Ableton Live or Logic Pro or Bitwig in 2023?

The Lounge Other Gear
#1

I have the DT/ST/DN and want to try using them with Overbridge. Which DAW would you recommend?

I already have Ableton Live 10 Standard, and can upgrade to Live 11 for £110, but as a student I noticed I could buy the Apple Pro Suite (including Logic) for £179 - or even a Bitwig Studio Educational license for the same price - so I thought now was a good time to re-evaluate my options.

I tried Overbridge with Live 10 last night and it all seemed to work really well, so if I’m honest I could just stick with that, but maybe there is a good reason I should upgrade or make the switch to another DAW?

What’s your thoughts?

#2

It really depends on what your main focus ITB is.

The differences between these DAWs have in some ways gotten smaller by now, meaning that Logic for example has become more performance and composing friendly when compared to the situation few years ago.

I would find out what is missing from the DAW I’m using, if anything and the evaluate if it would be worth the hassle to buy and learn a new DAW.

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#3

I have both Abelton and Logic and both are good, i think honestly it just comes down to what your most comfortable with. Overbridge is a snap with either and IMO if you already know Abelton I would say you should just upgrade that instead of facing the learning curve of another DAW!

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#4

I would agree with this…

That being said, I use LOGIC!! And I love it…

Now, I was watching the Doja Cat episode of Kenny Beats, and he talked about the differences, and he said Logic sounds better in some cases and Ableton is just faster… plus, its a bit easier to modulate any parameter in Ableton, where you can do it in logic, but it takes a couple extra steps.

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#5

I personally find Logic to be great for more linear work, ie: recording instruments/voice, in real-time. Ableton is better for laboratory/experimentation, IMHO. I sometimes just track in Logic and then export to Ableton to go crazy with things and use different tools.

If I didn’t work so much with outside sources, I’d just stick to Ableton if you feel like the workflow works for you. I think learning new tools (when unnecessary) is one of my greatest time-sucks and where I’ve often lost the plot, creativity and focus-wise.

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#6

Logic is also my main DAW but I dabble on my Eurorack frequently and when that goes down, I always boot up Ableton. The built in CV control is super fun for fully or partially controlling my modular via Mac.

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#7

…if ur already firm with ableton, stop overthinking…

get the full license and don’t look back…
and if so, don’t miss out on max for live and spent another 50 bux on fors’ opal…
it’s truu next level shit in sonic colours…

u only need to know one daw inside out these days…
bitwig is the freshest take and best deal on the long run, but there’s no real argument for it, if ur already used to that other next gen daw…

so forget about logic…that’s all last century business, just doing it’s best to catch up…
and if ur saying apple pro suite, that’s including final cut, right?
well, also there…if u wanna get ur hands dirty with video editing, davinci resolve is everybody’s darling these days…and it’s free but nevertheless full fledged version is more than enough for pretty much all tasks u can ask for…

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#8

I own licences for Logic and Ableton. I use Ableton for experimenting, daddling and sound design in the session view. On the other hand, I prefer Logic when I need to create a complete song. If you’re comfortable with Ableton’s arrangement view, I’d upgrade to Live 11.

I’d love to stick with Ableton, but I just can’t deal with the arrangement view. Even certain basics I can’t get right with it. I’m just too familiar with the oldschoolish arrangement approach of Logic.

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#9

Yeah that’s my understanding of the main difference - Logic is known for sound quality, Ableton is more creative and a faster UI experience (I use Ableton, FYI).
I know people who will write in Ableton and then bounce stems into Logic for mixing/mastering.

Like others have mentioned, these days the above differences are probably quite minimal. I certainly can’t tell if something has been mixed in Logic or Ableton, for instance.

Shout out to Bitwig though. I believe it was built by someone who used to work for Ableton and has been described to me as a modular version of Ableton. Apparently there are so many possibilities to route everything through everything else, it’s basically Ableton for neurodivergent creatives.

