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Hey guys. I produce most of my music in my Windows PC as I use fruitloops but I want to carry on producing when I leave for University. I have a Macbook Pro 13" from 2011 (I got it around early September) and was wondering if there was any recommended software?? I have heard of Logic and Ableton but not sure which would be better and was intrigued as to what you guys had to say.
Thanks a lot and hopefully hear back soon
As far as I know, Pro Tools is pretty good :)
Logic seems to be the weapon of choice for most,and as far as im aware,Protools requires their special plugins,and may become quite costly.Our resident mac expert may pipe in,he has lots of experience with pro tools and logic on mac.
Do not be afraid to look at cubase.It also runs on mac,and is an awesome power house of an advanced music production system
You can never go wrong with logic.
There is talk of fruity for mac, you can also use bootcamp on your mac, but personally, i use logic and will never move from there
I've been using logic now for 3 years and its arguably the bent daw around. Honestly, I used fl studio for 5 years before switching to macs and logic. As soon as you start using it, you'll understand how much better logic is than fruity loops. The overall quality of sound is just much much better.
I used to use garageband, then after quite a few years of PC work, I even outgrew Logic Express. Nowdays, if I start new projects on Mac, I might use REAPER. There's also Ableton, Tracktion, etc.
Logic for me. Been using it for a few years now and it is such good value for money now since Apple has made it download only. Also have a look at Bitwig, its not been out long but looks good value for money its been created by some guys who used to work at Ableton.
I haven't used Ableton so I can't speak to that, but I absolutely love Logic Pro X. I actually prefer it to Pro Tools. It's super intuitive and amazing for the price. Quite a nice selection of VSTs and loops as well.
I can really recommend Presonus Studio one! They took the best features of Logic and Cubase and merged them into a powerful DAW. Really easy to handle and very stable! Be sure to check out a demo version...
I would go with Logic... It seems to work very well for me and the X update has been particularly great!
I have used pro tools for a long time but recently I have been using Studio One on my Mac and its great. Very easy to use.
Another vote for Logic here.
I've stuck with Logic 9 for I guess 5-6 years now and it's been absolutely rock solid. Granted, I mostly work with plugins and don't track many live instruments. But I've live tracked a full drum kit, bass, and rhythm guitar through a combination of Presonus firewire interfaces and it didn't hiccup.
I just love the layout and workflow of Logic, too.
I still use reason, I've tried other DAW's but in the end it's about whatever program it takes to get the right sounds outta ur head.
Logic is a great and very capable piece of software that comes with a lot in the box. Pro Tools isn't bad at version 11 but it still doesn't come with a whole lot. I think for mixing or editing, Pro Tools is great but for production I choose Logic. One of my friends prefers Ableton for production, especially for electronic stuff - just saying. Heard some good things about Reason but I don't know much about it.
I find that the "best software" is a bit of a subjective concept. Recommendations are very often biased by all sorts of factors, and ultimately, most people work best on whatever programs they have the most experience with. In the end, most DAWs do the same, just differently. The best you can do – in my opinion- is try different programs out for yourself before deciding.
My recommendations:
for starters, your mac is boot-camp able and still supports Widows xp and 7 in both, 32 and 64 bit versions (2013 mac book pros only support Windows 8 and onwards). If you are very comfortable with FL studio, no need to stop using it. Just create a partition, install a second system drive, or create a bootable external Windows drive, and make it dual boot.
Logic pro is really great and has a lot of very advanced features. I got a copy of studio one when I bought some Presonus hardware some time ago and I was really very pleasantly surprised as well (like most people that first gave it a try). Both programs have everything you need to get you started: virtual instruments, high quality FX plugins, third party plugin support, etc. Presonus studio one has an awesome feature that not only lets you preview MIDI files in its file browser, but actually lets you preview individual tracks in MIDI files and even assign non GM plugins to the preview, and drag individual tracks of that MIDI file into the sequencer!
Pro Tools, is well, Pro Tools. It is the more expensive one of the bunch, and has a far smaller selection of third party instruments and effects that are available for free. We pretty much use use for tracking and mixing, not really for music production so much.
Cubase, which is now also multi-platform, is also a bit more expensive, but definitely takes the lead in respect to the included content if you buy the full version. You get GBs of audio samples, loops, sampler patches, construction kits, and virtual instruments.
I stopped upgrading Reason (also cross platform) at version 4, but I recently saw version 8 at a friend’s studio, and I have fallen in love with it all over again. I know I will upgrade very soon. It has finally everything producers were asking for since the beginning: audio file editing, recording, external MIDI sequencing, and even though it doesn´t support third party plugs, it has an incredible amount of “rack extensions” now available. These are instruments and FX that can be bought and added to Reason´s rack. It looks and feels absolutely amazing. I had no idea how much Reason had evolved. Price wise, it´s fairly in the middle.
Before sharing my thoughts, I'd rather ask the OP for what type of production he has in mind. For many of us, weekend warriors and amateur musicians, something basic and simple is more than enough: I do all my recordings in GarageBand (I play bass guitar and keyboard), and since I moved to a Mac I never went back to Ableton. So the question is: what do you do? Electronica? Death Metal?