Pro Tools and Logic, Tech Support

[jdhogg]

you could get a fair bit done just with 1 mac.

[mazz]

Barry!

So what I hear you saying, if a person could afford it, would be two machines synced. One with Pro Tools for tracking or capturing and handling audio, the other with Logic or Reason for generating audio, writing or composing, assuming that virtual instruments is the thing a person is going to do.

Now, I do LOTS of midi. Do you think Logic or Reason would handle that task or is a third machine needed for that job?

Thanks for the input!
Keith

You don't need to run two machines unless you want to run a slave to stream samples back into your main DAW machine. You could use the DAW that you like for doing composing, bounce the files as audio and then close that DAW and open something like Pro Tools for mixing and editing in the audio realm.

The main thing is to get something that works for you. You could create a masterpiece on any DAW on the planet if: 1. You know that DAW inside and out and 2. You know how to write a masterpiece!

Seriously, any DAW will work and they are all very powerful and capable these days and you'll get lovers and haters on both sides of any DAW. You have to pick the one (or two) that work for you.

I'm still a Digital Performer hold out and I challenge anyone to try to hear what DAW I used to create my music. It's not the tool, it's the end result that counts. I use Digital Performer because I'm used to it and because I never wanted to buy into the Pro Tools "spend another 10K every time we change our hardware or deal with a crippled application if you want to use our low end stuff" mindset. I hear good things about Logic but I'm too busy writing music to spend time learning another new program from the ground up. My goal is to get as efficient with the system that I have, and any DAW worth it's salt will allow you some degree of customization of key commands, etc.

So listen to all the noise out there about the DAWs, go to Sweetwater and spend some quality time with the ones you've narrowed it down to, and don't buy another computer unless you need more horsepower to run your VIs.

IMO, of course!

Mazz

[bigbluebarry]

Barry!

So what I hear you saying, if a person could afford it, would be two machines synced. One with Pro Tools for tracking or capturing and handling audio, the other with Logic or Reason for generating audio, writing or composing, assuming that virtual instruments is the thing a person is going to do.

Now, I do LOTS of midi. Do you think Logic or Reason would handle that task or is a third machine needed for that job?

Thanks for the input!
Keith

No, you don't need two machines. You can use the same machine and have both DAW's on it, well, depending on which DAW's you have, as some are Mac only.

Chuck (crs7string) uses Sonar and he does tracks with lots of VI's on them. I have no experience with Logic so I can't speak to it. I've just started using Reaper and so far, I'm really liking it. You can download a fully-functional demo of it at http://www.reaper.fm and give it a try. They have a manual online that I would recommend going through as well. I don't like the default UI that comes with it, but one of the great things about it is that it's very extendable.

I'm so used to Pro Tools that it's taking me some time to get accustomed to how Reaper does things but I'm getting there. Plus, there are several Pro Tools "fan boys" that are migrating over to Reaper as well. One of them is actually developing an extension to Reaper so that it will mimic Pro Tools in look and operation, almost identical.

If you're already on a PC, I'd say go ahead and download Reaper and give it a try. It might be what you need. Won't cost you anything to find out

hth,
- Big Blue

[southpaw]

Now, I do LOTS of midi. Do you think Logic or Reason would handle that task or is a third machine needed for that job?

Logic, definitely. in my opinion. Used to use reason until i got logic. heh. started with reason tho. and i aint knocking it... great for synth stuff, but for a composing songwriter/producer, and midi guy like yourself, i'd say you'll LOVE logic.

Logic support, although MUCH better than pro tools for support... is still kinda annoying.. they give you 90 days phone support or something like that.. then they offer this "pro apps phone support program", which id imagine is very good, but is several hundred dollars/year... c'mon apple...

that said, the DAW issue you're having is almost always something some one else expereinced and found an answer to already, and waiting to help you out in google. In my experience.


Pros:

All in all Logic 9 is a complete package, and in my opinion is the best deal on the mac market. For midi stuff it is, as mentioned, stellar. It also includes TONs of usable plugs, and the pricepoint is a steal.

Logic 9 is now 64 bit, and SUPER SUPER fast.

much better audio editing capabilities.. i personally dont have any complaints.. i have pro-tools too.. but dont use it anymore.

for any serious "specific, hard audio processing" tasks, use the go-to pro tools anyway... I.e. melodyne



Cons:

Little buggy, but mostly ironed out in my experiences at least.

3rd party plugs are mostly not 64 bit yet, but will be....

support... is... well... modern tech support. but there are many many resources to find answers faster than calling support... However, i've called them a couple times and said "hey guys, im out of phone support, but i have a valid question which will take two minutes can you help me out... and they've always said, sure man... no problem.

good luck keith,

happy daw hunting.

