If I were starting again today I’d learn Bitwig. Seems to take the Ableton paradigm and run with it, with loads of built in routing and modulation flexibility and some new clever ideas.
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Can only speak about Live and Logic,
If you’re after traditional linear DAW for recording and mixing, Logic is pretty great for the price.
Effects sound great. Some internal instruments like Alchemy or Sculpture are great.
And I like having a dedicated mixer.
Ableton on the other hand is faaaar more creative on it’s own imo. The session view is like an instrument. The inclusion of Max for live makes you never run out of possibilities or new instruments and effects.
You can get crazy creative with stuff like follow actions, automated effect racks, dummy clips, clip envelopes max for live lfo’s etc. Feels like almost like a modular environment. Generative compositions stuff etc is very easy.
And, though I know the logic environment is super powerful regarding midi, it’s also very complicated to me. Midi and Audio routing was always way easier and more intuitive in Ableton for me.
Live also has great internal instruments like wavetable, operator and collision. And last but not least its sampler, which is really awesome and powerful. I prefer this a lot over Logic’s esx24 sampler. Again, more intuitive, more creative.
So as I said, I prefer Logic for recording and mixing a bit, but Ableton on a whole for feeling like a source of inspiration and possibilities
(never tried Bitwig, many people seem to prefer it over Live)
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I was fortunate enough to inherit a copy of live 10 suite from a now defunct work project. I still haven’t got round to taking the time to delve into it. But every video and tutorial I’ve watched shows me how awesome it can be! I may have to set aside a couple months to learn the fundamentals at some stage.
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Thanks to all for the inputs.
At this stage, I am leaning towards Logic, Studio One and Cubase.
I believe I have a copy of a free version of Studio One though not sure what the limitations are. Will look into it.
Thanks again to all for the valuable infos.
V
If you havent used any of those over a longer period i would choose the cheapest one. Ive used Cubase since the famous cracked version on Atari ST, so every time i tried a different one, i hated it. Every cubase update was just more functionality in the same package, so it was all a gradual change. But when i tried Logic it was too much of a change. I wanted to like it for all the extra’s they had vs Cubase on the earlier versions, but i feel Cubase caught up in the later versions. I use Cubase 10 and loves it. I upgraded from Cubase 6 earlier this year, and it was a noticeable and positive change.
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Another huge advocate of Studio One here… all around my favorite DAW. I used Cubase since 1998 or so (whenever VST was released), so I’m very familiar with it. I do own a copy of v9.5 and will hang on to it, but have left it entirely for S1. The two original developers of S1 were both originally Cubase/Nuendo developers with Steinberg who left to start their own company. S1 has a very ‘Cubase like’ feel, because that’s their heritage, but it feels like a much faster and more efficient (workflow wise) version IMO. Cubase absolutely has more features especially for composers (which I’m not), but at least to me it feels a lot more heavy and bloated too. S1 gets right to the point at the sacrifice to some of those advanced features. For how I use it and granted I’m no muso by any stretch it’s all there and felt very familiar from day 1.
Getting the ‘Professional’ version is a great deal (50% off) at $199. Look at the comparison chart though… you might be able to be just fine with the Artist version ($49) + VST/AU addon ($79) for $128 total. You can upgrade to ‘Pro’ later if you want. They typically run a big sale twice a year, but this is the first time I’ve noticed 50% off in a while. V4 was also introduced within the past year I think, so it’s not due for a major paid update for a little while.
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I’m also using studio one and love it. Came from cubase back then and haven’t looked back. Workflow is awesome and everything makes sense. Only thing I miss from cubase is the control room.
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