Logic Pro vs Ableton Live 11 – Which is the Best DAW?

Ah, Logic Pro vs Ableton. A tale as old as time. This is Godzilla vs. Kong. Holyfield vs. Tyson. Mac vs. PC. Or hell, even Seinfeld vs. Friends. (We all know which is better).

Alas, we’re not here to debate the merits and inferiorities of beloved 90’s sitcoms. This one’s more about pop music than pop culture. And when you’re a musician, nothing may be closer to your heart than your DAW of choice.

Some of us fall in love with our first DAW and never find a reason to change. Others (myself included) have tried many. Little by little, finding various features we like, in constant pursuit of a DAW that can satisfy all of our needs.

Fortunately this week, Fabio from Noize London will be walking us through the triumphs and downfalls of two of the most popular DAWs on the market: Logic and Ableton. So let’s get into it and settle this score once and for all.

Workspaces: Logic Pro vs Ableton 11

logic pro vs ableton

Logic – In its arrangement view, you can easily create MIDI patterns, or you can drag, drop, and record audio.

The Inspector correlates to each individual channel and it provides us with a lot of options such as the ability to change out instruments to synths, or if there’s an audio channel, we can change the input depending on what we have plugged in. For example, microphones, guitars, synths, etc. And then you also have a wide range of FX so you can open EQs and compressors with ease.

Ableton – A lot of similarities here, but for Ableton your channels are on the right instead of the left side, where you have access to all the other features like volume and panning that Logic has.

You also have an open browser that allows access to FX. You can access different instruments and load them onto the channels. Very similar to Logic, yes. But the main difference is that the panels are switched around, and if you switch back and forth between both DAWs, it could lead to a little confusion.

We love the clip session view. Hit “tab” on your keyboard, and this allows you to drag and drop in loops, MIDI, audio, etc., and you can even record straight into it. You can play the part in an arrangement format from there. This means that you can start building a song without having to add it to the arrangement view. Then you can audition them to see how well your song is coming along.

Quickly change between scenes and different groups of audio or media information. Logic actually tried to copy this and called it Live Loop Grids and it works in much the same way. Play different loops and hear them synchronize with the BPM. And while you can audition parts in a very similar way, the Ableton layout is a little nicer in our view.

Ableton openly hosts all of its FX in the bottom panel, so you can load up an auto filter channel EQ, EQ Eight, and with native FX, you can access them directly without opening a separate window. However, there isn’t a mixer view. When you’re in Logic and you press “x” on your keypad, you’ll see a more traditional-looking mixer. From there you’ll see all the FX on individual channels.

Let’s tally up. With Ableton and regards to workspace, we love the clip view and how quickly you can access and change parameters within its stock plugins and not having to open any separate windows to do so.

With Logic, we feel there’s a bit more space with the mixer view being of real importance, especially when you’re doing both mixing and mastering.

Functionality: Logic Pro vs Ableton 11

Ableton has a function that speeds up your workflow that Logic doesn’t have, and that’s pretty important. If you hit “Command” and “F”, you can instantly search any plugin. This can save you a lot of time, and we certainly don’t need to sell you on the merits of that. You can also create groups within groups (Inception, anyone?).

With Logic, you do also have the ability to create folder stacks or summing stacks, but you can’t create a group within a group, and that’s a feature they should really have. However, Logic has a function that Ableton does not. With Logic, you can select a number of regions, name the region cell by the track name, or name the track name by the region cell. This makes it easier to quickly organize the naming of files to whatever you want.

This might seem a little nitpicky, but Ableton’s record function is FN+F9. Can’t it be a little simpler? Sometimes in a recording session, you don’t always have both hands available, so a simple “r” to record would seem to make more sense here. Maybe a bit picky, but these little differences often go a long way.

Audio Engines: Logic Pro vs Ableton 11

audio workstation logic pro vs ableton live 11

Fortunately, both platforms come with amazing audio engines. They have the ability to flex the time in audio. In Ableton, if you select a clip and use “warp”, you can directly warp the clip, or, the timing of the clip.

If you hold Shift with the bracket tool open, you can quickly stretch out clips or make them shorter. You can also create transient markers and shift the audio however you want. What’s really great is when you go from complex to beats, you can reduce or increase the sustain on a piece of audio. Logic has many similar functions for flexing audio regions, and it also has some cool flex time options like Tempofoam which has its own unique characteristics.

