Apple has unveiled a series of updates for Logic Pro on Mac and iPad including, most notably, a Mastering Assistant, which offers creators a “quick and easy way to add that final professional polish for a release-ready mix”.

As the tech giant explains, once a mix is complete, Mastering Assistant can instantly analyse the audio and make “expert refinements to the sound, adjusting elements such as the dynamics, frequency balance, timbre and loudness.

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Catering to different workflows, too, Mastering Assistant can also be used as a starting point, after which users can fine-tune each setting with intuitive controls.

Apple stops short of claiming Mastering Assistant could rival other mastering tools like LANDR, for example, but the addition of a mastering tool built right into Logic Pro is a pretty big deal for just about anyone making music using the DAW.

In other updates, Logic Pro Mac users now have access to Sample Alchemy and Beat Breaker, which arrived on Logic Pro for iPad earlier this year.

For the uninitiated, Sample Alchemy allows users to transform a single audio sample into a playable instrument using granular, additive and spectral synthesis. Additionally, producers can now create a wide range of unique sound beds, pads, effects and rhythms.

Beat Breaker, meanwhile, is a multi-effect plugin, which users can utilise to “radically reshape and reshuffle audio in real time, slicing audio, rearranging it, and adding scratching effects”.

“By altering the speed, direction, volume and number of repeats for each slice, musicians can effortlessly define complex patterns that can be changed on the fly,” Apple says.

Other changes to the Mac version of Logic Pro include Slip and Rotate tools, enabling users to move content within audio and software instrument regions without altering the region boundaries.

There are also two new sound packs: the Hybrid Textures sound pack, which includes a collection of 70 patches, as well as over 80 Apple Loops featuring Sample Alchemy, and the Vox Melodics sound pack, which contains a diverse collection of over 475 lyrical phrases, hooks, layered harmonies, FX, and one-shots.

Moving onto changes to the iPad version of Logic Pro, a new Quick Sampler plugin allows users to quickly create sampler instruments and drum kits by directly recording audio with the iPad’s built-in microphone or connected audio input, allowing for on-the-fly instrument creation.

Elsewhere, Split View and Stage Manager both bring greater flexibility to workflows. Split View allows users to open two different apps simultaneously – or two windows from the same app – by splitting the screen into resizable views. This will no doubt be handy to creators transferring Voice Memo ideas into Logic Pro, for example.

Stage Manager, on the other hand, allows users to resize windows, see multiple overlapping windows in a single view, tap to switch between apps, and more.

Notably, Logic Pro for iPad now features the popular in-app Lessons hub, which provides instructions to get the most out of Mastering Assistant, Sample Alchemy, Beat Breaker, beat making, automation, sound packs, and Play Surfaces.

And finally, to both iPad and Mac versions of Logic Pro comes 32-bit float recording, which helps artists minimise the digital clipping that often occurs when recording more dynamic instruments or performances.

Logic Pro 10.8 is available now for $199, or as a free update for existing Logic Pro users. Logic Pro for iPad 1.1 is also available as a free update for existing users, and can be purchased via the App Store for $4.99 per month or $49 per year.

For more info, head to Apple.

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