I'm a bit troubled by the latest release of Final Cut Pro X. No Soundtrack Pro and other "Studio elements, stripped down to be more of a consumer-level product, etc. Which brings me to my scary question: does the same fate await Logic Pro Studio? Are there any whisperings of what the next Logic upgrade will be? I've kind of "bet the farm" on Logic being around and remaining a pro application. I really, really don't want to go back to Pro Tools. Has anyone heard anything at all?

If Logic X ends up being dumbed down like FCPX, why not simply continue to use your existing version of Logic and not upgrade at all? Personally I'm not concerned about what Apple does with Logic. They can dumb it down or even stop developing it altogether and it wouldn't affect me. Even if Logic X ends up having some amazing new feature which I'd like to use for music production, but the program is otherwise dumbed-down, I wouldn't switch to it as my main DAW because that would like going one step forward and 150,000 steps backward. Anyway, that's my perspective. In all honesty I wouldn't worry about it. Logic X will be what it will be, and no one will be forcing your hand to buy it.

Wise words. Thanks for bringing me back down to earth. M

I disagree with Ski. It's be more like going 12,457 steps forward and 13,892 steps backwards... (approximately of course!) ... But seriously, let's wait and see. Sure, FCP X doesn't (in it's current early version 1.0 state) cater for the needs of the relatively small percentage of Pro users... but give it time... and check out the Michael Wohl interview on The Hub and his new tutorials to see what it can do... :-)

BTW, I completely understand what you're saying and can empathise with it very much!! So, I didn't want my reply to come across as a flippant 'put me down'... Anyone that knows anything can't say unless they wish to break their NDA with Apple - and risk a lot! One question, if (and this is a massive "IF") Logic was stripped of many of its pro features and made into a GB Pro and you couldn't run Logic 9 on OS X Lion... what would you choose to do? (You know that pained me even asking that question out loud!) :)

I honestly don't know. Perhaps just get keep on going on Logic 9 and the current system as long as I can. Set up a computer dedicated to recording and never update it. I really don't want to speculate too much. I hope I never have to decide.

Pure speculation (stating that up front): I can imagine that there may/might/possibly come a point where certain plugins are only "Logic X" compatible, or only Snow Leopard/Logic X compatible. And if it turns out that Logic X ain't all it's cracked up to be then anyone running a (ahem) "legacy" system won't be able to use it. Now... will that be the end of the world? Unlikely... For perspective, there are lots of music professionals who do not subscribe to the idea of updating for the sake of it. There are plenty of older systems in use, and no one's the worse for wear or producing "worse" music than people running the latest/greatest. Certainly, updating is sometimes highly beneficial. Were it not for the update from Logic 8 to Logic 9, Logic users wouldn't have a Flex feature, amongst other things. But the idea of updating or upgrading just because Apple comes out with something new makes no sense to me. Every time you change a stable system, whether it's to update/upgrade the OS or an application, you run the risk of destabilizing something. Look at Logic 9.1.4... new bugs have been introduced that weren't present in 9.1.3. So every update or upgrade carries with it a risk, whether it's bugs, breakage of functions that used to work fine, or a change in workflow. And who wants to retool constantly? In the case of a feared Logic X ~ FCPX (the "~" meaning "similar to") the problems you'll bring upon yourself will be far worse than software breakage. But again, this is all total speculation. No one knows what the future's going to bring. When Logic X shows up it will be what it will be. It then becomes your choice to update or not. Think of it this way. Today, Apple releases Logic X. Now what? Does your ability to make music suddenly stop or change? No. You're simply presented with a new option, and as a free-thinking human being you can take it or leave it. This editorial and unabashed opinion (with a touch of Zen) has been brought to you by Ski, purveyor of fine musicks on a variety of cutting edge as well as legacy computer systems since 1987.