If you’re looking to be inspired and learn something new, I’d go Bitwig (though I’ve never used it myself).
If you’re happy now and don’t have time to learn something new, stick with Ableton, get Live 11, it’s great.
If you’re super anal and won’t get to sleep tonight because you’re worried your music won’t be top quality because of potential audio limitations most human ears won’t notice, get Logic.

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#10

That’s surprising that a few already mentioned the sound quality of Logic as better than Live. Could it be simply because there might be some Live settings that need to be turned off/on? It shouldn’t sound different, right?

I’ve been gradually moving from Digital Performer to Logic, just because Logic is more CPU friendly to older Mac. I didn’t notice that Logic sounds better than DP in anyway, by the way.

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#11

…oooo please…let’s not get this soundquality thing started again…that’s also last century…

if ur itb, all ur soundquality differences comes from converters and bit depth…using a decent interface and work with 24 bit at 48k and all “soundquality” is urs, no matter what daw tool u got in use…

real differences come with various plugins and how they deal with their internal oversampling versus roundtrip latency within their daw host…

while naked daw talk is all about workflow concept…they look different, they feel different…and each got it’s own take on how u to get from a to b…and what u can do along that way…and that’s about it…
and they all get u there, only if U, the operater knows how…

they all can handle liquid audio treatment by now…and yes, the next gen daws like bitwig and ableton got way more options which realtime stretch codec u wanna use…but if u set them to raw/no strech, the oldschool audio way, it’s exactly the same wav or aiff audio file ur chopping up and hopping on, as they are in the oldschool daws like logic and cubase…

and i’m personally just sick from all these different guis u gotto flip on daily bases, if ur in logic…
the way ableton and bitwig show their face, is simply more efficient, simplified and next level timeless…

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#12

you don’t want to miss out on m4l really

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#13

…yeah…damn…i’m so happy with bitwig…dropped ableton more than a decade ago to just use nothing but hardware and record all that into logic…
and when it was time to get more back into the box again, i knew, i need a next gen daw for that…
looked around and decided, bitwig is simply the real deal…
but some of this max for live modules, especially and lately fors’ opal, made me a little jealous…

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#14

My DAW progression since 1999 has been;

Digital Performer/Pro Tools > Logic (2009) > Ableton Live (2021).

And I have current/up to date versions of them all.

Without any hesitation, I would go with Ableton.

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#15

There are lots of specific differences, but I think it’s safe to generalize somewhat;

Logic is old, safe, reliable, and capable, (and is inarguably the best value if you already have a mac) but is the last to get new things (though it does still get them, eventually. It is actively maintained and developed)

Live is the breath of fresh air challenging the status quo that has since gone corporate. Its value used to be in its different way of doing things. Now its value is that it’s the way everybody does things. It’s the standard.

Bitwig is the new guy with the new ideas. The cutting edge where, if you miss a week, you’re behind. It’s not as reliable, but it’s where the fun is at.

So, generally, go Logic if you’re looking for a safe, pro environment, Bitwig if you want to experiment and ride the next wave, and Live if you want to do what everyone else is doing, follow along with their YouTube videos, etc.

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#16

Ya the sound quality argument is kinda silly. I can safely say that for 99.9% of studio setups the “sound quality” difference that seems to be heard is 110% caused by differences in AD/DA converters and settings related to that.

There might be discrete differences in the way that the code for each DAW handles audio, but what DAW you choose isn’t your bottleneck to sound quality. Artists at every level are doing good things with all the DAWs these days so I wouldn’t get too caught up on all that.

I’ve seen the videos on the comparisons and its all just nit picking at abstract design/code concepts that are not even perceptible or even being capable of perception by human beings.

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#17

Logic all the way if you have a Mac. Hate the workflow on the others.

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#18

Damn that does look good

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#19

Yes the video editing was part of why I was considering it. I’ll check out davinci resolve first though, thanks

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#20

If you’re mainly using hardware then I don’t really see a reason to upgrade from Live Standard – but – the Apple Pro Suite is an incredible deal and Logic is excellent. The step sequencer is great if you have an iPad or iPhone to use with Logic Remote.

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