Your preferred Macbook Pro DAW?

cobbler

cobbler

Fractal Fanatic
I just picked up a MacBook Pro. I am curious what you guys are using for your DAWS? Of course there is Logic Pro but I see FL Studio gets a lot praise lately even for Macs using Boot Camp and a Windows partition. I will definetly have my Macbook partioned to run both OS X and Windows.

Just curious what you guys who moved over to the dark side long ago are using today. :) In other words, is Logic Pro the hands down winner for Mac or are their other contenders?
 
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So far it seems to be down to Logic and Reaper that I can think of. I use Pro Tools as It's what I learn from at the studio. Is it the friendliest or wallet friendly DAW? Heck no but it makes sense to use what you know the most.
 
I use Digital Performer. I also have Logic and Pro Tools. I use those when I have to, but I love DP, probably because I'm more comfortable with it. But it's real advantage is it can use multible interfaces that is built into the program. You don't have to use Core Audio aggregate I/O. This is great when using Axe Fx and another interfaces (s). I often use four.
 
I have a friend who's been using Fruity Loops exclusively for many years. He swears by it. If I was in the market for a DAW, I'd look into it. Last time I saw him he said, "most people have no idea just how good this program is." Personally though, I know next to nothing about DAW's.
 
I use Pro Tools. We also use it at work. I guess we use it mostly because it was always what we used. For me personally though, it just fits with the way my brain works. I look at other DAWs and just get confused. Again, just me and my funny brain.

FWIW - I'm not a fan of having both operating systems on one computer. It was really clunky for me. I have both a PC and a Mac. I like both for certain things. I prefer the Mac when I can get away with using it. I use the PC for lighting, among other things, like editing patches on some of my older keyboards. SUPER HAPPY keeping the two worlds separate.
 
3Dhuman said:
I have a friend who's been using Fruity Loops exclusively for many years. He swears by it. If I was in the market for a DAW, I'd look into it. Last time I saw him he said, "most people have no idea just how good this program is." Personally though, I know next to nothing about DAW's.
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FL Studio is what came from Fruity Loops. It has been getting great reviews. I have used Reaper and Sonar X1 on my desktop PC.


Fro said:
FWIW - I'm not a fan of having both operating systems on one computer. It was really clunky for me. I have both a PC and a Mac. I like both for certain things. I prefer the Mac when I can get away with using it. I use the PC for lighting, among other things, like editing patches on some of my older keyboards. SUPER HAPPY keeping the two worlds separate.
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I need to have a dual partitioned machine for now since I have some windows requirements and only want one laptop. I got the 768GB SSD so I am hoping it won’t be too "clunky". If I find that the case can eventually get rid of the Windows partition. I was just curious what guys were liking on the Mac side of the equation. I do hear you though on the separation. I am debating if I should load my Adobe CS6 master suite on the WIndows side or wait for the enhancements for the retina display on the Mac side. Ohhhh the decisions. :)

30 years in IT and never touched an Apple computer until today. The dark side has won. I have been assimilated! :roll
 
cobbler said:
FL Studio is what came from Fruity Loops. It has been getting great reviews. I have used Reaper and Sonar X1 on my desktop PC.




I need to have a dual partitioned machine for now since I have some windows requirements and only want one laptop. I got the 768GB SSD so I am hoping it won’t be too "clunky". If I find that the case can eventually get rid of the Windows partition. I was just curious what guys were liking on the Mac side of the equation. I do hear you though on the separation. I am debating if I should load my Adobe CS6 master suite on the WIndows side or wait for the enhancements for the retina display on the Mac side. Ohhhh the decisions. :)

30 years in IT and never touched an Apple computer until today. The dark side has won. I have been assimilated! :roll
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Resistance is futile :)

