Ya its funny to see the final cut logic pro comparisons. They are two completely different dev teams in different countries (Ex emagic devs to be exact) vs the final cut team. Its logic pro 9 with a massive workflow and facelift. Fun as hell to write in and navigation has really been streamlined. The sounds Im getting in this thing is mind-blowing with these new synths and plugs. The built in vocal correction has def that melodyne flar to it with a simpler gui from what I have used thus far. I've been gitty since I got this thing.
 
I can understand though why people do this, its a dark interface and final cut x was. I assure you, this is no final cut, its a hotrod so far. 
 
Best Regards,
Scott

Anybody care to comment on differences between Cubase and Logic? I've never owned a DAW other than Sonar. My plans are to get a Mac and get Logic, but want to make sure Logic is the best for me. Cubase looks excellent too. I realize this could be a difficult question to answer, but those who switched from sonar to logic made a decision to chose logic over cubase and others. What would those main reasons be?

They're both really good but I prefer Logic.
 
 
IMHO, it's more focused to begin with - Cubase is really modular in terms of windows - Click this to access this button to open that window. Logic is more similar to Sonar and Studio One. (Well, actually, they both "borrowed" their GUI layout from Logic.)
 
The scalable UI also helped sell me on it - we were hitting the road for 2 years and there's no way Sonar would have worked on a little laptop screen. Though I was glad to finally hook up to a larger monitor when we finally arrived home, screen real-estate was not so much of a concern during those 2 years.
 
Logic has an integrated sampler, EXS-24, and the accompanying tools, including the audio editor. Simply put, if you're into sampling, nothing comes close to Logic. And since it's integrated, transforming an audio clip into a sampler instrument is a matter of one click. EXS-24 is crucial to my workflow. I can do anything with it, from sketching songs to full-fldged finished pieces of music using nothing but EXS-24 and Logic's native plug-ins.
 
Speaking of which...
 
The quantity and quality of plug-ins. To this day, Logic's compressor is still my favorite, no matter how many 3rd party I own. And there are plenty of interesting, less orthodox and creative effects. The organ and electric piano are as good as anything on the market. Ultrabeat is a crazy drum plug-in, though the GUI can be intimidating at first. They're all very good or great, really.
 
I also need to add the factory content - almost 40GB of it, and imho, far beyond anything provided w/ any other DAW. That stuff is actually usable in a finished project. I've created quite a few pieces using nothing but the bundled samples. Some of those instruments are simply irreplaceable to me.
 
Track comping - the best there is out there. Apple invented swipe comping.
 
One thing I use quite a bit is the ability to import session data into the current project - could be audio tracks and their setting and plug-ins or tempo maps or markers, or whatever. To me that feature is crucial and I don't think there's anything similar in Cubase and the others. I did a little video about it a few months back to show the guys here what I meant. Here it is. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cr8fN2MCMvU
 
This really only scratches the surface, really. There are so many little things, so many details. For example, if you look inside a project folder, you'll see an actual image of the project. This may seem silly, but I can't tell you how often in the past I've had to load a project just to figure out which of the 15 different versions was which - and as soon as it was on screen, I knew I had the wrong one. That's the kind of little detail, the level of attention...
 
I like Cubase and I've used and liked Cakewalk Pro Audio and Sonar for so long. But to me, Logic is exactly what a DAW should be. Not on paper but very concretely. It's like it's always thinking one step ahead of me, sorting out the options.
 
One of the best example is the aforementioned swipe comping. While the other guys were implementing track lanes and solo/mute/merge tools and creating all those options to audition and splice and glue and recombine your takes, Apple asked themselves what it was that we really wanted to do - and the answer is: select the best part of each take for playback. That's all. You don't want to splice or merge, these are just means to get to your real objective. So that's how you comp in Logic - you swipe across the part that you want in each take, period. All the rest is taken care of automatically - even if you can obviously make manual adjustments.
 
That's one of the reasons why I say that it's always one step ahead.
 
 
 

Scott Lee
HI Rain,
 
So ive dumped 9 for X. Yes it is better in my personal expereince thus far. 9 is awesome and its one of the shining daws we have used, just find so many thing now missing going back that was on my wish list. Def give in 2 big thumbs up. Hope yer well. 
 
Best,
Scott

Thanks, Scott. I'm definitely in the process of trying to make the upgrade happen quicker than I had initially planned. It does look fantastic.

Rain - thanks for the informative response on the differences. I'm glad they have good instruments and effects. The part where you say Logic is more "focused", always thinking "one step ahead", is what is sticking with me. Cubase seems to have a ton of features. But getting to the feature you want, at the time you need it, may not be as intuitive as in Logic...that's what I'm interpreting.

