The best DAW for music production: Full comparison and recording demo

We put Apple's Logic Pro X 10.5 update up against Ableton Live Suite 10 to see how the competing digital audio workstations stack up. CNET video podcast producer Stephen Beacham gives both DAWs a test drive.

Logic overview: 1:29
Producing a song in Logic: 4:08
Recording a synth in Logic: 6:50
Recording Drums in Logic: 8:38
Ableton Live overview: 11:12
Producing a song in Ableton Live: 14:40
Recording Bass in Ableton Live: 17:58
Recording Guitar into Ableton Live: 19:37
And the winner is....... 20:46

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#Logic #Ableton #musicproduction #musicproducer

[phivostheodorakis]

My favorite music production software is definitely logic.

[t-softtechnologies]

Nice video... Ableton is more flexible... And instead of recording the sessions into the arrangement, u can easily drag and drop your loops from the session view into the arrangement view which makes its creativity unbeatable... That's my opinion

[lateam]

Ableton is my favorite but 700 vs 200 it’s really a no brainier. Logic is just as capable for a lot cheaper

[oliverkerr]

Live loops was in garage band a long time ago. Still probably took inspiration from abelton live

[mdproer]

Its all about your workflow. If you are new to this and trying to make a choice between these 2 then I would say Logic X will give you the most bang for your buck. While Ableton has a steep learning curve its amazing for live performances and manipulating sounds.

[HifyTech]

It is painful to watch how you switch tabs on Ableton. You can literally press "ctrl + shift + w" on windows or just check the "view" tab for the "second window" to view all your windows at the same time. You forgot to mention the Ableton "capture mode" Also the latency could be due to your selected audio driver. I record without latency.

[Vedrajrm]

Loved the way the titles were introduced for different sections

[matthew.datcher]

I can't afford Pro Tools or its hardware accessories. So, I've been using REAPER. So far it's done everything I've needed.

[EduaroU]

Logic user here.
I love that I can plug my guitar (or bass) directly into Logic and get a pretty decent tone with just the Logic amps and plugins. As far as I can tell I can't do that with any other DAW - for that price at least. Maybe Cubase has similar - possibly even Digital Performer - but at around 4 times the initial outlay, plus the cost of upgrades - they cannot compete with Logic.

[ShashankSharma]

I worked on almost every DAW and ableton live is the best for music making

[RobsSynths]

Great vid. Nice to see a proper practical comparison. I agree the track view of logic seems nicer, but think the clip view isn’t. It takes up more view, I’m hoping it can change to smaller blocks like Ableton. Latency always has to be adjusted but think you had some incorrect settings. Also you can edit timing offset for tracks if you need to after. You mentioned about not having a push type clip controller but you have your midi keyboard, you can literally assign anything to it in Ableton..Clips, knobs. Build your track up with clips with the keys. You can even have a range of keys for one clip to change the pitch. Can Logic do that? Ableton also have Suites where you have many plugins included. As with the colours, they can be changed quite easily. Both look great and do a very similar job, but of the things you were doing can be done with Ableton 8 and it will still run on PC whereas Apple force you to update OS and computer.

[johnviera]

They’re both great tools. If you learn both you can be a two headed studio serpent. After 10 years I am still a novice on Ableton compared to these guys I see on YouTube. And I’m just starting to learn Logic Pro.

[songtrustceo]

As an edm producer. Ableton is the best DAW for me... Even better than pro tools for edm production.

[AhayahsProphetBahbahkuyah]

WHAT'S THE NAME OR THE MIXING BOARD YOU USING?

[sherrimoquin]

Does anyone know what happened to the 3:59 show from cnet

[PeterJaquesMusic]

did you check your buffer settings in ableton? you show that you changed the sample rate, but not the buffer, which you left at 256... if your system is decently powerful, you should be able to record at really low buffer settings -- like 64 samples -- which should give you no noticeable latency. same as logic or any other daw basically

[annlight]

me before watching this: personally i'd go with ableton
me after watching this: ...personally i'd go with ableton.
honestly it all comes down to which one you feel most comfortable with.

[musickman]

Is that a Digidesign Control 24? If so, is it fully functional with Logic?

[DJJustFrank]

You have to turn off the auto when recording live and the latency will not be there. There's a whole video about it

[johnebner]

I have been doing this comparison for a while now, and I am really torn between the two! Ableton can use VSTs with MIDI out. Logic cannot - it has AU support only. This is a big disadvantage for Logic; however, the AU timing is perfect. Ableton can modulate automation, Logic cannot (easily). I like the Drummers in Logic - Ableton does not have this. I like the Logic event editor - Ableton does not have this. Ableton hides plugins when you make another application active (on Mac) - I really hate this!!! I keep going back and forth between the two, and I tend to end up in Logic, even though I love Ableton. Logic 10.5 was really a game changer!