Jeff Evans
Hi Rain. I must say though that Logic has been around for a long time and as a result it is very stable and reliable especially in a teaching situation where the software gets treated very badly and I must say Logic just keeps on going and rarely falls over which is great. One school I was teaching at for a while had Sonar Home Studio and it was a disaster.
Regarding synths I agree Studio One is not overly great with them but that is what is good about it. I have 40 or 50 amazing virtual synths in there now so I rarely use the bundled instruments. They don't waste time trying to impress you with instruments. They give you a few and let you put the ones in you want to work with. Presence is pretty good though. Their drum machine actually works better than Beatscape. There is a fair bit of content too for Studio One about 20 Gig I think. Have you got all that too Rain? And the third party VST's all work without a hitch as well.
I do like the ESX24, I think it has a great sound. And I was lucky enough to get that and the Electric piano, oragn etc when they were available as separate VST's and I have all those as well. I have just found a lot of the other instruments in Logic I don't use that much because they are a little similar sounding to me.
I have still got a Sonar 8.5 install on my system and just love Dimension Pro, Rapture and Z3ta+ and they all work and sound great in Studio One too. I am not that impressed with the Logic reverb either, I feel there are many nicer sounding convolution reverbs around now which go much further and sound much better. But that is due mainly to the fact that no one is really developing Logic, they are just in this mode of staying with what they have got.
The one thing that all the programs that have been mentioned here (and Sonar of course!) have in common is that they are developing and moving forward. Logic is the only one that is basically remaining still.
I think it depends on which part of the world you live in too as to what software is being used in very professional studios. I have been into many here in Australia and never seen Logic once. But as you and people like Freddie have pointed out that is not the case in Europe perhaps and other parts of the world.
Hi Jeff,
Yes I do have the additional content for S1. As I said, I really like Presence. And the drum machine also comes w/ some pretty cool presets (enough for me to export and recreate a few of them in EXS-24). I love the simplicity.
I think a fair way to compare bundled material in applications is to consider how far we'd get w/ only the bundled synths and effects. Honestly, I don't see myself working comfortably w/o at least a few external VSTis in Studio One. Whereas I'd be more comfortable w/ only Logic's plug-ins and effects. It'd be far from ideal, but I'd still have a broader palette of sounds at my disposal. Logic comes w/ a huge 40 GB of additional content.
Agreed that the algorithmic reverb in Logic isn't all that great - in fact, it's probably one of the weakest bundled reverbs I've heard, alongside Cubase's. It's the first plug-in I felt the need to replace w/ a third party. One odd thing that I have found though - there is another bundled reverb in Logic, not a Logic plug-in per se, but a default system one called AU Reverb Matrix - it is surprisingly better. I can't believe that Apple didn't replace Logic's reverb algorithm w/ this one. Still, I wouldn't be w/o my Valhalla Room. And the convolution one in Logic is the best of any bundled ones in that category, IMHO. This thing goes deep.
Logic has always been working pretty flawlessly on my set up - w/ the exception of issues w/ POD Farm 2.5 (I get the same issues in every other app) and Kontakt 5, which gave me some trouble after the upgrade from 4 to 5. TBH, Studio One was pretty much as robust, though I've had a couple of issues w/ version 2. I'm hoping that these may have been fixed w/ the latest update. We'll see.
Dimension is one of my favorite synths, and I've finally installed it on my Mac earlier this year. Works great. Zeta however has been problematic. I'm hoping that Cakewalk will come up w/ a patch to address some of those issues shortly. Until they do, I refrain from installing Rapture, which is another reputedly problematic Cakewalk synths on my platform. I have enough of one of those. ;)
For me, unless I start to feel limitations, I don't really care how much longer it is until Apple moves on and announce a new version of Logic. I also work w/ Pro Tools, Studio One and Cubase, and honestly, I don't feel that Logic is lacking in terms of features when compared to these. I'm trying to think of actual features that Apple has to catch up w/, and I don't really see many. In fact, a lot of what has been touted as great new features in other apps recently already is in Logic - screensets, swipe comping, a unified GUI (hello Skylight), etc. Studio One obviously has the edge w/ Melodyne ARA due to their exclusive deal, so that's one thing I'm thinking they may address.
Other items on Logic users wish list usually include a better dedicated audio editor and overhauled sampling capacities - something which I'm tempted to believe they may be working on, in view of their acquisition of Redmatica. An equivalent of VST expression could also be in the work - since Audio Unit is Apple's own standard, they can do pretty much anything w/ it.
Logic has always had a relatively strong user base in Europe from what I gather. As for America well, I haven't been everywhere, but Logic is as close to a standard as I have encountered, along w/ Pro Tools which is still king of actual recording studios in a traditional sense..
BTW, if I'm not mistaken, your fellow Australian Nick Littlemore who wrote the music for the Cirque show my wife sings in may also be working w/ Logic, at least that's what I gathered when talking w/ his assistant who had recently switched from Sonar to Logic for the gig. But that's just an assumption on my part.