But where Logic really shines here is with an option for flex pitch, very much like Melodyne. This comes in handy when you need to retune vocals.

Overall, Ableton probably has the upper hand here due to its ability to reduce the sustain of the transient, but the flex pitch tool in Logic is also extremely useful if you need to retune a lot of audio.

Recording & Editing: Logic Pro vs Ableton 11

Whether audio or MIDI, you can record on both platforms with ease. Hit record, it’ll count you in, and you’ll be ready to go. Once recorded you can open your window and edit your MIDIs. You can “select all”, and then quantize with the Command-U function.

With Ableton, the MIDI roll or piano editor is actually pretty awesome. You can highlight all your MIDIs and play around with their interesting “Legato” function. Ableton also has Groove Pool which you can use to quantize the MIDI in a more shuffled manner. Simply find a groove that you like, bring it into the Groove Pool, and once you select, say, two-step accent 16ths, you can commit it, and then see how the MIDI notes have changed in velocity, length, and timing to match the groove.

Logic has a similar function, albeit more limited. You basically just have a swing dial.

Another nice feature in Logic is that the quantize settings are readily available from a dropdown menu. You can also decide on how strong the quantize is, as in how much it’s snapping to your desired settings. You can still access this in Ableton; it’s just not as easy as it should be.

Bottom line for MIDI, we love the Legato function and the Groove Pool in Ableton, and we also like Logic’s ability to access quantized settings all from a single panel.

Samplers

Logic has the quick sampler where you can easily drag and drop your samples. Personally we feel the function is a bit busy, but having the functionality of One Shot and Slice are very useful. You can also very quickly change and add transient markers if needed. The pitch and filter sections are also great, and very easy to access.

If you’re a producer, Ableton definitely had you in mind in regards to their sampler. Simply double click on a sample and it will load up automatically. From there you have access to filters and pitch in controls if you wish to transpose it, just like in the quick sampler.

But a big win for the Ableton sampler here is that it initially has less going on, but you can dig deeper by switching to controls where you have more visual aids as to what’s happening once you start to adjust different parameters. After all, their sampler has been around for a while now and it’s been refined over the years, whereas Logic’s quick sampler feels like it could afford to be a little smaller and more simple.

Synths & Instruments

synth

With Ableton, you certainly have a good selection of synths and instruments, and we really love the Wavetable. It’s one of the most inspiring to look at, and it really sounds fantastic. We also love the drum synth which has nice visual diagrams and sounds that are super easy to dial in.

Logic, however, offers a very big selection, but it’d appear that many of these have been carried over from Logic IX and maybe even Logic VIII, so they’re pretty dated looking but still sound great nonetheless.

On this front, Ableton certainly has a great selection, maybe slightly less inspiring if we had to critique. Logic also had a nice range of both old and new sounds. More or less, they’re pretty even here.

FX

And last, but certainly not least, we have FX. In lieu of a standard comparison, we’d like to simply tell you about the features we like for both.

Logic has a great pedal board where you can quickly add or remove FX to create your own unique chains.
Ableton has a map tool which you can quickly map to any parameter and modulate it depending on your settings.
Logic has one of the cleanest compressors we’ve ever seen, as well as many different circuits that emulate vintage gear.
Ableton has a nice echo delay.

There are likely hundreds or even thousands of features we could compare with one another, but like many instruments and tools, it often comes down to your personal preferences.

But wait… there’s more!

As Gunter excitedly told you in the video, you now have a chance to win $500 in your choice of studio equipment! Just click the video at the top of the page, like, subscribe and leave a comment!

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Video Transcript:

Günther:
Hello and welcome to the home of collaboration with me Günter Ableton Franz Hanz and today we going to be showing us the best DAW in the world.

Brad:
What’s up, my guy?

Günther:
Sorry, but who are you?

Brad:
The name’s Braedon but my friends call me Brayden Logic Bro-tholomew. You can call me Brad.

Günther:
What are you doing here?

Brad:
I heard Boombox is doing a video on which DAW is best. Logic Pro vs Ableton 11.

Günther:
Well the answer is clear and simple.

Brad:
Alexa, play Eye of the Tiger.

