Then why are my songs pulling up in the old format and why is it still in the manual?
First of all, don't use what's in the manual as proof or disproof that an element exists in Logic 9. Clearly, the Logic 9 manual is an update of the Logic 8 manual, and not everything has been updated yet. For example, some screenshots still show the "Safety I/O Buffer" checkbox in the Preferences > Audio > Driver dialog, which was removed from Logic 9. That is one of the advantages of the searchable HTML manual-they can update these pages and screenshots as time goes on, and we all have a completely up-to-date manual without having to download anything new.
That said, the "Val as" parameter, as Peter wrote and you've noticed, has been removed from Logic 9. Theoretically, that is because MIDI channel strips now all have numbers, and audio channel strips (including SI strips) all have dB values.
That it's still in the manual is a bug in the documentation, and one they should fix ASAP to avoid confusion.
However, if you are pulling up old songs in which the audio channels are in NUM mode, that is *also* a bug. They should all be in dB.
Time to let Apple know via the Feedback page.
Orren