Logic vs Ableton Live

[funken]

Does anyone use both? Or has anyone changed from Live to Logic or vice versa? Logic is a DAW I've never tried and I'm just interested in knowing a bit more about it.

[triplets]

Ableton is mostly used with samples

Logic has great recording and mixing tools, plus the sample stuff.

I think for 199 dollars at the App store, it's worth a try for a full-blown music program with 30 gigs worth of sounds.

[bishopdante]

In all honesty, I really wish that apple had put more resources into Logic, it was the most killer music app out in 1999.

 

These days, they seem to be dumbing it down a bit. There's probably something hidden in the basement that runs on a touchscreen that's amazing built out of Logic code. TBH the whole refactoring and redesigning issue moving from OS9 to OSX warrants a substantial overhaul, and what you can do with a computer now is very different to what you could do then. Logic should look more different to Emagic's original offering than it does, and that's where software like Ableton Live is admirable.

 

It's notable that a lot of the good music software companies are German. Steinberg, Celemony, Ableton... and Emagic. Only market-leading music software company I can think of that are USA based is Digidesign/Avid (apart from Apple Inc). This is fairly unusual, since most of the computer industry all you'll see is USA companies, music software is unusually German, and that's got a lot of history. JS Bach, Viennese school etc. Serious music culture.

 

Seems that when they decamped Emagic to California, and brain-drained the dev team to do all sorts of other stuff, the really cutting edge attitude was more than a little blunted, sadly that's what happens when you move a company from one continent to another, and slot it into a *huge* company. Of course, we got core audio, loads of stuff is now built into OSX that we have emagic to thank for, and it's great, but it's not quite the same as it was. I think Emagic got a bit brain-drained. They didn't used to make Garage Band, that's for sure. I have no idea who actually writes Logic Pro these days, or where their office is, but I'm guessing it's Infinite Loop. Which isn't so hot for music. Silicon Valley is great for computers and software, but Berlin has a serious music scene.

 

Quite a few people, especially dance music producers have moved over to Ableton Live. The audio people are mostly on ProTools, I remember the days when the studios here in London mostly ran their TDM systems with Emagic Logic 3 or 4.

[jonnik]

I have also asked myself the same question for a long time, and I think Ableton is especially useful for EDM, while Logic is more for kinda rock songs (my personal feeling). I actually want to work in both DAWs but have not enough time to learn Ableton as it has a quite different interface from Logic.

Bishopdante mentioned Pro Tools, in what way does it stand apart from Logic?

[bishopdante]

Well, ProTools is really quite a different kettle of fish, and a lot of that is to do with the DSP and fixed-point summing systems they use on the hardware. Probably a different thread, that one. In terms of how the company functions, and its business policies, Digidesign/Avid have taken a very different approach to the german companies, they're very fond of vendor lock-in. Files of proprietary formats (SD2 etc), only runs on certain certified hardware, it'll pooh-pooh your *hard disk?* (very boring) etc etc. And in that respect, I definitely remember the days when a TDM rig wouldn't let you run interleaved AIFs, even using Logic as your platform, and also the horrible BANG... ccrrrunch sound that happened if you put on a TDM insert without stopping or pausing when using Logic as the front end. So loud it could kill your monitors, came through all 24 channels.

[Rev. Juda Sleaze]

I don't think there is a "vs".

 

If you want a DAW for live EDM, the clue is in the name.

 

Otherwise, it's a matter of preference, many successful people use either, or both.

[funken]

Cheers for the replies, some interesting reading. I actually run an Ableton blog, so it's nice to get out and about occasionally and see what other people think and so on. I've used a few DAWs but only seen Logic in videos. I do actually know a studio which uses Live for recording bands, so it can be done, but I realise Live is more for EDM.

[I_Like_Organs]

On Logic now and I make EDM. Logic seems to be so underrated by so many, EDM can be incredible on Logic (Swedish House Mafia, Ryan Enzed, Rundfunk/Televisor) yet seems to be seen as a specifically band orientated thing, which I never really understood. Just like FL Studio is always stereotyped into being dance music exclusive, which it isn't.

 

To be honest I wish Logic had a community like ImageLine has with their clients, the community is tight knit, there is a rapport between developers and users, project file exchange is frequent and people learn much quicker when they can see how more experienced users use it. Plus IL offer a lot of new upgrades as time goes on, which Logic doesn't (it tends to have big updates very seldom!)

 

Logic in my opinion has the best built in plugins of any DAW standard, incredible EQs and Compressors, and the ES2 is incredible for making pop/house. Absolutely stunning.

 

Having said that, moving to Ableton for live playing, just because of the Launchpad. No offence Logic.

[funken]

Yes, Live plus a launchpad is a great combination for playing live.

 

Currently I have an APC40 on loan from Akai and I'm looking at a template/script combination from Gangsterish, which turns the APC40 into a dedicated DJ setup, with 4 tracks on Deck A, 4 on Deck B, and a load of dedicated effects racks.

 

http://gangsterish.com/apc40/

http://www.macableton.com/hardware-midi-controllers/akai-apc40.html

 

Ableton has a community, but the only real interaction is on the Live 9 beta forum. The official forum rarely sees any official presence, which is a great shame.

 

I do occasionally wonder if Session View can be as much a hindrance as a help for production, but maybe it's just a phase I'm going through. Basically I got a Launchpad, started working in Session View more, and I've not finished a tune since! I know Tom Hades uses Live but he mainly works in Arrange. I guess the trick is to use both and commit to finishing a tune in a reasonable time scale.

 

If you are in Logic, how do you audition a loop over the rest of the track?