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Protools vs Logic on a Macbook Pro

A

alva1414

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 3, 2010
1
0
Hey everyone new here. I am currently going to school for sound design and frequently use protools.One thing I am a little fuzzy with is how a computer I would like to buy would stands the the task of recording good quality instrument tracks while also running midi instments.

I am looking into getting a stock 2.4GHz macbook pro with 4 gb of memory and a 250g hardd drive. I will be recording live drum tracks through a not yet decided Firewire interface( motu, presonus or digi). I need to beable to record 8 simultaneou tracks that sound good( drum tracks). I am going to run sessions off a portable device.

My first option is getting logic studio and running that through a presonus or motu interface. Second option is getting the most recent digi 003+ rack setup with protools LE.

What im wondering is how each these programs would handle recording recording,mixing and a fair use of midi on a session with these components? I want my computer to run smoothly with this kind of work being done on it.
 
i use logic pro with a presonus firestudio mobile and it was simple to install just make sure you get a firewire 600-800 cable.

it works great when i record 2 tracks simultaneously.

you may wanna look into an 8 gig of ram upgrade though for better performance for more tracks
 
I have an Mbox 2 with ProTools. I wanted to avoid having to use an external, 7200 RPM firewire drive, which is the minimum expectations for ProTools, as you cannot record to the boot drive. I have been playing around with GarageBand as I have the computer you have listed and have been toying with purchasing Logic Express.

With GarageBand I have had a warning pop up saying the hard drive is too slow. I plan on getting a Scorpio Black from Western Digital soon. The positive I have experienced so far with GarageBand over ProTools is the latency issue. With ProTools it always seemed to be a hair off which was quite confusing when trying to overdub guitar leads. Granted GarageBand is not Logic, but it can only get better right? The Mbox is only a USB interface so I already can assume this is a big negative in terms of performance.

I have started looking at the Apogee interfaces as it seems they are recommended when it comes to Logic. I would prefer to have some sort of firewire interface. I have heard good things about the PreSonus, but I have yet to research whether they play well with Logic. I cannot see why they would not. Not sure if this helps you on your decision.
 
alva1414 said:
Hey everyone new here. I am currently going to school for sound design and frequently use protools.One thing I am a little fuzzy with is how a computer I would like to buy would stands the the task of recording good quality instrument tracks while also running midi instments.

I am looking into getting a stock 2.4GHz macbook pro with 4 gb of memory and a 250g hardd drive. I will be recording live drum tracks through a not yet decided Firewire interface( motu, presonus or digi). I need to beable to record 8 simultaneou tracks that sound good( drum tracks). I am going to run sessions off a portable device.

My first option is getting logic studio and running that through a presonus or motu interface. Second option is getting the most recent digi 003+ rack setup with protools LE.

What im wondering is how each these programs would handle recording recording,mixing and a fair use of midi on a session with these components? I want my computer to run smoothly with this kind of work being done on it.
Click to expand...

Logic would handle a lot. It depends how many plugins you use and the nature of the instruments. Like Omnisphere is going to take a lot more juice than Logic's EXS24 sampler.

Both PT and Logic would do very well. With Logic you are not tied into audio hardware or limited to number of tracks and the built-in sounds and instruments and effects are better than PT LE.

For composition and sound design I would chose Logic.

deej

note - if you go for Logic don't get a Digi interface. Drivers are badly written and performance wont be optimum for Logic. Presonus, Motu, RME and Apogee are good choices.
 
I know I could google this but I want your input...what is the highlights or lowlights of the Apogee interface. Visibly they seem simple, but from what I have seen they are geared towards Logic. What can you suggest?
 
alva1414 said:
Hey everyone new here. I am currently going to school for sound design and frequently use protools.One thing I am a little fuzzy with is how a computer I would like to buy would stands the the task of recording good quality instrument tracks while also running midi instments.

I am looking into getting a stock 2.4GHz macbook pro with 4 gb of memory and a 250g hardd drive. I will be recording live drum tracks through a not yet decided Firewire interface( motu, presonus or digi). I need to beable to record 8 simultaneou tracks that sound good( drum tracks). I am going to run sessions off a portable device.

My first option is getting logic studio and running that through a presonus or motu interface. Second option is getting the most recent digi 003+ rack setup with protools LE.

What im wondering is how each these programs would handle recording recording,mixing and a fair use of midi on a session with these components? I want my computer to run smoothly with this kind of work being done on it.
Click to expand...

Logic will do what you want. I think you would do fine with Logic Express for just recording and MIDI. You may not need "studio". If you want to upgrade later Apple in effect credits you with the price of Express so you loose nothing be starting out with Express for $199.

I'd say buy PT if you already know the software. But if you are starting from scratch get Logic Express and some interface like the FireStudio. Logic is more "Mac-like" and you can use it with all kinds of third party audio interfaces and control surfaces
 
I record from my mBox2 into my 2008 MBP's system drive with PT 7.4 all the time with no problem.

But I am looking for something more to my liking for when I update to Snow Leo. Does Logic (express) work OK with an mBox?
 
ChrisA said:
Does MBox have a COre Audio driver? If so them it will work. If you want to test try using Garage Band. Under the hood GB and logic use the same audio engine
Click to expand...

I did try that and it seems OK, so maybe I'll give LE a try. I asked because I had trouble with the mbox causing kernel panics when editing in FCE under 10.5.8 on a different machine that had the full PT 7.x installed.
 
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