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diff between logic and pro tool

bearbo

bearbo

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Jul 20, 2006
1,858
0
ok i'm a complete newbie in this area, and i probably have no idea what i'm talking about, but i have a question:

today i heard a presentation about some guy doing a project on Pro Tool. He said that Pro Tool is like the de facto app for audio, like final cut pro for video, illustrator for publishing, photoshop for image editing... now i always thought that Logic was the de facto... what's the difference between Pro Tool and Logic?
 
they're both very competent tools with a lot of overlapping functionality. but they offer different ways of working, and the typical response is that Logic excels at composing whereas PT excels at audio recording and editing.

Cubase, Digital Performer, Ableton Live, Nuendo, et. al. are all great programs which offer a ton of functionality and allow great amounts of productivity.

your best bet is to try them and see which one suits your workflow best and which seems the most (pardon the pun) logical to you. for me, it's PT.

imo, the presenter was being a bit presumptuous.
 
zimv20 said:
they're both very competent tools with a lot of overlapping functionality. but they offer different ways of working, and the typical response is that Logic excels at composing whereas PT excels at audio recording and editing.

Cubase, Digital Performer, Ableton Live, Nuendo, et. al. are all great programs which offer a ton of functionality and allow great amounts of productivity.

your best bet is to try them and see which one suits your workflow best and which seems the most (pardon the pun) logical to you. for me, it's PT.

imo, the presenter was being a bit presumptuous.
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thanks for the explanation !

i'm not in this industry at all and wasn't planning in getting involved, so i probably won't be trying these softwares anytime soon. i just heard that comment and thought it was interesting.

so pro tool and logic (and Cubase, Digital Performer, Ableton Life, Nuendo) are more like Aperture and Lightroom rather than Aperture and iPhoto, right?
 
bearbo said:
so pro tool and logic (and Cubase, Digital Performer, Ableton Life, Nuendo) are more like Aperture and Lightroom rather than Aperture and iPhoto, right?
Click to expand...

aside from me not being familiar w/ those products, i'll say that, for the 25 years i've been trying, drawing comparisons and analogies between the auditory and the visual falls apart very quickly.


all the audio programs are very powerful tools and, in the right hands, can yield pro results. plus, their functionality overlap is > 90%, imo.
 
I mainly agree with zimv20: I am a composer and prefer Logic (and Cubase equally). I actually go so far as to never use PT unless I have no other choice. Others feel the same way about other DAWs (digital audio workstations). My guess is the presenter was a "Pro Tools Fanboy", as in my experience, there is the PT camp and the non-PT camp.

The main difference is how things are worded and where they are in the program; it also seems that each program has "one thing" that it tends to do a bit better than the others, although that gap is pretty small with the current line of software.
 
okay, yeah, then that's exactly like the different between Aperture and Lightroom. it's just a matter of personal preferences then.
 
Yes I think both have demos you can download and try out. The logic demo is for logic express. Try searching for 'logic express trial' on google to find a link.

Pro Tools is perhaps best known for studio hard disk recording. Check out the sixth picture down:

http://www.soundtrack.net/features/article/?id=192

It is literally the computer version of a real life recording studio which records digitally to disk. Sliders, faders, pannings, etc. all work on the screen like with a real life studio.

And Logic has traditionally been more for music creation. Software instruments, samples, electronics, etc. Logic Pro comes with a pile of instruments, effects, reverbs, and so forth.

http://www.apple.com/logicpro/quicktours/

With Pro Tools these instruments and effects costs extra, and are add-ons which you could purchase if they apply to you. Some from digidesign, and tons of others from third party companies.

But as someone else mentioned there exists an overlap between both now. You can do similar things in both Logic and Pro Tools. For example this is a Logic recording-studio solution to compare against Digidesign's offerings:

http://www.apogeedigital.com/
 
zimv20 said:
they're both very competent tools with a lot of overlapping functionality. but they offer different ways of working, and the typical response is that Logic excels at composing whereas PT excels at audio recording and editing.

Cubase, Digital Performer, Ableton Live, Nuendo, et. al. are all great programs which offer a ton of functionality and allow great amounts of productivity.

your best bet is to try them and see which one suits your workflow best and which seems the most (pardon the pun) logical to you. for me, it's PT.

imo, the presenter was being a bit presumptuous.
Click to expand...

