How do all, I'm new around these parts so be gentle with me

I'm using a Powerbook G4 Titanium and an M-Audio FW1814 to do band location recording, pissing about with loops at home and live 'DJ-ing' (really just sticking on songs between band sets when engineering, if I'm honest ), and have got on okay with Garageband for everything for the past year or so, but I'm starting to feel a bit limited by it. I'd like to do stuff like adding effects to just one section of audio on a track, and have a few more MIDI options, audio editing and suchlike.

I've looked at M-Powered Pro Tools, since I'm on an M-Audio interface, and obviously Logic is the program of choice for a lot of Mac users - anything else I should take a look at or advice on those two?

I did a degree in Audio Technology a few years ago, and everything was largely PC based (Lord knows why!), so I'm pretty au fait with Cubase's user interface and features, but I made the jump to the Mac last year. SO much more stable, I loves it.

Um, yeah - any help or advice you guys can give me would be much appreciated!

Cheers,
Ian

Quote smokingbeagle:

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I'm pretty au fait with Cubase's user interface and features, but I made the jump to the Mac last year. SO much more stable

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For info, Cubase runs great on the mac these days.

However nothing much can compete value-for-money wise with Logic right now.

well Logic with its price drop is a very appealing peice of kit. and with Logic Express at just £130 ish, is something you may want to take a look at. Obviously going from garageband to Logic may not be such a difficult learning curve as going to pro-tools. pro-tools, may, be better for your band recording. id say take a look at Logic. "MIDI options" great, "audio editing" good, "effects" fantastic! hope this may help.
peace

Magic stuff, thanks; may well mooch around for an evaluation copy of Logic!

Logic Express or, if you've got £300, Logic Pro. It integrates seamlessly with Garageband and includes all the Garageband Jampacks. It wouls be hard to justify anything else in your position!

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Dynamite with a laser beam...

That sounds good, to be honest I was looking at Pro Tools mainly due to reputation and people bemoaning the fact that you've got to have DigiDesign or M-Audio hardware to run it; thought I might take advantage of the fact that the FW1814'll work with M-Powered.

Since the price of Logic Pro 8's been cut, is it worth at looking at Logic Pro 7 as the price of that seems to have been rammed through the floor? Are the extra features of v8 worth an extra couple of hundred quid or not? I've got the SoS reviews of both, but if anyone who's upgraded or has experience of both wants to offer anything I'd be a happy beagle

There are loads of Logic vs ProTools threads for you to look up.


But am amazed that you feel the need to look for a cheaper alternative to Logic 8 - it is absurdly good value for money

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Matt
www.krcollective.org

Most of the pro ProTools stuff is primarily about the TDM (old) or HD versions. The M Powered stuff and LE are probably not going to get you much further than Garage Band. Logic or an update/crossgrade of Cubase are probably your best bets.

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"It all seems so stupid, it makes me want to give up, but why should I give up when it all seems so stupid?"

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Since the price of Logic Pro 8's been cut, is it worth at looking at Logic Pro 7 as the price of that seems to have been rammed through the floor? Are the extra features of v8 worth an extra couple of hundred quid or not?

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no and yes. if you aint got the money for Logic 8 get Express.

Quote smokingbeagle:

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That sounds good, to be honest I was looking at Pro Tools mainly due to reputation and people bemoaning the fact that you've got to have DigiDesign or M-Audio hardware to run it; thought I might take advantage of the fact that the FW1814'll work with M-Powered.

Since the price of Logic Pro 8's been cut, is it worth at looking at Logic Pro 7 as the price of that seems to have been rammed through the floor? Are the extra features of v8 worth an extra couple of hundred quid or not? I've got the SoS reviews of both, but if anyone who's upgraded or has experience of both wants to offer anything I'd be a happy beagle

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I'm not sure what you mean... are you maybe looking at Logic 7 upgrade prices or something? Logic 7 on its own was twice the price of Logic 8 last time I looked. In any event, I wouldn't buy Logic 7... OSX is going to leave it behind, if it has not done so already - it will have a short shelf life.

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Dynamite with a laser beam...

Great stuff, thanks for that. Had been looking around at Logic 7 secondhand (which now seems to go for around the 100-150 quid mark) and maybe upgrading; if Logic 8's worth the extra moolah I'll put the whole thing on hold for a month or so until I've got the cash for it!

I'd clocked that M-Powered PT is basically PT LE, but having had little experience of either the name and the excitement in some bits of the press that there was a non-Digidesign PT option kinda got me interested. From what you guys have said (and the Pro-Tools vs logic discussions that have come up in some forums, thanks Matt!) I think Logic's going to be the way to go.

Um, if anyone's got any thoughts on whether it's worth taking advantage of the weak dollar to buy in from the US I'd also appreciate them...hope I'm not being really cheeky by plugging you all for information when I've only just pitched up here!

We all started somewhere. Keep asking questions and we'll try to start you off right!

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"It all seems so stupid, it makes me want to give up, but why should I give up when it all seems so stupid?"

On whether to buy from the US, see this recent thread where nobody got too opinionated about anything much, really.

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Dynamite with a laser beam...

Quote Steve Hill:

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On whether to buy from the US, see this recent thread where nobody got too opinionated about anything much, really.

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I enjoyed that

Quote smokingbeagle:

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Great stuff, thanks for that. Had been looking around at Logic 7 secondhand (which now seems to go for around the 100-150 quid mark) and maybe upgrading; if Logic 8's worth the extra moolah I'll put the whole thing on hold for a month or so until I've got the cash for it!

I'd clocked that M-Powered PT is basically PT LE, but having had little experience of either the name and the excitement in some bits of the press that there was a non-Digidesign PT option kinda got me interested. From what you guys have said (and the Pro-Tools vs logic discussions that have come up in some forums, thanks Matt!) I think Logic's going to be the way to go.

Um, if anyone's got any thoughts on whether it's worth taking advantage of the weak dollar to buy in from the US I'd also appreciate them...hope I'm not being really cheeky by plugging you all for information when I've only just pitched up here!

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I have M-Powered and my next step is to move to Logic. I agree with Steve - ignore PT and go with Logic. It is much better value for money. PT LE/M-Powered is a totally different beast to HD. The price does reflect this however.