Fabio:

Hello and welcome to Boombox with me, your host, Fabio, from Noize London.

Today, I’m going to be showing you the ultimate showdown between Ableton and Logic. Two of the most popular DAWs on the market.

Workspaces

Okay, let’s start with workspaces. So here in Logic we have the arrangement view. Okay, so this is where you can really easily create MIDI patterns or you can drag and drop audio or you can record audio.

On the left hand panel, we have what’s called the inspector and this correlates to each individual channel and the inspector provides us with a bunch of options, such as we can change our instruments to maybe a synth, or if we have an audio channel, we can change our input depending on what’s plugged in. i.e. audio interface wise, microphones, guitar synths, and then we also have a range of effects, so we can only choose compressors very quickly and access to everything else that’s on our computer.

Now in Ableton we can see a very similar thing, except for the channels are actually on the right hand side here we have access to volume, panning, all those other functions that logic have. We also have this browser which is always open and this browser allows us to access again effects. We can also access different instruments and load them onto the channels.

So very similar except for the panels on the left and right are switched around and if you come back to logic for a second, you’ll see that the media panel is over here to the right. One of my favorite things about Ableton is the clip session view. So I’ve just hit tab there on my keyboard. Now this allows you to drag and drop in loops, midi, audio.

You can even record straight into this. And then from there what you can do is play the parts in an arrangement format. So what I mean is we can start building a song without actually having to add it to the arrangement view and then I can audition them to see how my song is developing. So you can really quickly change between scenes and different groups of audio or midi information.

Now Logic did try and copy this some years later and they call this live loop grids and it kind of works in the same way. So if I press play, I can play different loops and they kind of synchronize with the BPM. Again you can audition the different parts that you’ve put together in a very, very similar way, although I don’t feel like the layout is as nice as the one in Ableton, but maybe that’s just because I’m used to it.

Now Ableton does openly host all its effects in this bottom panel, so I can load up autofill channel EQ Eight and with the native effects I can access them directly without having to open a separate window. However, it doesn’t have a mixer view. In logic if I go to this button up here or I press X on my keypad, I have a mixer that looks a little more traditional, and then from here I can see all the effects on the individual channels.

So to tally that up the things I prefer about Ableton on the workspace front are for sure the clip view and how you can quickly access and change parameters within the stock plugins without having to open any separate windows. With Logic, I feel generally there’s a little bit more space and that mixer view is really important to me, especially when I’m doing mixing and mastering.

Functionality

In terms of functionality, Ableton has something that Logic doesn’t, which really speeds up workflow, which I think is one of the most important things. So if you hit command and F, you can immediately search any plugin. So let’s say I want the sound shifter, I can then go down with my d-pad hit enter and boom it loads it up. That for me just makes such a difference.

And you can create groups within groups, the sort of group inception if you’d like. How complex is the idea? Now in Logic you do also have the ability to create folder stacks or Summing stacks which is essentially grouping, but you can’t then create a group within a group, which is something they should probably add. However, a function that I really like that Ableton doesn’t have is that you can select a bunch of regions and then do functions, name region cells by track name or name the track name by the region cell.

So you can really quickly organize the naming of the files to what you want. Something that I find a little frustrating with Ableton is that their record function is FN and then F9, which is a little annoying because sometimes you don’t have both hands available and recording sessions and you just want to press something like R to start your recording.

I know I’m nitpicking here, but these kind of things make a difference. \

Audio Engines

Now both Ableton and Logic do come with amazing audio engines. And what I mean by that is they do have the ability to flex the time in audio and Ableton. If you select a clip and Warp is on, you can actually directly walk the clip or the timing of the clip.

So if I hold shift when I’ve got the bracket tool open, I can very quickly stretch this out or make it shorter. You also have the ability to create transient markers and shift the audio as you please, but the audio feature that I really like is when you go from complex to beats, and then what you can do is reduce the sustain of a piece of audio.

Now in Logic, you have very similar functions. You can hover over the audio region, wait until the bracket comes up, hit option and then flex it. Make it longer or shorter. Just like in Ableton, there are also some awesome different flex time options, including Tempophone, which has this very unique characteristic. But where Logic really comes in clutch is the fact that it has an option for flex pitch, which is essentially like Melodyne

And this is particularly useful when you need to retune things like vocals.

