Oooo, wow-- pretty slow news day, wasn't it? We kept waiting for something exciting to happen, but by around 10 PM Eastern we'd started to despair; historically speaking, most arrests of high-tech CEOs for drunkenly inciting a food riot in the aisles of a Circle K happen before 6 PM local time, so apparently Steve wasn't going to help us make with the drama. But hey, there's a lot of music software coming out for the Mac! That's dramatic. Right? Right?

Well, our Moms say it's dramatic. So there.

So here's the thing: according to a press release, Apple has just taken the wraps off of Logic Pro 6, the latest edition of its professional audio production software. (At least, it's Apple's now-- you may recall that the company got it by snapping up eMagic last year during one of Steve's shopping binges.) Since we aren't "in the biz," we wouldn't know good pro audio editing software if it crept up and bit us playfully on the kiester, but people tell us that Logic is the good stuff, and Logic Pro 6 apparently "consolidates 12 pre-existing, groundbreaking products into one comprehensive package for just $999." So if you'd been looking to break a whole lotta ground but you figured you'd need about a dozen tools to do it and you have to keep the price under a grand, hey, this sounds like just the thing you need.

But say you're not a music pro yet, but you're enrolled in music school because it seemed like a fun alternative to studying at home for your "official education-style certificate" in gun repair. Students are broke-- and if the ones we know are representative of the subspecies, music students are especially broke, presumably because you get the intersection of the whole "penniless student" and "starving artist" thing. No way no how can the average music student afford $999 for Logic Pro 6, right?

And that's why Apple has also introduced Logic Express 6. Yes, in the grand tradition of Final Cut Express comes its audio analogue, a cut-down version of Logic Pro priced affordably at just $299. Sure, you can only work with 48 tracks instead of the Pro version's 128, but c'mon, you're a student-- like you're really going to use more than, what... three? Four? Seven, if you're working on your doctorate piece? And you're getting 37.5% of the track capacity for just 30% of the price! Such a deal! (Of course, you also get fewer input channels and audio effects, so you should probably check out Apple's comparison chart before you shell out the cash. Neither version will ship until March, so you've got time to figure it out.)

But wait, there's more! Apple also "previewed" the next generation of Logic to attendees at NAMM (wow, even the name is musical, isn't it? "NAMMMMMMM...") and dropped the price of Soundtrack by a hundred clams while posting a 1.2 update. And on the third-party tip, MacRumors notes-- ha ha, "notes," get it?-- that the long-awaited Mac OS X version of the music notation software Finale 2004 will start shipping tomorrow, January 16th. And what about the rest of us no-talent shlubs who aren't music pros or even studying to be music pros? No worries, we're covered too; don't forget, the 16th is also the official release date for iLife '04, so it's time for us to get our GarageBand mojo workin' now.

See? Mac music software for everyone! Tell us that's not just soaked in drama. Go on, tell us.

Well, okay. Maybe Steve will hurl a Twinkie at the guy behind the counter tomorrow. Hope springs eternal.