Garageband Vs Logic Pro - Which one should I choose?

[loud_melody]

Hello guys, I've been playing electric guitar for the last 2 years as a hobby. I'm not saying that I'm really good at it, but I love my playing. I want to listen to my playing, obviously for assessment and sending it to my loved ones too. I'm confused between two DAWs - garageband and logic pro. I want to pursue music production as a career and make sure that in future the DAW should have all the features that a music producer need. 

[pineweasel]

GarageBand is free and surprisingly capable, so start with that and see how you go. If and when you run up against its limitations you can consider upgrading to Logic or look at other options.

[loud_melody]

18 hours ago, pineweasel said:

GarageBand is free

Yeah I know. What are the key features that are missing in garageband but have in Logic Pro? Can't I just use Logic Pro directly instead of upgrading later?

[DaleASmith]

UA Luna. ✌️

[BigRedX]

2 hours ago, loud_melody said:

Yeah I know. What are the key features that are missing in garageband but have in Logic Pro? Can't I just use Logic Pro directly instead of upgrading later?

 

There's no easy way to answer this, without knowing exactly what you want to do and how you expect to work. 

 

I'm a Logic user, but there's a good chance that a lot of the time GarageBand would do everything I need. The synth player in my band does a lot of his initial ideas in GarageBand on the iPad because he finds it very immediate. Those GarageBand projects will open up directly into Logic with all the sounds and settings preserved and then we can work on them in more detail if necessary.

 

It depends whether you want to spend £199 on Logic and be faced with an extra layer or two of complexity before you can start composing or recording. My advice would be to start with GarageBand and if you regularly find yourself wanting to do things that are beyond its capabilities then consider upgrading to Logic. As I said you won't loose you existing work because Logic will open all your old projects directly and they will sound exactly the same as they did in GarageBand.

[BigRedX]

Personally in the current financial climate I couldn't recommend any DAW other than GarageBand or Logic to anyone who owns a Mac. GarageBand and Logic are two of the things that actively sell Macs to creative users, and remember that Apple makes most of it money out of its hardware not its software, and therefore they are very unlikely to be abandoned any time soon. Everyone else is not looking as good. While Fender have just bought Presonus I wonder how long it will be before they realise that selling software is whole different proposition to selling guitars and they abandon it. Just remember what happened with Gibson and Opcode and Cakewalk. Cakewalk got a lucky reprieve, but Opcode and their innovative products are long gone. Audition is just a curiosity for Creative Cloud subscribers, and Avid stumbles from one financial crisis to another with ProTools not sitting well with the rest of their portfolio and since the platform was opened up to 3rd party hardware it has never been as robust or reliable.

[Dood]

6 hours ago, loud_melody said:

Can't I just use Logic Pro directly instead of upgrading later?

 

 

Yes. I joined Logic in version 9 and didnt open garageband until I'd been using LPX for a long while. (I'd actually been using Reaper until I finally started using Logic, which is also a very good DAW). So, given the learning curve, if you can get Logic and intend to pursue music production, go straight for it. 

[Dood]

Just now, Dood said:

 

 

Yes. I joined Logic in version 9 and didnt open garageband until I'd been using LPX for a long while. (I'd actually been using Reaper until I finally started using Logic, which is also a very good DAW). So, given the learning curve, if you can get Logic and intend to pursue music production, go straight for it. 

 

 

And it wont be too long before you're doom scrolling Bedroom Producer's Blog, Plugin Alliance, Plugin Boutique, Amner Hunter's YouTube page and the various Facebook groups for deals on tasty plugins! Just before Christmas I scored about £1800 of IK Multimedia plugins for thirty quid. reeeeesult! 

[BigRedX]

4 hours ago, Dood said:

And it wont be too long before you're doom scrolling Bedroom Producer's Blog, Plugin Alliance, Plugin Boutique, Amner Hunter's YouTube page and the various Facebook groups for deals on tasty plugins! Just before Christmas I scored about £1800 of IK Multimedia plugins for thirty quid. reeeeesult! 

 

But what will you do when your 3rd party plug-ins need to be upgraded because you've upgraded to a new Mac or MacOS or a new version of Logic and old ones don't work any more? Or if the developer decided they don't want to develop a particular plug-in anymore or they go out of business (cf Native Instruments)?

