There are a lot of opinions on the web about which DAW is the best. I apparently seem to have THE stereotypical YouTuber home studio these days – a 2016 MacBook Pro, Logic Pro X, and Ableton Live. Actually, I’m running Ableton Live 10 Intro, because I don’t need the full version yet. Eventually I’ll probably upgrade, but Intro is perfect for my needs right now (and budget.) So is Logic – at $199, it’s the smartest DAW purchase on the Mac. Pro Tools might be what the big studios use, but out of the box it’s designed for recording 32 tracks with mics in a pro studio. To match Logic or Live, you’d need to spend a ton of cash on instruments and drums and plugins.
But let’s get down to it.
Ableton Live Intro
Intro is a track and instrument limited version of Live. You’re limited to 16 tracks, which can be audio or midi. You’re limited to 8 “scenes,” which won’t make sense to you unless you understand the unique way that Live works. And it comes with only 4 software instruments. If you want to make loop-based electronic music, Live seems to be the standard for good reason – it’s got the best tools for it. You could DJ with Live, you can do live electronic music concerts, blah blah blah. But if you want to dive deep into EDM, you’ll want the full version of Live, not Intro.
The Good
However, if you’re me, Live Intro is the steal of the century. I do solo gigs with backing tracks. I do my own original music, or covers, or both. I wanted something that could play back stereo backing tracks while also sending MIDI patch changes to my HX Stomp and also send patch changes to my keyboard and ALSO send commands to my DMXIS box, which controls my DMX lights. And I wanted something that could do all of that without choking or killing my CPU. Quite simply, Live (or in my case Live Intro) was the best and only option. Technically I could use the instruments built into it, but I have MainStage 3, and that’s what I use for all of my keyboard patches.
If I ever decide to add band members, I could upgrade to the full version of Live, and instead of stereo backing tracks I’d use multitrack backing tracks. Then we’d all play to a click and I’d mute the tracks for whatever live musicians I have with me. It’s scalable. If I had enough musicians, I wouldn’t need the backing tracks at all, but we would still play to a click so that we had programmed lights and guitar and keyboard patch changes. Very powerful.
The Bad
Live was designed for, well, live performance. To record a traditional album on it (meaning not EDM) would be painful. And although this will be controversial, the instruments in it aren’t that good. They’re very CPU and memory friendly, but they’re not as good as the MainStage instruments. There’s no virtual drummer, like in Logic Pro, so you’d need to buy software to do drums or program them yourself. That’s fine for EDM but not so fine for more traditional rock, like I do.
Logic Pro X
When it comes to home recording on a Mac, just stop looking at everything else.
The Good
Don’t talk to me about Reaper. Reaper doesn’t come with any instruments and there’s no virtual drummer. The “free” instrument VST plugins you can get are inferior to what comes with Logic Pro. If you’re on a budget of $200 and you want the best stuff, Reaper isn’t for you. Reaper is great, though, if you want to customize the hell out of your DAW. No other DAW comes close when it comes to hacking. Reaper is like Linux – if you’re a super nerd, you’ll love it. I admit I find it super interesting. But you’d have to spend a lot of money on plugins and instruments to make it as good as Logic. Still, I do find myself drawn to it… but what does Logic NOT do that I want? Nothing.
You could make an argument that GarageBand is good competition for Logic Pro, but not if you’re fairly serious. Logic is a better version of GarageBand. At $199, Logic Pro gives you everything you need, from plugins to drummers to instruments to tuning vocals. And you get free upgrades for years, at least until Apple comes out with version 11.
You map out your song and choose a drummer, who gives you a basic beat. You record a bass line, guitar part, etc, and then you tell the drummer to follow one of the parts you put down. You can tell him to play more or less aggressively, louder or softer, more fills or less. You can convert his or her part to MIDI and alter individual notes. The Logic plugin collection is very good.
The latest version of Logic Pro has many additional features designed to mimic much of what Ableton Live does.
The Bad
Just don’t be dumb enough to GIG with Logic Pro. It’s not designed for it. It’s a CPU monster. The Rhodes alone can glitch your computer. I tried throwing my patch changes at it while playing backing tracks and it choked. It’s a horrible choice for trying to gig live. Which is too bad, because the instruments sound amazing, but they kill your CPU. If only you could get JUST the instruments from Logic and it didn’t kill your CPU…
MainStage 3
You can! It’s $39 and it’s called MainStage 3. It’s the plugins and instruments from Logic, but without all the recording power, it’s fairly CPU efficient! And big name artists use it (like Toto, for example.)
The Good
All the sounds, all the plugins, all the wonderful instruments, lower CPU load, runs fantastic, has never crashed on me, what’s not to love? You can program all kinds of splits and patches, and it’ll respond to MIDI patch changes sent from Ableton Live Intro. Works perfect! For $39? Are you kidding?
The Bad
Well… there IS latency. There’s no way around it. It’s not too bad, but it’s not like playing a hardware keyboard. If you can’t handle any latency as a keyboard player, don’t play an organ… and don’t play MainStage. Also, don’t try recording with it. It can sort of do some basic recording, but just don’t.
Summary
I use Ableton Live Intro and MainStage 3 for my live rig, and it’s tough to beat that combination. At about $139 for the two programs combined, it’s a no-brainer if you do what I do. The only thing better would be the full version of Live.
But for recording music, I’m not a loop guy. So I stick with Logic Pro. I will say, though, that I have bought some Waves plugins and instruments, because I wanted to extend what I do, AND I bought Melodyne for vocal tuning because to my ears it’s the best on the market. I never use it live – never, ever. But I have been known to cheat and use it on a vocal to fix a few bum notes.