Would you or could you use both? Are they in the same format or in a compatible format to where you could use both PT and LP? Maybe that would be more work than it's worth. But could you use each program for what they excel at?
 
drumforfun19 said:
Would you or could you use both? Are they in the same format or in a compatible format to where you could use both PT and LP?
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the session files are not compatible; i'm not certain if there are tools to convert them.

but -- the audio files can be read by both programs, so you could certainly do some MIDI work in logic, render them as aiff's, and then load those aiff's into PT. there are people who work this way.

heck, i work that way w/ Reason and PT (though i keep meaning to use Rewire instead....).
 
At the risk of sounding like a "fanboy," I have to say that yes, ProTools is the de-facto standard of professional digital recording. I used to teach ProTools. It is awesome, but I agree with the criticism floating around (elsewhere) that ProTools' MIDI implementation kinda sucks.

ProTools really excels if you sink at least $10,000 into your setup. Heck, if you have a $50,000 studio, then you would be a fool to run anything else. Avid also offers its entry-level ~$1,000 stuff for us amateurs, and yes, OK, it's very nice, and I'd love to have it. But ProTools LE? ahh, no. At some point you have to admit that you are not a Pro, and just want to fly by the seat of your pants.

I am going to get Logic for my setup. For one thing, I can get that half-price academic discount, woohoo! But also, it really is about price. I am a hobbyist, and am trying to keep my whole sound setup (including computer) at under $3,000. $1,500 MacBook + $500 Logic + $850 Max/MSP/Jitter + DAC/ADC and MIDI hardware should hopefully do me well. And I may not bother with the $425 Jitter, anyway.

And yeah, doing this on a MacBook seems silly, but with that $17 DVI connector I can make use of my 24" widescreen monitor...
 
Bad Paper said:
At the risk of sounding like a "fanboy," I have to say that yes, ProTools is the de-facto standard of professional digital recording. I used to teach ProTools. It is awesome, but I agree with the criticism floating around (elsewhere) that ProTools' MIDI implementation kinda sucks.

ProTools really excels if you sink at least $10,000 into your setup. Heck, if you have a $50,000 studio, then you would be a fool to run anything else. Avid also offers its entry-level ~$1,000 stuff for us amateurs, and yes, OK, it's very nice, and I'd love to have it. But ProTools LE? ahh, no. At some point you have to admit that you are not a Pro, and just want to fly by the seat of your pants.

I am going to get Logic for my setup. For one thing, I can get that half-price academic discount, woohoo! But also, it really is about price. I am a hobbyist, and am trying to keep my whole sound setup (including computer) at under $3,000. $1,500 MacBook + $500 Logic + $850 Max/MSP/Jitter + DAC/ADC and MIDI hardware should hopefully do me well. And I may not bother with the $425 Jitter, anyway.

And yeah, doing this on a MacBook seems silly, but with that $17 DVI connector I can make use of my 24" widescreen monitor...
Click to expand...

I wouldn't be so quick to dismiss Pro Tools LE. It is pretty powerful (with some annoying limitations). If you plan on doing anything in a pro studio then it is nice to have Pro Tools on your home machine so you can open and edit your sessions.
 
Um, the Macbook can handle all of that, no problem. Mine does, day in and day out. Yeah it lacks screen space, but Spaces will help with that once Leopard goes live.

Bad Paper said:
Heck, if you have a $50,000 studio, then you would be a fool to run anything else.
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Ummm, because everyone that has that much money in a studio is using it to record? Regardless of money, PT is not the be-all, end-all DAW. I would rather use Logic Pro any day of the week, regardless of the task, but that certainly does not make me a fool.

Nothing is wrong with PT LE. The money spent on HD, for most intents and purposes, is better spent elsewhere (unless you are already in a pro studio).
 
Bad Paper said:
Avid also offers its entry-level ~$1,000 stuff for us amateurs, and yes, OK, it's very nice, and I'd love to have it. But ProTools LE? ahh, no. At some point you have to admit that you are not a Pro, and just want to fly by the seat of your pants.
Click to expand...