 

And what do you £1800 worth of plug-ins do that you couldn't do already with the massive number that are part of the standard Logic install? Logic already has more quality effects and instrument plus-ins than most of the studios that produced some of the all-time classic recordings. Wouldn't it be prudent to spend the time learning to get the best out of what you already have first? It strikes me that there are a significant number of users for whom the main reason to get a new plug-in is the vast number of pre-sets that come with it rather than learning how to create something new of their own.

[loud_melody]

19 hours ago, BigRedX said:

 

There's no easy way to answer this, without knowing exactly what you want to do and how you expect to work. 

 

I'm a Logic user, but there's a good chance that a lot of the time GarageBand would do everything I need. The synth player in my band does a lot of his initial ideas in GarageBand on the iPad because he finds it very immediate. Those GarageBand projects will open up directly into Logic with all the sounds and settings preserved and then we can work on them in more detail if necessary.

 

It depends whether you want to spend £199 on Logic and be faced with an extra layer or two of complexity before you can start composing or recording. My advice would be to start with GarageBand and if you regularly find yourself wanting to do things that are beyond its capabilities then consider upgrading to Logic. As I said you won't loose you existing work because Logic will open all your old projects directly and they will sound exactly the same as they did in GarageBand.

Basically I want to record my guitar playing with the help of DAW, and I want to learn music production eventually. I start with guitar playing but gradually I'll increase my learning. So I want that the DAW would not resist me to do things that I want. For example I was comparing the Garageband and Logic pro and I've found that Logic Pro has a dedicated mixing tool, inspector menu, etc, advanced tools. Do I need these tools?

[loud_melody]

16 hours ago, Dood said:

Yes. I joined Logic in version 9 and didnt open garageband until I'd been using LPX for a long while.

Nice! Will get all the updates with lifetime subs?

[loud_melody]

16 hours ago, Dood said:

And it wont be too long before you're doom scrolling Bedroom Producer's Blog, Plugin Alliance, Plugin Boutique, Amner Hunter's YouTube page and the various Facebook groups for deals on tasty plugins!

This would be fun, isn't that? 

 

16 hours ago, Dood said:

I scored about £1800 of IK Multimedia plugins for thirty quid. reeeeesult! 

That is insane!

[loud_melody]

11 hours ago, BigRedX said:

It strikes me that there are a significant number of users for whom the main reason to get a new plug-in is the vast number of pre-sets that come with it rather than learning how to create something new of their own.

Is it bad to use presets?

[rwillett]

8 minutes ago, loud_melody said:

Basically I want to record my guitar playing with the help of DAW, and I want to learn music production eventually. I start with guitar playing but gradually I'll increase my learning. So I want that the DAW would not resist me to do things that I want. For example I was comparing the Garageband and Logic pro and I've found that Logic Pro has a dedicated mixing tool, inspector menu, etc, advanced tools. Do I need these tools?

 

Start with GarageBand and learn the basics first. GB is very very good, and you will avoid some of the complexity of Logic Pro. Focus on playing and recording rather than worrying about some of the more complicated features that Logic Pro offers. 
 

You can spend days messing with LP rather than playing and recording in GB. There's so much in GB and as has already been said, one you outgrow GB it's simple to open your work in LP and carry on.

 

I jumped into LP and I should have stayed with GB for longer. 

 

Also one is free. 

[BigRedX]

48 minutes ago, rwillett said:

 

Start with GarageBand and learn the basics first. GB is very very good, and you will avoid some of the complexity of Logic Pro. Focus on playing and recording rather than worrying about some of the more complicated features that Logic Pro offers. 
 

You can spend days messing with LP rather than playing and recording in GB. There's so much in GB and as has already been said, one you outgrow GB it's simple to open your work in LP and carry on.

 

I jumped into LP and I should have stayed with GB for longer. 

 

Also one is free. 

 

This is exactly what I was going to say. For simple recording and learning how the process works GarageBand will most likely do everything you want and you already have it with your Mac. Move onto Logic only when you find there are things you absolutely need to do that are beyond the capabilities of GarageBand

[rwillett]

54 minutes ago, loud_melody said:

Is it bad to use presets?

