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 Saturday at 10:44 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 

[thodrik]

On 30/01/2026 at 11:04, DaleASmith said:

UA Luna. ✌️

I actually prefer Luna to Logic as well. 

 

I did buy a Mac purely to use with Logic. I do like Logic a lot, but I get option paralysis very quickly. I got a used Apollo that came with the ‘Luna Pro’ bundle. I thought Luna was a gimmick until I actually tried using it. 
 

For solo songwriting, virtual instruments etc, Logic is pretty special. I just don’t need it at the moment. 
 

Essentially I see Logic as a ‘creating stuff’ product and I see Luna as a ‘recording and mixing stuff’ product. I far prefer the process of tracking a band on Luna, particularly with an Apollo. 

 

I do have Garage Band on my Mac, I just have never opened it!

[BigRedX]

@Dood I was more being practical rather than trying to be the "fun police".

 

Back in the early days of plug-ins (around 2000) I was gifted the complete set of Waves effects along with their authorisation dongle from a friend who worked in studio equipment sales and had an install that was surplus to their requirements. This was back when none of the main DAWs came without any plug-ins included. I had bought ES2 and ESX24 for Logic and a complete suite of effects plug-ins for free was indeed a bargain. I used a selection of those plug-ins on just about everything I was working on for the next 3 or 4 years and they were great. 

 

Then I needed to upgrade my Mac (it's used first and foremost for my day job and the music use is a nice bonus) and unsurprisingly the plug-ins no longer worked. I had a look at the cost of upgrading to the latest versions of the few I thought I absolutely couldn't live without but they were scattered throughout the various bundles and IIRC the cost was more than the full version of Logic and that was just for upgrades. I ended up with a load of projects that I no longer sounded the same as they did on the old Mac. I also encountered a similar problem a few years later when I wanted to do a quick remix of a later band's studio session that had been recorded using Logic. The files used a multitude of 3rd party plug-ins and unfortunately many of them had been discontinued by their developer and those that were still available were prohibitively expensive. All I had wanted to do with open the existing project make a few level and EQ changes and bounce down the new mixes. In the end it was quicker and cheaper to pay someone to remix the tracks from scratch using the original stems and the current mixes as a reference point.

 

Since then I have mostly stuck with the plug-ins that come with Logic. I have a Simmons SDS V emulator that replaces the woefully inadequate set of samples I made when I used to own the real thing, but I'm sure I could recreate all the sounds I wanted using Retro Synth or ES2 if I really had to, and Helix Native which give me a bit more flexibility when recording my Bass VI parts, but again it's not an essential item.

 

Whether the 3rd party plug-ins are actually better is entirely subjective. IME what many people are buying when they purchase 3rd party plus-ins is not a "superior" sound manipulation algorithm but access to a few hundred new presets. Free or cheap 3rd party plug-ins might sound great but, they basically work in the same way as your neighbourhood drug dealer. Give you something for free or cheap and get you hooked so that when you need to upgrade you are hit with the full price. After my Waves experience I'm not so sure I want to go down this route again. If I was making a living from my musical activities it would probably be worth it, but I don't, and can't justify the cost when there are plug-ins that I already have that will never go out of date or be discontinued that will do the same job, and if I take the time, I can learn how to get the best out of them and not need to spend any money chasing something elusive.

 

The free Spitfire Strings might be better than those in Logic, but 15 years ago I was able to orchestrate the backing for a selection of Carols to use on an interactive Christmas website for a very well-known insurance company using just the plug-ins that came with Logic which were more than adequate for the job, and TBH I could have probably done that job in GarageBand. And, because of the sort of music I compose for my band, I'm not interested in realism but textures and atmospheres. This is why I also don't care about how realistic sounding amp models are, because what I'm really interested in is being able to make sounds that will work in the context of the music I am creating. For this I already have everything I need within the Logic install.

 

In the end it's up to each individual user. I'm just offering a potentially more cost effective long-term route.

[ezbass]

GarageBand is free, so why not start there and upgrade to Logic if necessary? Use the saved cash for something else you might need now.

Edited 1 hour ago by ezbass

[Dood]

16 minutes ago, BigRedX said:

@Dood I was more being practical rather than trying to be the "fun police".

 

In the end it's up to each individual user. I'm just offering a potentially more cost effective long-term route.

 

Thank you for taking my response with the humour intended and for your thoughtful reply.

 

Yeah, its a pain when upgrading systems. My current machine can no longer accept OS updates and therefore no updates to Logic. When I do finally upgrade, although my existing Logic install will work for now, it is recommended to buy the latest version to make use of all the newer functions in the curent version of Logic  (and the new ones in the Creator suite announced t'other day). So, even Logic will want me to move with the times and enjoy its in-built tech in exchange for the mighty dollar. 

 

Totally up to the individual and, one thing that occured to me whilst reading your reply, is that we're both offering a route to cost effectivity. You on one hand have responded to the OP in getting the best use out of Logic's own plugins first thus saving money. As the OP had suggested they wanted to get directly in to music, I'd suggested getting to grips with Logic straight away rather than learning Garageband first. So, saving the cost of time. - and then not wasting hours doom scrolling the sites I mentioned when tech-fomo kicks in! 

[BigRedX]

21 minutes ago, Dood said:

Yeah, its a pain when upgrading systems. My current machine can no longer accept OS updates and therefore no updates to Logic. When I do finally upgrade, although my existing Logic install will work for now, it is recommended to buy the latest version to make use of all the newer functions in the curent version of Logic  (and the new ones in the Creator suite announced t'other day). So, even Logic will want me to move with the times and enjoy its in-built tech in exchange for the mighty dollar. 

 

And there's one of the advantages of sticking with just what you get with Logic. If it's doing what you need now, it will still do what you need in the future. Up until a year ago I was managing perfectly well with an early version of Logic X. When you do finally upgrade all your Logic plug-ins will still sound exactly as they did before. Even if they have been updated or depreciated as in the case of ESX24 the new version still loads all the sample sets I made 25 years ago and they still sound the same as they did back then. Unlike my Simmons SDSV plug-in which suddenly made all my carefully edited drum sounds completely different because the developer had changed how a few parameters worked and although there was a single preference setting that needed to be toggled to get them back to how they were under the previous version, it was hidden away and not at all obvious.

 

There is a case for starting with GarageBand rather than going straight to Logic. The OP will already have it without needing to spend any money and has been said previously in this thread the multitude of features available in Logic can lead to option paralysis. I'd been making recordings for over 20 years starting with live to stereo tape and progressing through 4 and 8 tracks adding analogue and MIDI sequencing along the way until I went full in the box DAW, by which time I had built up enough recording knowledge for it not to be information overload.