How much more difficult is Logic Express to use than Garageband

[TheRockinDonkey]

I've been using a mac now for almost a year. At first I was pretty impressed with it, but over the course of the past year, I've found that Macs are by far superior to PCs, even if there are some interface things that seem more intuitive to me on a PC.

But what really pushed me over the edge was when I started playing guitar again and hooked up my new Digitech RP500 to my Mac to use in Garageband as a MIDI controller. It just worked. No drivers to install. Talk about "plug and play". I plugged it into the USB jack and started playing.

So that brings me to my question. I've been using Garageband for about a month and have found it quite easy to use. I'm considering upgrading to Logic Express, but wanted to know what the level of difficulty in using it is compared to something like, say, Cubase LE. My RP500 came with a free copy of Cubase LE, but it was just too cumbersome to use.

Am I looking at a similar experience in Logic? I realize that I will be dealing with a much more sophisticated product than Garageband, so there will be an inherent increase in the difficulty in learning to use the product.

Thanks in advance to anyone who can shed any light on whether I should go for the upgrade.

 

[Fishrrman]

"My RP500 came with a free copy of Cubase LE, but it was just too cumbersome to use.
Am I looking at a similar experience in Logic? "

In my opinion (and it's ONLY "my opinion"), you're looking at a much more difficult experience with Logic than with Cubase!

I started out with GarageBand, and from there experimented with Logic Express, Traktion (Mackie product), and the earlier and most-recent versions of Cubase LE (and also a little bit with Ableton - didn't like that at all).

In my experience, of all those mentioned, Cubase LE4 affords the outstanding combination of ease-of-use, power, and functionality.

In addition to that, I have not seen ANY digital audio app -- including Apple's -- that has the power and ease of editing audio to match that of Cubase. By that, I mean copying clips of audio, moving it around, pasting it over existing audio, changing volume up or down, normalizing, etc. Nothing beats Cubase for this -- easiest editing I've ever seen.

Yes, there will be a "learning curve" with any DAW app as you "move up" in capabilities from GarageBand. This is to be expected.

The best way to handle that is to go to amazon.com (or a similar site), do a search on Cubase (or Cubase LE), and locate some "hard copy" manuals. Then, see if they're available through amazon's "buy used..." option. You can often pick up a book for 30% of its original price, or even less.

I'd suggest you give Cubase LE another try. If you don't have the LE4 version, use the older one for the time being. There is also a version of Cubase called "Cubase Essentials" which is a "step up" between the LE4 version and the "full version" of Cubase (which is a $500 product). Cubase Essentials costs around $99 (maybe less if you can find a copy on ebay), and has a _few_ more features than does the LE4 version, but they are very similar. If you don't have LE4, the "Essentials" version is worth the price you pay. The latest version even has an "autotune" vocal plugin.

Be aware that the "LE" versions of Cubase use an "online" version of copy-protection -- you register via software, and at bootup, your registration is validated online as the program starts. With the "Essentials" (and full) versions, you use a USB "dongle" for registration/verification/copy protection.

Important: if by chance you have LE4, be aware that there was a bug in the _earlier versions_ of LE4 that crashed the app when trying to process audio (such as changing gain). There is an updated version available through Steinberg's website that cures this.

I HIGHLY recommend Cubase LE as an app to "move up to" when you find that GarageBand is cramping your creative needs!