Beginner's Question: Logic Express vs. GarageBand

[Bakkalohriat]

Hi everybody, I'm a novice here and I have a simple question for you more seasoned audio professionals.

My backstory is pretty straightforward; I started playing with GarageBand and thought it was great. Because Logic Studio 8 is available to me for only $150, I purchased it and used it for a little while before I realized that it was way too much for a beginner. I've just sold it on eBay, and am now trying to decide what to do now.

I see my choices as follows: I can invest in Logic Express 8, for the more advanced interface and features, or I can spend the money on a couple of Jam Packs to keep the simplicity of GarageBand with more composition options. So, the question is if you were in my shoes, what would you do?

Thanks!

 

[InLikeALion]

Express is more or less exactly the same interface as Pro, just with some arbitrary limitations (at least this is my understanding). If you have Studio available to you at $150 then I would say buy it again - because it comes with ALL the jam-packs. Then use that Jam-Pack library with Garageband until you want to make the move to Logic 8.

Express isn't more simple than Pro as far as the learning curve goes. However, the Getting Started pdf is a good place to start. Also, I would highly recommend macprovideo.com's Logic 101 video tutorial. You can download it for about $45 - even less if you find a coupon online. You can work through it in a couple of days and be up and running from there.

If you can get it at that low price - the decision is obvious. If not, I would say, if you're serious enough about recording, go ahead and get Express. It is a lot more powerful than Garageband, and to upgrade from there to Studio will actually cost you $1 less than buying Studio at its regular $499 price.

In the meantime, I wouldn't worry about missing out on more loops. You probably have an adequate about that came with GB, and going without more until you can get Studio might just teach you to be more creative with what you have.

 

[vjjohnson3]

Is Garage Band all I need?

I am fairly new to the computer recording thing as well.
I have done one lengthy project on garage band and I found the software truly amazing.
I am using all real instruments (doing all the tracks live) and I find the software really easy to work with (I would rather play music than engineer).
My project currently has 31 tracks and it has trouble playing all the tracks unless I lock the tracks or reduce effects or whatever.

My question is this:
If I get different software am I still going to have these memory/cpu issues? Or does it work differently with different software.
I am looking to create projects with about 50 tracks and with multiple effects with minimal amount of editing. Basically just play and sing live and then mix it down.
So far I find the Garage Band software excellent and able to handle it, except for what I mentioned above.

Also my first project was done with the built in isight mic and it still sounded pretty good.
I am probably getting Apogee audio interface soon.

thanks for reading and replying,
Vincent
Vincent

 

[InLikeALion]

vjjohnson3

Sorry I haven't checked back in a while. What machine do you have? Knowing your hardware would help know where the source of your playback problem lies. Also, which version of GB do you have (which iLife year)?

I think that Logic would still be limited in playback by your processor/ram just like GB. It could be slightly more optimized than GB.

 

[AviationFan]

If I get different software am I still going to have these memory/cpu issues? Or does it work differently with different software.

Hi Vincent,

One way in which Logic Pro can help you here is with the "Freeze Tracks" function. Here's a quote from the manual (you can download the whole manual on Apple's website in the support section):

Freezing Tracks
The Freeze function saves almost 100% of the CPU power required for software instrument and effect plug-in calculations. You can individually freeze audio or software instrument tracks.

About the Freeze Function
Internally, Freeze performs individual offline bounce processes for each frozen track. All plug-ins of a track (including software instrument plug-ins, if applicable, along with all related automation data) are rendered into a freeze file.

As long as a track is frozen—following the freeze process—the freeze file will play back in place of the original track (and its CPU-hungry plug-ins). The original track and plugins are temporarily deactivated, and use no CPU resources.

I do not know if GarageBand has a similar feature, but this would be the way to save CPU time using Logic.

- Martin

 

[InLikeALion]

Martin,

This is the same as the "lock tracks" feature of Garage Band. Vincint has said that he is wondering if Logic will work better without locking tracks. But thanks for pointing out that he will at least have the same functionality in Logic as he has now with GB.

Do you know any about the different programs' performance? I'm still green in Logic Express, so I don't know.