I’ve only had a few hours with Logic Pro 9 since I picked up my copy, but I’m already blown away.  There will be more posts to come, but the Flex tool just made me want to get up and dance.

Finally, audio is fun to edit in Logic!  Back when the Logic was in version 7, I used to bounce vocal tracks to Pro Tools for comping and editing, but I’m happy to say I won’t be doing that anymore.

The Flex Tool in Logic works a lot like Pro Tool’s Elastic Audio – It analyzes a region based on one of several algorithms – rhytmic, slicing, monophonic, polyphonic, tempophone and speed.  I’m still getting the hang of all these modes, but I can tell you that you activate the flex mode based on what kind of audio is on the track.  (You activate a flex mode using the track parameters menu at the top left of the arrange window).

Once the track is analyzed, you can switch to the flex tool (tap Esc then “R”) and start dragging around bits of audio or transients around much like working in Melodyne.  The tool does the work of time stretching, cutting, cross fading and consolidating in one action.

I’ve left some quick examples here with the accompanying pictures of the waveforms before and after.

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Sample 1 : A short drum track in straightforward 4/4.

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Sample 2: Same drum track with some ride cymbal taps nudged.

Time to complete the edit – about 10 seconds.

Next to come will be an example of time-correcting a bass line with the flex tool.