Yeouch, what a ridiculous comment. Who is this guy?
 
Bad Paper said:
ProTools really excels if you sink at least $10,000 into your setup. Heck, if you have a $50,000 studio, then you would be a fool to run anything else.
Click to expand...

I ABSOLUTELY agree with you! Just take a look at a small list of the so called "professionals" that use logic as their weapon of choice:

Producers for/ engineers for- Madonna, Eric Clapton, Herbie Hancock, Marilyn Manson, Sheryl Crow, Depeche Mode, Kid Rock, Whitney Houston, Blackstreet, Michael Jackson, Janet Jackson, Beastie Boys, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Melanie C, Genesis, Phil Collins, Sinead O'Connor, baby Face, Mary J. Blige, Toni Braxton, Mariah Carey, Da Brat, Jagged Edge, Destiny’s Child, Dru Hill, Nine inch Nails..ect.

When will these people stop being fools and learn to use some "professional" software and maybe (if they're lucky) these artist will actually get some airplay on the radio..:rolleyes:



Maybe you should be the one to educate them???
 
wow. Maybe that's the difference bearbo wanted to see. Maybe Logic isn't superior; it just makes you feel superior.

The move from LE to HD does not make one a pro, sorry, I wasn't clear. What I meant was that the extra cost of buying a Digidesign bundle (hardware + software) is not worth it for this particular hobbyist. Also, there is some weird dynamic in the pro-audio shops that sell this stuff. They push the DD stuff like crazy; maybe they get an extra kickback from it, I dunno.

{psst, sonarghost: the first top hit to never touch a tape (that is, was always on a hard drive in the studio) was Livin La Vida Loca....on a ProTools system. That kind of entrenchment doesn't just go away, no matter how many artists pick up the Logic banner (or switch to it, apparently, in the case of NiN). No company has the professional-studio market penetration that Digidesign enjoys. Avid/DD currently owns the music industry, too, though I am quite excited by the current Final Cut/Shake/Logic thing Apple is pushing. They will at least grab the smaller and possibly mid-sized studios.}
 
Bad Paper said:
What I meant was that the extra cost of buying a Digidesign bundle (hardware + software) is not worth it for this particular hobbyist.
Click to expand...

re-read it, and you'll see it wasn't at all clear. it read like "no one who uses LE is professional", which is demonstrably false.
 
Bad Paper said:
Maybe Logic isn't superior; it just makes you feel superior.
Click to expand...
Ya know, I don't think anyone here said that. In fact, take a look back and you will see that the consensus is that both Logic and PT are viable systems, each with their own advantages/disadvantages.

And in regards to your "market penetration" comments: if there is one thing Mac users can agree on, it is that the company with the largest market is not always the best choice.

Maybe making comments before reading the whole thread doesn't make you superior; it just makes you feel superior.
 
Well every internet forum has a troll- that's internet facts of life, or something. I think we finally have one here. Had a good long run though...
 
ill throw in my 2cents since i have and use both logic pro and PTLE

logic is superior for composition, got plugins, reason, abelton live, then logic is a walk in the park. PT has weak MIDI implementation (everything is there, but trying to use it is not to intuitive), and PT is a resource hog, a few extra plugins, a reason rewire track, and a couple of soft synths and you get the dreaded error -xxxx which can be a pain to trouble shoot. (PT users know that xxxx could stand for any combination of numbers)

soon as i want to record some vocals, i gotta close logic and use PT. i can get closer to the end result with recordings in PT and using their free plugin collection than i could with logic.

And finally from working at guitar center, and part time as an engineer in miami. it becomes obvious why PT is the 'industry standard' (notice i used quotes) its because of the software/hardware integration. all the way from the mbox up to the HD, icon and Venue products. no other supplier even comes close to what digi design offers.
Ask anyone what the standard audio interface is for logic, and they cant give you an answer. thats because there is no standard, logic even works with PTLE hardware. but when you're in the middle of a logic session and something stops working theres no where to turn, apple will say thats not our hardware we cant trouble shoot, and the hardware manufacturer will say thats not our software, we cant help you trouble shoot! so the client says, "call me back when you get your **** together and we can record this song" leaving me frustrated and unpaid for my time
 
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