Ableton or Logic for a beginner
I want to start producing and ive got ableton live but most of the time i get an hour in and get fed up because im finding it too hard to learn. Is it a good idea to switch over to Logic?
No.
To expand on that…
They all do about the same things, just different ways.
You might develop a preference for one or another at some point, but at this stage, you don’t know enough for that preference to be based on anything but luck. So, it really doesn’t matter what you’re using.
It’s more money you don’t need to spend.
There are more free tutorials for Ableton Live than most of the alternatives, especially in the world of dance music.
Whatever you’re having problems with, start searching for it on youtube or reddit. You’ll find something to get you past it. If, somehow, you don’t, there are a lot of helpful people on a lot of forums, subreddits, and facebook groups.
And if you’re going to switch to anything, it should be to Pro Tools. But, that’s just because I’m a fanboy, which comes directly from the fact that I know the most about it.
Also, you wouldn’t expect to know how to play the piano after spending the odd hour here and there, playing around. It takes a lot of time to learn the craft and the instrument.
How serious are you about getting into music production? Buy a full DAW and learn the ins and outs of it. You are learning a full production sweet. Prepare to spend hours figuring everything out. What I would recommend in order are:
Cubase
Studio One
Ableton
Bitwig
Logic is probably just as frustrating to learn as Ableton realistically… With all these things you just need to learn the internal logic of the thing and then it makes sense.
I started on Logic and switched to ableton. One thing i know i am missing out on is Session mode. I never use that… i do everything in arrange mode.. probably bc i came from logic.
It takes a long time (years) to really understand a DAW and get your workflow to even have any chance of making a beat you happy with, in my experience. 
don’t get lazy. Keep trying and break through in Ableton. You won’t regret it.
When I DJ’d with Live (just Live), I lived in session mode, for fairly obvious reasons. Producing in Live, session mode feels like a trap to me…you just wind up making a bunch of loops and never actually getting anywhere on making the song.
Strangely, Maschine feels like almost the exact opposite, and it’s the same basic idea. I’m not sure why one works with my head and the other doesn’t.
But, I’ll reiterate. It really doesn’t matter unless something jumps out as “why in the hell is it like that” or “how the F*** do you do these simple things”.
I decided to give Studio One a try at some point because it has some cool features and it’s fans are pretty vehement. I spent like five minutes trying to figure out why most of the channels in a demo project weren’t making noise despite the meters saying they should, another five minutes trying to figure out where in the hell plugins are supposed to go, then gave up and deleted the demo because I already own another DAW that works fine. IIRC, it might be based on Cubase, which would make sense…because that’s what I did every time I tried a Cubase demo. That software is just ass-backwards to me (Live, Logic, and Pro Tools all just make sense to me).
Sometimes, it’s worth playing with stuff just for the heck of it, but I’ll stand by it…pick one that sorta-kinda-almost maeks sense, learn it inside and out, and only change if you find a real reason.
Logic
I started with Ableton and despite classes and personal coaching with the program, I found that it just wasn’t for me. When I switched to Logic my workflow improved and I started producing a lot more music. However Logic doesn’t have the possibilities that Ableton has…
I think Ableton is great for djing live and doing mash ups and the flexibility is incredible, but it does require a certain logic to get acquainted with it’s work flow. There is a huge learning curve for Ableton, but I think if you are patient enough there is so much more that one can do with it…
For me, Logic is simple and works for me needs.
Yeah, the thing that is supposed to be cool (that i’ve never tried / got into) is you can record the session view into the arrange view… so basically you can jam out the loops and turn it into an arrange… it sounds cool in theory. i just never done it
When I was DJing with live, that’s how I recorded my sets. For a while. But I never went back and edited things, so I stopped and just used the resampling input or some other recorder.
I think session view might as well be called either mixer or meters view for actually producing/recording.
But it really does all come down to preferences.
Those two DAWs are probably the best options for beginners. It will really come down to details to chooce between Ableton and Logic. You can’t go wrong with any of those.
Start with Ableton and later on try to learn the interface of Logic, if you know the basics then logic pro will take you a couple of days to be able to use it.
Logic Pro has better audio filters, Ableton has more friendly interface and also great option for DJing as well.
Definitely don’t switch. Sadowick Production has a good free ableton course on youtube where he explains each part of the software.
Chris punsalan is a good youtube channel to watch beat making videos using ableton if you’re into Hip-Hop. Which was important for me. A lot of the tutorials/videos for Ableton are electronic/dance/house music related and kinda lame. But finding tutorials in your genre really helps make the learning curve more gentle
I would give Garageband a serious look prior to buying Logic. The interface is almost identical to Logic and has many of the same instruments and features and of course its free!
Try creating some basic demo tracks with Garageband, and if you are comfortable, then splash out on Logic. Your Garageband demos will open in Logic and you can finish them properly.
Ableton works best IMHO if your preferred production method is live recording clip / sample based material which can be later polished up later in arrangement view. Where logic has a better Arrangement mode which (again IMHO) lends itself better to visually laying down tracks.
The thing is with this question is not that it shouldnt be asked… its just that its all down to personal preference.
Personally I use Ableton, for me it just offers the best workflow and I use it for Radio Shows, Mixes and Production.
I know people in the past that have been avid Logic users and once they used Ableton converted. Likewise the opposite.
It is all down to preference. I think (and I could be wrong) that you are getting more confused with the production side of things and its actually nothing about any software your actually using. Its not an easy road, don’t think for a second it will be, but its a rewarding one.
Hope this helps.
P.s in terms of price
I am almost sure Logic is cheaper, and alot of big time producers swear by it, Ableton is more expensive but again, I happily pay the price for it as it just makes complete sense to me. Play around and get a feel of both and whatever feels best for you go for it. There are many tutorials on both.
I strongly suggest Udemy.com. One of the biggest life savers in my time of getting full courses on anything.
I’ve used both. Hands down ableton. I will say, I haven’t used the new logic pro though. It’s still a learning curve if you have never used music software before.
This is actually what it boils down to.
There is no difference in capabilities. Just preferences.
Unfortunately, beginners don’t know enough or have enough experience to develop preferences. That’s not an insult, just the way things are.
I’ve probably said it before, but I’ll say it again…my preference is for Pro Tools when it comes to producing a track, recording, and mixing.
I can do everything on basically any of them. But, in PT, everything makes sense to me. In Logic, there are a few little things that make me go “WTF?!”. In Live, I just don’t like the horizontal channel strip layout or the fact that there’s no good way to view the mixer without also seeing the clip view, which I pretty much never use like that. Yet for quick things, I use Live. For example…I pretty much always have Live running on my studio computer. It can use different input and output sound cards, and I use software (which exists as plugins) to do the crossover for my subwoofers/satellites. If I were on Windows as opposed to OS X, I’d use Acourate Convolver, but Live works as a stand-in on OS X. Cubase, Nuendo, Studio One, and a few others…they just don’t make any sense to me. Sequoia, basically the same (though I haven’t played with the demo in a long time).
And I figured out none of that until I had a good idea what I was doing in one of them. I believe I used Logic first. Then Live. Then PT.