
• Mic pre, phantom power, balanced XLR output (thanks for not making this like a cheap consumer toy)

And the whole thing is built in NYC. I have to go see where they’re making these things.

I think this line is hilarious: “Diana Ross had the Supremes, Brian Wilson had the Beach Boys, Kraftwerk had The Robots. You have the Voice Box.”

Well, speak for yourself. I want the Kirnaires backing me up (matching sweaters and all) and I still want a Voice Box.

Above: proof you can have a product demo video that isn’t lame. (I’m looking at you, um … almost entire music instruments industry!)

EV appear to have seeded these to other folks to make some YouTube videos. You know what that means: it’s time for a really odd and wonderful cover of Knights of Cydonia. That’s funny, “No One’s Going to Take Me Alive” is the line I last used when I neglected to return a demo hardware loaner.

For an impressive, competing line of products, check out the TC Helicon line. They’ve recently offered up the smaller, stompbox-style Voicebox line, which nicely reduces their high-end effects to a smaller form factor. It’s a good time to be a vocalist shopping for gear.