Upgrading - Express to Pro -> Is it worth it?

[logicnub]

HI there,

 

Admittedly my logic skills are basic at best, but, as I am looking to upgrade my studio, I was wondering whether to drop Express, and use Pro.

 

I am a funk/jazz producer, and mainly record live instruments in Express, it has worked fine for me so far, it has infinite tracks, which is great, though I feel some of the plugins are shoddy at best.

 

That said, as all I do is record tracks in, mix them, maybe play around with the automation data a bit, master, and voila. It's a fairly simple concept, and I like the organic feel it gives my music.

 

Now, as I am looking to upgrade my studio and try and take my music up a notch, I wondered what advantages Pro has over Express.

 

Is spacedesigner, sculpture, and the other plugins worth it? Half of the options it gives you confuse me to say the least!

 

I was thinking of getting Pro and maybe some cheaper plugins, or I could stay with Express, and purchase higher quality plugins...

 

Is pro better for mastering and mixing? All I am trying to say, is, is it worth the money?

 

Can someone help me, I don't know what to do.

 

Apologies if this post is a bit vague!

 

Thanks

[Threlly]

Well I did, never looked back.

The extra plugins are excellent, plus the ability to use nodes means you can expand your abilities with having to buy expensive proprietary hardware like ProTools.

[Jope]

Well I did, never looked back.

 

Same thing here. As your skills will (most likely) develop, you should not be limited by your tools.

[AllyMusicGirl]

The only setback I have encountered in Express is the quantizing function - it seems a little weak. Maybe I'm just using it wrong? Limited functionality?

 

 

Otherwise I haven't had any issues, honestly I've found the less I monkey with the built it plug-in's the better - the amp modeling from the UX2 and drum modeling from BFD sound great by themselves. I just track and mix - oh and I always use Camel Crusher on my main mix for juice.

 

I'm really getting great tracks that sound good across a spectrum of output devices i.e., car stereo, boombox, MP3 player etc.

[Jope]

...honestly I've found the less I monkey with the built it plug-in's the better - the amp modeling from the UX2 and drum modeling from BFD sound great by themselves.

 

Ah, that's an important point... I don't use any presets, instead I spend hours tweaking here and trimming there, and a wide range of good virtual synthesizers is essential here.

 

I'm really getting great tracks that sound good across a spectrum of output devices i.e., car stereo, boombox, MP3 player etc.

 

Kudos! Once I saw a man playing xylophone on a battery of bottles, and the music was really amazing. He had an Instrument made of garbage and performed magic on it.

 

BTW I think the notation capabilities and the environment are restricted in Express.

[AllyMusicGirl]

BTW I think the notation capabilities and the environment are restricted in Express

 

I think I'm going to move up to Logic Pro when the new version comes out. I'm starting to realize there are limitations.

 

Thanks for the kudos Jope - I could not have done it with out the help of this forum!

 

[Fred B]

The only setback I have encountered in Express is the quantizing function - it seems a little weak. Maybe I'm just using it wrong? Limited functionality?

I don't think the quantizing function is limited in Express.

You have two possibilities just like in Pro.

 

1) in the matrix window click-hold the 'Q' button (at bottom left).

2) in the arrange window click the 'Quantize' parameter (at top left).

[Ashermusic]

The only setback I have encountered in Express is the quantizing function - it seems a little weak. Maybe I'm just using it wrong? Limited functionality?

I don't think the quantizing function is limited in Express.

You have two possibilities just like in Pro.

 

1) in the matrix window click-hold the 'Q' button (at bottom left).

2) in the arrange window click the 'Quantize' parameter (at top left).

 

Well Ally, in Pro there are a LOT more quanitizing options than that. Besides the Region Parameter box there is an Extended Region Parameter box that allows you to include/exclude notes from the grid, move notes by percentage instead of just 100 percent, allow for flamming on chords, and on and on.

 

All these choices lead to far more musical sounding results than hard quantizing.

 

For this reason alone (and there are other good ones) one should upgrade to Pro when they can.

Edited June 18, 2007 by Ashermusic

[xs4is]

I am a funk/jazz producer, and mainly record live instruments in Express, it has worked fine for me so far, it has infinite tracks, which is great, though I feel some of the plugins are shoddy at best.

 

That said, as all I do is record tracks in, mix them, maybe play around with the automation data a bit, master, and voila. It's a fairly simple concept, and I like the organic feel it gives my music.{/quote}

 

Since you are only doing recording, and apparently aren't using MIDI at all, the only things that you are going to benefit from in pro are Space designer, Multi-Comp, Ad Limiter, and Waveburner. I'm probably missing a thing or two, but if you don't use MIDI, most of Logic Pro won't be that beneficial.

 

{quote}Is spacedesigner, sculpture, and the other plugins worth it? Half of the options it gives you confuse me to say the least!

 

I'm not saying "don't buy Pro," in fact, I'm all for it. Logic Pro has changed the way I make music. Once you get into the MIDI side of music, things really open up for you. Since you do funk and Jazz, some of the virtual Instruments Logic comes with are perfect for those genres. Don't forget that synths like Sculpture and Ultrabeat can really bring a progressive, cutting edge feel to your music too.

 

Hope that helps, and welcome to the forum.

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