Re: [L-OT] Stick With Logic Audio or Go Back to Cakewalk?
2000-04-17 by Sascha Franck
Michael Wolfindale wrote: >I am now not sure whether getting Logic Audio was a good idea. I am >finding >it difficult to get the hang of, never mind master it - whereas with >Cakewalk, I mastered most of it in a short time (although I had used an >older version a long time before that). Just one thing about that: As soon as you WILL be a bit more into Logic I'm pretty much sure that you won't find it that complicated any longer. Actually I learned to do what I needed in like 2 weeks. After that (IMO short) period of time I've been able to master almost everything that I was doing in Cubase before (which I was actually using for 6 years on a daily base until I switched). >I am 15 and doing one of my GCSE >(UK exams for 14 - 16 year olds) Music compositions, which has to be >mostly >finished in about two weeks Well, ok, that's a hard time schedule. But, maybe it's possible for you to borrow a copy of Cakewalk from somebody who's not using it for those two weeks... I wouldn't trade in Logic for Cake in any case, just read on... >I'd be interested to know what other people think of this - should I stick >with Logic Audio (and probably struggle), or go back to Cakewalk? I >asked a >friend who's into computers (but not really music software), and he said >that the best programs are complicated to use at first. As said above, I would in no case switch back to Cakewalk. Logic, in almost all aspects, is the far superior sequencer on the Windows platform. Anyways, a question before you decide: Is Logic running stable on your system? Especially: Do you get tight MIDI to audio sync and a good performance? If you can answer with "yes" to both questions, you should really try to borrow a copy of Cakewalk to finish your exams but stay with Logic after all. Some points about Logic: - Great handling of almost all MIDI tasks. - Great part handling and zooming features in your arrangement = speeds up your working enormously (at least that's what it did over here). - Flexible audio engine, supporting all kinda plugin formats (DX, VST1/2, internal). Will even be WAY better in the upcoming 4.5. Leads to: - Internal plugins. If you're doing audio you gotta buy a more or less expensive external plugin package to achieve what you can with Logic's internal plugins. - Screensets (!!!), awsome feature. - Working in multiple editors at one time (does Cake do that? Don't know), again speeding up things. - Superflexible MIDI routing and effecting via the environment, you can customize the way you're working and make Logic to integrate flawlessly in your system. - Hyperdraw! Awsome for automating things, I would never be able to live without it again. - Great look (IMO), not THAT unimportant, you gotta like the instruments you work with (and to me Logic is nothing less than an instrument). - Platform compatibility! Extremely important if you ever plan to do some professional work (I wouldn't happen to know what a GCSE is, but it sounds like important ;-). In general almost all halfway professional studios run Logic, most of them still use Macs for that. With Cakewalk you'd be stuck to the Windows platform and you'd have to do quite some efforts to transport any projects of yours to another studio. With Logic this is just a breeze. Burn a CD or just put your song on a floppy and you're all set, the Mac will then load it more or less flawlessly. I could perhaps list hundreds of more features that make Logic superior for me, but that should be enough for now. Lemme ask a final question: What are the things that make Logic so hard to understand/use for you? Maybe we could help you to sort some things out if you'd be a bit more specific. So far, Sascha