I use Logic Pro
I was assimilated many moons ago and the guys I worked with when I started using a DAW were mostly using Logic, though a few used Pro Tools, so I got Logic for that reason, and never regretted it since.
I know some guys who really like Digital Performer (for the same reasons as Henry lists above) but I haven't worked with it myself.
I've been involved i 2 projects were Ableton was used and found it quite intuitive, especially arranging parts using the external soft touch controller thing. The projects were hip hop where they wanted a bit of funky guitar stabs and some hi gain riffing. My brother in law use it to trigger stuff for live use. I thing Ableton lends itself especially well to electronica, hip hop and live use.
 
i think most people use and prefer the first thing they were exposed to. i've been a logic user since v4, but i also use ableton as part of my looping rig. in terms of value for money, i don't think you can really beat logic studio. the amount of synths and effect plugins that come bundled with it, plus you get waveburner and mainstage...i don't think it can be beat.
 
I have Logic Express and Reaper, but even the stock Gararaband suffices for basic recording.
 
I have a Mac Pro and use Logic Pro 8 [going over to 9.2 soon for the 64 bit loveliness]
my boy has a Mac Book Pro and uses Logic Pro 9 and Ableton

there are things that Ableton does better than Logic, and of course the reverse is also true
my boy is convinced that Ableton actually sounds better.. I have no experience with it so I don't know..
he switches better the two quite often [depending upon what he's working on]

different DAW's have different strengths and weaknesses... here's how I understand the whole DAW thing

Pro Tools
if you are working almost exclusively with audio and do a minimal amount of sequencing this DAW is top dog..

Ableton
if you want immediate real-time control over your samples for on-the-fly music creation, this is about as good as it gets..
also the signal routing possibitlities are phenomenal..
this DAW is therefore very very good for dance music and amazing for performance based remixing..
you see a lot of dance / dub step DJ's using this live cos you can create mixes on the fly..
comes as no surprise to see that Simeon uses this live either.. his music style is different but his performance needs are similar..
that said.. Native Instruments: Factory [I think] can do all this insane real-tmie stull]..
so that brings this performance based party to the likes of Logic and Pro Tools

Logic
if you want very good sequencing with very powerful capabilities overall and great audio, this is the one

I've played a little with Reason.. it's kinda cool.. good for dance music.. has some nice synths in there..
but compared to Logic it seemed a bit 'toy-like' and gimmicky [wiring up the synths etc - which is just extra needless bull in the workflow]
however, I've used Reactor via Logic.. which worked pretty well [but don't need to do that any more cos I have much more powerful synth AU's]

I don't know much about the others, so for me it's just a three horse race..

1 - are you pretty much into recording audio and little else

2 - do you need real-time on-the-fly mixing capabilities, highly complex routing capabilities, good sequencing

3 - do you need a good solid all-rounder with a conenvtional looking mixer

Get Out Of Jail Free Card - I've not looked into this stuff for some time now cos I'm a happy and settled Logic user..
so there's a good chance that my opinions on this could be a few years out of date..
 
It's way more than a three horse race, and always has been. I also use Ableton and like it, but it's not that intuitive for me. I'm still on Live 7, and up to that version at least, it definitely did NOT sound the best. I've never been able to get the hang of Logic. It's just not set up like DP or PT, which are very similar programs. If you can run PT you can run DP. Not so with Logic. It takes some serious manual study or having someone show you the ropes, at least for me. And using too many DAWS can get confusing and get in the way of work flow. Too much time spent, "How do I make it do this again?" But the software synths in Logic are second to none for a DAW, as well as the built in loops. Ready made for quick writing.

I think they all sound pretty much exactly the same, except Live as I said. I haven't liked the way it sounded. I spent a considerable amount of time with it, programming stuff to be played live with my band, a couple of years ago. So for me DAWs are a workflow thing. Get what you like, what is comfortable for you and stick with it.
 
clarky said:
Pro Tools
if you are working almost exclusively with audio and do a minimal amount of sequencing this DAW is top dog..
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This describes my work environment. I do some sequencing, but I am definitely not sequence heavy by any means. I would say 80% audio.
 