Now, porting Sonar projects over to Logic would seem like a daunting task. Audio and midi tracks would be straight forward I think, and maybe even tempo maps... But all the track and buss automation? Is there any method of copying automation?

guitartrek
Rain - thanks for the informative response on the differences. I'm glad they have good instruments and effects. The part where you say Logic is more "focused", always thinking "one step ahead", is what is sticking with me. Cubase seems to have a ton of features. But getting to the feature you want, at the time you need it, may not be as intuitive as in Logic...that's what I'm interpreting.

Now, porting Sonar projects over to Logic would seem like a daunting task. Audio and midi tracks would be straight forward I think, and maybe even tempo maps... But all the track and buss automation? Is there any method of copying automation?

You're welcome. For someone used to Sonar X1 or X2, I'm guessing that it's easier to find your way around in a similar unified GUI.
 
 
As for transferring sessions, not really. This may be worth considering for someone with lots of ongoing projects. One option could be to export individual audio stems w/ automation, and export busses to audio and all. Personally, I was at the crossroads so to speak, so I just jumped ships and any project that I've wanted to recreate was done the hard way (though it was not that hard, anyway).

9 days later and Apple has already released the first patch. :) 
 
Apparently, the old "wait til the bugs have been ironed out" reasoning won't buy me that much time. Seems it won't be long before I don't have any reason to postpone the upgrade. 

As a Logic PC 5.5 user, I question why I bought Sonar Producer 8, and didn't just buy a used Mac and Logic Pro 8.  It probably had something to do with the cost of a Mac combined with the cost of Logic at that time.  I do believe I would have been having a lot of fun for the last 5 years.
 
Logic X, with its drummer, wonderful instruments, and content - and now this latest patch (which among other things fixes some bugs in the notation editor !!!), isn't helping matters. 
 
I kind of hope Sonar X3 shows up soon, so I can decide if I want to jump or stay.
 
 

Pretty much the same path here, except that I had also been using Pro Audio and then Sonar all along. I did keep 5.5 installed for as long as it worked, but eventually got used to Sonar so much that I was happy w/ it. A Mac seemed cost-prohibitive back then, and I didn't want to spend that much on a computer.
 
Having finally made the switch back to Logic when Sonar X1 came out, I sort of feel the same now - part of me wishes that I'd went w/ Logic back then after 5.5. Not that that Sonar hindered my productivity or anything, but, I work better in Logic and Mac. 

I left pc years ago and hence why I haven't been around here to go to logic 7 and mac, I have used logic since 2.5 for over17 years and only had a short couple year break away from it when apple dumped pc, and I was using alternative solutions trying to find a replacement. I caved in and went to apple. Since version 9 and the way pdc works, automation on tracks with any plugins it's latency is not possible to do in time. Fact. I can't understand all the raving here and that important feature not being mentioned. If you are interested you can read my full report at gearslutz
I'm actually thinking of moving *back* and buying sonar x2. Had a little pc laptop since Xmas that cost a third of my MacBook Pro and is a bit more powerful. I was unwell and missed the sonar demo period before it expired as I had it installed and fell ill and went to hospital and didn't get to use it, but seriously considering just taking the plunge anyway. I wanted to buy essential to learn it, or the studio upgrade for $99, but the to go from studio to producer I love it is more money than going from producer 8 which I have to producer now. Very frustrating that there's no $$99 update path from studio to producer considering that is the difference in upgrade cost now. But back on to logic, here's the topic http://www.gearslutz.com/...completely-broken.html

I don't understand how logic can be so raved about when in 2013 it can't time automation properly. I love the program too and must admit if they fixed these pdc related issues I'd stay, although I still don't like the new interface, its just not as easy on the eye or neat as logic 9.
Sonar from everything I read has perfect automation and pdc timing. That link on logic automation is not matter of opinion or non reproducible, it's all fact and repeatedly reproducible for anyone that has tried it.

So to anyone wanting to switch to logic, remember this. And remember when you hit record everything on those record enabled channels is stacked onto ONE core and often overloads and makes it impossible to record live. The grass is not always greener. I keep on itching to buy sonar producer now but realise I am stuck it if its not for me, so I will at least see if cakewalk can give me another demo period. But I have been watching videos galore and reading info and it seems to be the best daw around overall at present regarding interface, workflow,and performance. The best compromise of all areas basically. Oh and the clip gain is a lot better than logics. The visual adjustment of the wave file is something that logic still doesn't have with non destructive clip gain. Again, the grass is not always greener.