[chrisaleshire]

New to this forum and I skimmed through some of the posts.

I'm a former Pro-Tools user and just recently switched over to Reaper do to compatibility issues with Play and some other of my add-ons. I've got to say that Reaper is awesome, both performance wise and compatibility. The Midi Interface is nice as well, I can't speak for Logic or another other DAW besides Pro-Tools, but again I enjoy is... especially for 60$ if you play on purchasing the license(it's free; however, there is a delay in the startup(5 seconds or so).

I use a custom east west composer edition, voices of passion, orchestral gold, quantum leap ra, goliath, ministry of rock and choirs. I've had 0 problems so far. I'm running Windows 7 32 bit for now, I play on upgrading some computer components in the near future but like I said so far the performance has been good and no crashes.

[t4mh]

Thanks all, for the info. Making the change to a Mac is sort of daunting to me. I haven't used anything Apple since the Apple IIe... Long time... All of my professional life has been spent in some sort of Windows environment, either PCs or Servers and I can pretty much fly in all of it. I kinda hate to move from all that to knowing just about zero. But, the world changes and I am trying to change with it. I don't think I can even download a demo of these Mac DAW titles to see how they run in order to pick one. I only have PCs... You guys probably get tired of seeing these kinds of threads so I really appreciate your taking the time to post in this one!

Thanks again!
Keith

[jdhogg]

Reaper was originally only pc.
I would try reaper on your current pc. It wil cost you nothing to try out.
Just google it and go to the site and check it out.

[chrisaleshire]

My first computer was a AppleIIc!

I'm not a Apple fan, and I wouldn't read into the hype of MAC well nor Windows. Either route you take you have to make sure you have the best resources for performance. To put a bug in your ear, Hans Zimmer uses Cubase with Windows(at least from what I've been reading).

The keyboardist in my music project uses Cubase, there are options out there for DAWs, you just have to find which one you prefer. Try Reaper out, it won't cost you anything and there isn't a time limit on how long you can use it, but of course if you do like it buy a license(only 60$) the upgrades are free unlike other DAWs like Pro-Tools.

Sorry for the long post, I'll stop! Drinking too much coffee this morning!!!!

[kclements]

I went through this very thought process a number years ago. I was a DP user since Performer V1 on my Old Mac SE. I was starting to think that DP wasn't going top make the transition to OS X (This was a long time ago) and so I started to look around at other DAWs. I looked at PT, LOGIC, DP, CUBASE.

What it really comes down to, is how it works for you. I would highly recommend going to the Apple store and play with Logic for a good bit (They usually have a Mac with a keyboard set up to try it out) - and then go somewhere and try DP, and Cubase, and Protools and StudioOne.... Really spend some time with each of them and see if they work the same way your brain works. (I think the same can be said for Macs v. Windows. Either platform can get you great results.) For me, Logic just clicked - it made sense to me right off the bat.

You will find a ton of people that advocate for this DAW or that one - but in the end, I think they all can give you great results. I heard an interview with Donald Fagen ( I think it was him) a while back and he is still using an Atari ST - it just works for him. I think it's easy to forget these programs and OS's are simply tools - pick one that fits best with your workflow, learn how to really drive it well and make great music.

These are the opinions of the author, and may not necessarily be the opinions of anyone else!

[japaneseprincess]

Pro Tools tech support? not so good, i must say. they do get back to me eventually but not so helpful. BUT I love Pro Tools regardless. it doenst really matter if they offer good tech support or not, we users have to learn how to use them/solve problems using resources like DUC (digi user conference, pro tools forum). 99% of the problems have been already solved and all the answers are there if we use search feature on their forum.

I never had to use Logic tech support as i grew up with other advanced Logic users in commercial studios. so i cant really comment on that. but Logic is very good with MIDI, sometimes i get few crashes but nothing like EW samplers on PT, which is just a nightmare.

Im a Mac user with Logic and Pro Tools, plus Reason. I dont see me using PC for music making as ive been on macs for too long and my fingers are so used to mac keyboard short cuts. I customized my Logic short cuts to something similar to Pro Tools short cuts as much as i can, so i dont have to use 2 sets of keyboard short cuts. such a geek, i know !

as Barry says, PT is VERY good with audio and i cant live without it. my writing session goes really smooth and im happy with what i come up with. PT is really unstable with 3rd party plugs as mentioned before. but FXpansion, IK multimedia, Massey, Bombfactory, URS, Waves plugs/samplers are pretty stable.


if you are going for a Mac, having both Logic and PT will work quite nicely.. if you can afford. for Logic, you can start with Logic Express to get to know more about Logic. however, you should not use Pro Tools hardware with logic, it will cause problems ! its not impossible but not recommended to do it at all.