I know that we mainly talk about DJ software here, but I think that majority of you also produce. I know well (more or less Tractor and Serato) but I don’t have good knowledge of software for music production.
I don’t want to spend a lot of money, because I would like to see how it looks - making music from the beginning. So I’m choosing Ableton Live LE 79$ (edu/download) OR Logic Express 8 199$.
Prices are various for both. I heard that Ableton is really easy to use, it’s popular and in future I can upgrade it to full version. On other hand Logic have really good sound samples but is much more expensive.
Can you give me some advises, which choose?
Best
Peter
i use ableton and love it. plus it has the added bonus of being able to integrate into djing (as some of the articles here explain quite nicely)
also, you can always get different sample libraries and such if you’re worred about logic taking the cake in that department.
truthfully though, i think the decision should be based on how you feel working with the software, and if you think you can achieve with it, what you want. my advice would be to download a demo of each and check out some tutorials to jump right in.
try downloading the demos for both also look at fl studio i make sample bassed hip hop and fl studio does me justice for now if you don’t use stock sounds tho, all my drums and stuff are off of records, but i love the workflow in fl studio
+1 FL Studio. Just don’t use sytrus Massive is good as an all rounder type synth, you can make pretty much anything with it. Of those two i would choose ableton as logic can be a bit daunting at first.
logic is getting up there next to pro tools, so if you’re serious about hardcore producing minus the huge studio setup, logic is a good choice. ableton is a different interface entirely, and i find it’s good for live stuff. mixing, remixing, sequencing. it is capable as a production utility as well, though. personally, for production i go with logic. but that’s me.
Logic is the better of the two programs for producing music while Ableton is the better of the two programs for doing live music.
If you want a program that you can not only perform live with but you can also produce with go Ableton. If your happy to run two dedicated programs, one for live stuff one for producing then run them both.
Thanks a lot for the advises. I will now check carefully both. Like you said Ableton is good for live and producing but Logic is a good step in to the future of producing. I will review prices in various stores and make decision. Thanks a lot one more time!
First question is whether you have a Mac (or at least a Hackintosh) or not. If you don’t, then Logic isn’t an option unless you want to run Logic 5. If you have a Mac, then you won’t be able to use FL Studio unless you’re running it on a Windows partition. Just keep in mind that if you’re using Windows audio software on a Mac, there are driver issues that you’ll want to address. Peter Kirn from CreateDigitalMusic has some good posts about that.
I’m a Logic user because it just happens to be what I learned. But if I was coming at it as a new user, I would say that Logic is good value because it comes with a lot of full content (ie. not demo plugins as is notorious with ProTools) included. As was suggested above, if you’re looking for software that you can also use with DJing, then Ableton would be the better option since Logic can’t do any of that.
Also, what kind of production do you want to do? If you want to do beat or electronic based music, you might want to look at Reason as well. If you’re looking to record actual instruments, you should also look at the cheaper versions of Protools. If you’re looking to produce all types of music, then Logic is a jack-of-all-trades sort of software. Also check out Reaper…it’s only $60 and it’s pretty powerful and intuitive. It’s available for Linux, Mac, and Windows too. I don’t really like shamelessly plugging my own website or jacking threads, but I talk about these types of software quite a bit there if you’re interested.
Massive is good as an all rounder type synth, you can make pretty much anything with it. Of those two i would choose ableton as logic can be a bit daunting at first.