Not in my book. I have a Mod Dwarf and a ToneX and sometimes (always?) I spend far too long chasing down a sound that only exists in my head, that I can't work out how to use all the presets to get what I'm after and what I should have done is simply turn the amp on, plug in and play.  I get too attached to the rabbit holes and I wonder what this does, and what that does and spent hours reading and exploring and then come back to what the original preset was set to.

 

Other people are far cleverer and better players than me, so they may have a very different perspective. 

[BigRedX]

53 minutes ago, loud_melody said:

Is it bad to use presets?

 

No, not at all.

 

However, if the presets are any good you'll find that lots of other people are already using them and you will start to recognise them in other records. And my point was that rather spending money on buying another plug-in it would be better value to learn how to really use the ones you already have. Some of the greatest ever recordings were made with technical facilities that were inferior to what is included with GarageBand and Logic. I'm sure a good mix engineer would have no problem producing a great sounding recording without needing to resort to 3rd party plug-ins.

[rwillett]

1 hour ago, loud_melody said:

Nice! Will get all the updates with lifetime subs?

There are now TWO versions of Logic Pro, one is part of their subscription model that has recently been released, Apple Creator Studio (https://www.apple.com/uk/apple-creator-studio/) and one is the pay once version (https://www.apple.com/uk/logic-pro/)

 

The Creator Studio has AI stuff that the pay once version doesn't. I have no idea what value this other stuff is.

 

I already have and paid for Logic Pro, Final Cut Pro, Compressor, Main Stage, Affinity Photo/Designer/Publisher along with MS Office (which I must have for work) so for me, it makes little sense to get the subscription. Certainly all my Apple apps get updated at regular intervals so I'm happy with what I have.

 

Rob

Edited 6 hours ago by rwillett

[Dood]

15 hours ago, BigRedX said:

 

But what will you do when your 3rd party plug-ins need to be upgraded because you've upgraded to a new Mac or MacOS or a new version of Logic and old ones don't work any more? Or if the developer decided they don't want to develop a particular plug-in anymore or they go out of business (cf Native Instruments)?

 

Then I'll have only spent 30 quid on a big pile of plugins, 🤷🏻. Have you never gained something for free on top of a purchase you wanted and not looked the gift horse in the mouth? As it happens, all of the plugins in question are well supported in to hardware that I don't even own yet, so that's a non-issue anyway.

 

Quote

And what do you £1800 worth of plug-ins do that you couldn't do already with the massive number that are part of the standard Logic install? Logic already has more quality effects and instrument plus-ins than most of the studios that produced some of the all-time classic recordings. Wouldn't it be prudent to spend the time learning to get the best out of what you already have first? It strikes me that there are a significant number of users for whom the main reason to get a new plug-in is the vast number of pre-sets that come with it rather than learning how to create something new of their own.

 

You do come across as the fun police in this post. So what if someone wants to get a plugin in because, I dunno, it looks pretty. And, actually, there are plenty of plugins out there whose presets are very valuable in learning how to set up sounds yourself. (Logic's plugin presets can be helpful ) Sonible's 'Learn' suite is a great place to start offering features that Logic does not and it was available for a super deal on Plugin Boutique recently. Logic IS very good, but lets be honest, there are better sounding plugin products out there, you know that, I know that. Of the piles of examples I could give, Spitfire's free orchestral strings sound better than Logic's.  Loud_Melody has already said they want to pursue music, so why not have this discussion rather than gatekeeping the learning process? Music creation is supposed to be fun too and if a 3rd party sampler, plugin or utility product helps turn ideas in to reality, then why TF not?  I just got lucky with an online promotion and maybe Loud_Melody will too. 

 

Quote

No, not at all.

 

However, if the presets are any good you'll find that lots of other people are already using them and you will start to recognise them in other records.

 

Then £30 for a professional musican / producer is looking like a pretty good deal, I guess. 

[AndyTravis]

I use GarageBand on my iPad at home and if we decide to proceed we dump the project into logic to record full drums etc.

 

Its just a lot easier to use - the capabilities of logic far exceed that of GarageBand in terms of plug ins etc.

 

but for any demoing etc - GarageBand is ace, really good for getting ideas down.

 

Ive done some really good little projects on it and it’s really amazing that’s its free