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Re: OT (somewhat) What DAW for the Mac do you recommend?



On 26 jul 2006, at 19.40, mark sottilaro wrote:

> Anyway, I'm set on a dual 2.3 gighz
> G5 machine.

I still have my old "early adopter's" 2x2 G5. It's on its second  
logic board now but an excellent studio machine!

> So in the Mac world what's the shiz-nit?  I want
> stable decent sequencing/audio recording, some good
> effects... maybe some groove quantize features and the
> ability to run my vsts/au from inside it.  Doesn't
> seem like a lot to ask... oh yeah it also has to play
> nice with a MOTU 828 and a MOTU Microexpress as I
> don't feel they need upgrading.

I guess Logic is the one to answer up for those six demands. But if  
you want to run plug-ins as VST you should get the FXpansion VST to  
AU Adapter. I'm not totally sure if the MOTU's rock, but you can  
check it out quickly at http://community.sonikmatter.com/.

If you know how to make recordings sound good in a traditional studio  
you should be able to get the same great result with Logic "in-the- 
box". All necessary tools come bundled as plug-ins being part of the  
applications. You don't need to put out any money for extra plug-ins.  
Even the soft-synths built into Logic are among the best on the  
market. Given you buy the Pro version, that is.

Before I started producing with Logic (1994) I used Cubase/ATARI  
(plus ADAT, 24 track analog tape machines and huge mixing consoles  
and super expensive effect racks rented in for mixdown). I switched  
to Logic because of the better MIDI timing; I had been gong to  
electronic dance music producers/engineers to remix my stuff and was  
able to hear with my own ears how much better simple MIDI  
arrangements were grooving in Logic compared to Cubase. This was mid  
nineties and I took that as proof that the two guys that started this  
new player "Emagic" had done their homework well regarding computer  
code for the extremely timing critical task of music production. It  
now seems as Apple was serious with the take-over.

Some producers like to work in Protools because it's a little faster  
for plain audio mixing. The general saying is that "Protools is a  
great recording and mixing tool but not as sharp composing tool  
wether Logic is a great composing tool but not as fast recording and  
mixing tool".

I also have a lot of experience with Ableton Live, but I have never  
been able to get as good sound out of it as I get from Logic. If I  
produce music in Live I always mix it in Logic to take advance of the  
superior effect plug-ins.

When it comes to quantize features Logic is miles ahead. Live doesn't  
have any groove quantize template function at all, Cubase can only  
pick it up from audio loops while Logic will let you create a groove  
quantize templet on the spot, either from an audio loop or from a  
MIDI sequence. That saves a lot of time and makes you "goove timing"  
compatible with a lot of other cool tools like pHATmatic Pro, RMX.

One last word on software looping in Logic. I tried it, both with the  
built-in Tape Delay plug-in (has now a Freeze button) and with  
Augustus Loop but for some reason Logic always crashes after twenty  
minutes. This I tried in both Logic Pro and Logic Express. I guess  
its audio machine wasn't designed for that type of never-ending  
calculations. After all Logic was designed to be music production  
studio environment, not a real-time music performance tool.

Greetings from Sweden

Per Boysen
www.boysen.se (Swedish)
www.looproom.com (international)
http://tinyurl.com/fauvm (podcast)
http://www.myspace.com/looproom