Ableton definitely has the upper hand here with being able to reduce the sustain of the transients. But this flex pitch tool in Logic is incredibly useful if you’re having to retune a lot of audio.

Günther:
So you’re halfway through this video and you’re looking at Fabio studio and you’re thinking to yourself, My God, I wish I had some of this equipment. You also have the chance to win $500 as a giveaway card that you can spend on any studio equipment that you like, so make sure to go to the link on the description below. This has been Günter Ableton Franz Hanz. Back to Fabio in the studio.

Recording and Editing

Fabio:
Recording in Ableton or Logic in audio or MIDI is very easy. You can just hit record. It will count you in and you’re ready to go. From there you can then open your window and you can edit your midi as you can select it all, you can quantized with command U and you’re good to go. Now the midi roll or piano editor in Ableton is pretty awesome. You can highlight all your midi and they do have this fantastic button called Legato.

Ableton has a feature called Groove Pull, which allows you to quantized the MIDI in a slightly more shuffled way. So the groove pull is up here. We can choose a groove that we like. Bring it into the groove pool and then we have access from it down here in this panel. So let’s do two step acts in sixteenths and then we can click on this button here to get it to commit, and you’ll see how the midi has changed.

And we can see that the midi notes have changed in velocity, length and timing to match the groove In Logic there is a similar thing, but it’s a bit more limited. You just have the swing dial here. What I do like in logic is that the quantized settings are quickly available and adjustable via this dropdown menu here on the left hand side.

You can also then decide how strong the quantize is, as in how much its snapping to the desired settings. And Ableton you do have to do a command shift U to bring that up and that for me is a step too much for something that I do think should be readily available. So in conclusion for me, we love the legato function in Ableton as well as the groove pull and in logic the ability to access the quantized settings, strength, swing and velocity all from one panel on the left hand side.

Sampler

Let’s talk samplers. Now Logic has the quick sampler and you can drag and drop your sample in just like this. Personally, I feel it’s a bit busy, but the functionality of classic one shot and slice do come in very handy and you can very, very quickly change and add transient markers if you need to. I do also quite like the pitch and filter section which are very easily accessible.

Now. Ableton definitely have the producer in mind when creating their sampler. All you have to do is double click on a sample and it will load it automatically into what’s called the sampler. Then from here you have access to filters which you can turn on or off and you also have access to the pitch in controls if you want to transpose it.

Just like in the quick sampler, just like in the logic sampler, you do have classic one shot and slice, but what I like is that initially it has less going on and then if you want to get a little bit deeper, you can always switch to controls where you have a little bit more visual aid as to what’s going on when you start adjusting different parameters.

So a big win for the Ableton Sampler here. I do think it’s better because it has been around for ages and they have refined it over the years, whereas the quick sampling logic just feels like it could be a little smaller, just a little just a little simpler.

Synths and Instruments

When it comes to synths and instruments in Ableton, you do have a good selection. My favorite being The Wave Table, which is definitely one of the most inspiring to look at and it sounds fantastic too. My other favorite is the drum synth, which has these nice little diagrams, and easy to dial in sounds.

On the other hand, in Logic you do have a huge selection, but some of these since have been carried on from Logic nine, maybe even Logic eight. And you can just tell by looking at them and that the design is really old. However, they do sound very good. So on that front, Ableton has got a great selection of synths and instruments which look slightly less inspiring if I’m being honest.

Whereas Logic has a huge range old and new, which also sounds fantastic.

Okay, last but not least effects. But rather than compare, what I want to show you are the effects that I really like in both Ableton and Logic. Logic has this awesome pedalboard where you can really quickly add and take away effects to create your own unique chains.

Ableton has a max for live LFO tool, which you can map to any parameter really, really quickly and get it to modulate depending on your settings. Logic has one of the cleanest compressors I’ve ever heard, as well as lots of different circuits available that emulate vintage gear. And Ableton has the echo delay. Now there are hundreds, if not absolutely thousands of features that I could compare Ableton to logic and logic to Ableton with.

But if you have a moment, comment down below with what your favorite features are from Logic or Ableton and tell us why. So thank you for tuning into Boombox. This IS the home of collaboration. Don’t forget to like and subscribe and I’ll see you very soon. PEACE!