Henry - I grew up with Cubase [back on 2.0 when it was just a sequencer] and then went to the VST version..
my PC at the times wasn't man enough to cope with the audio side of things so I got a Yamaha AW16 and sync'd it to Cubase via MIDI [worked really we actually]
from what I gather.. Logic was developed by some of the folks that were originally involved in Cubase..
kinda makes sense too, because I found the transition from Cubase to Logic wasn't too difficult..

in all honesty, I can't personally hear the difference between Ableton and Logic..
the boy can though.. that said, he does dance music.. could it be that Ableton is optimised for that sort of music??? dunno really...

you're so right though about the instruments [and effects too] that come with Logic..
it's a very very good package right out of the box..
since then though I've added:
BFD2
DCAM Synth Squad
Komplete 7
The Mouth
and some other instruments / effects

and I got to say I love it..
and... I'm really looking forward to going to 64-bit.. some of my AU's are a little heavy handed, so at times I push Logic 8 to the limit..

I think Sim's comment nailled it though..
you tend to like what you grow up with..
 
Fro said:
This describes my work environment. I do some sequencing, but I am definitely not sequence heavy by any means. I would say 80% audio.
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maybe ping some of your muso buddies...
find out what they useand see if they'll let you spend a day with them to 'play around'

under their guidence maybe try something like this..

try creating a 30sec to 1 minute mini-song

do some sequencing [maybe drums / bass guitar / and keys]
record some audio [a couple of guitar tracks and maybe a little vocals]
do a little mixing

maybe just enough to get a feel for it

you need to note also the system requirements

Logic only runs on a Mac [or Hackintosh]
Logic 9.2 only gives you 64-bit mode if you're on Snow Leopard or above

PT [if I recall correctly] requires bespoke / PT compatible hardware in addition to the PC or Mac
PT also has a bespoke format for plug-ins.. and I think the PT plug-in library is smaller than what is available for Logic / Cubase / Ableton etc


so like with any other new purchase.. try to find out as much as you can up front
 
My first ever DAW on a Mac was Logic (Cannot remember which version, maybe 7).
Switched to Pro Tools after some time, I ran a Pro Tools trial and Protools seemed more logic to me than Logic, it somehow works closer to what a hardware mixing console would work.

I guess that's just personal preference and for sure Logic is an incredible value for the money since it appreared in the App Store!
 
I started with two programs simultaneous when they were just midi programs: Opcode MidiMac which would later become the innovative Studio Vision, famously bought and dumped by Gibson, and Performer version 1.2. This was 1985. So I transitioned to Digital Performer by version 2.7. So yeah, it's old home week everyday. I used Digidesign in other studios but refused to buy it or personally use it until they went native with PT 8.
 
Logic 9 here. The price drop when they moved it to the App Store was too good to pass up. The additional content it comes with, plus the VSTi synths, are pretty awesome. I have a few third party plugins: EZDrummer, some stuff from empress effects. That's it.

That being said I am far, far from an advanced DAW user.
 
henryrobinett said:
I started with two programs simultaneous when they were just midi programs: Opcode MidiMac which would later become the innovative Studio Vision, famously bought and dumped by Gibson, and Performer version 1.2. This was 1985. So I transitioned to Digital Performer by version 2.7. So yeah, it's old home week everyday. I used Digidesign in other studios but refused to buy it or personally use it until they went native with PT 8.
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sticking with the nostalgia trip for a mo....

when I started out on this path I remember the two main computer sequencers [at least in amongst my own crowd] were Cubase and Creator
I had Cubase on an Atari ST - that was upgraded to 4 whole Mb of RAM
jeez my Mac has got 3 times that in gigs... lmao..

for sounds I used a Roland U220 and an Akai S900 through a little 8 channel mixer
[my pals thought my system was the nuts.. lol..]
still got them.. and they still work..
 
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