This is like choosing between Italian sports cars. It’s tough to go wrong.
But it depends entirely on what you’re looking for out of your music recording studio. So here’s the rundown on Pro Tools HD and Logic Studio, aimed at helping you comparison shop to find the perfect digital audio workstation (DAW) for you.
Pro Tools HD
First up is the offering from Digidesign – now Avid – the 800-pound gorilla of audio recording and music mixing software producers. Pro Tools HD, Pro Tools LE, and Pro Tools m-powered, which vary mostly in hardware requirements and feature lists, have recently been merged into a single package called Pro Tools 9.
It’s not all that complicated, but a little explanation does help.
- Pro Tools HD uses bespoke “TDM”
processing cards to help crunch the 1′s and 0′s that comprise your musical creation. It’s the Ferrari of DAWs. Lots and LOTS of horsepower. If you’re looking for a basic music recording software solution for your home studio, there are definitely cheaper ways to get it. On the other hand, if you have the expertise and need for this level of functionality, there’s lots of headroom here.
- Pro Tools LE and Pro Tools m-powered both used your computer’s native processor (the math all lives inside your computer). These options aren’t quite the 450-horsepower recording studio versions, but there’s more than enough under the hood for most musicians and part-time sound engineers.
The feature list is huge, but that has also been one of the user gripes – on the great Sound Engineer vs. Musician spectrum, Pro Tools HD leans decidedly toward the sound engineer side. Musicians, and other engineering-averse species, often mention that learning the ropes takes a little bit of time.
The user interface is gorgeous, the features are rich, and you can get just about anything out of it you need to in order to give birth to a completely killer recording.
Here’s the major drawback to the Pro Tools approach: you achieve the best performance by purchasing additional hardware, usually in the form of an audio interface unit. Such a unit does much of the pre-processing in advance of the core Pro Tools software getting hold of it, which helps performance and features tremendously, but can be a drawback for the more budget-conscious among us.
To get the most functionality out of your system, it’s best to pick up Pro Tools LE or HD software, then buy Pro Tools HD system hardware to go with it (they’re often sold together at a discount, which is helpful). It’s a powerful setup, but not everyone can afford that level of expenditure.
Bottom line on Pro Tools HD: truly brilliant stuff, with more than enough power and functionality for almost any music recording environment, but it has a few moving parts involved and you’ll pay a bit more.
Apple Logic Studio 9
Next up is Apple’s Logic Studio 9 (read a Logic Studio 9 Review), a recording software suite that’s full of the two things Apple is famous for: self-contained simplicity and eye-watering functionality. This is truly great stuff at an extremely affordable price.
Here’s the rundown:
- Built for the musician with a reluctant sound engineer hidden inside, but with enough horsepower to keep all but the most erudite and esoteric eggheads more than happy. The songwriter in you will dig the easy interface and powerful song composition aids, and there’s plenty of high-end signal processing and production tools to satisfy your demanding ear.
- All processing is done internal to your computer, meaning you don’t have to purchase expensive rack interface units for most home studio recording applications. Most instruments plug right into your computer’s sound jack, and there’s always the USB interface option as well.
- Comes in two flavors: Logic Express, a slightly pared-down version that’s a smidge easier on the wallet, and the full-featured Logic Studio (which really isn’t all that expensive by home studio standards). If you spring for Studio, you’ll get Logic Pro 9 (music recording and mixing software), MainStage 2 (live performance utility), and Soundtrack Pro 3 (you can probably guess what this does).
Bottom line: there’s no way to make a wrong decision here. If you have an itch for some serious recording studio power and you like the gear that goes with it, Pro Tools HD will cure what ails you. On the other hand, Logic boasts quit a bit of goodness-per-dollar and and uncomplicated hardware and interface scene. Either way you go, you’ll want to plan a little time to learn the ropes with your new software package, but you’ll be laying down quality tracks before you know it.
(from the editor: Want more? We’ve done an updated post comparing Logic vs Pro Tools 2011. Enjoy!)