Give me your biased best DAW upgrade path opinion!

[michael]

So I'm sitting here looking at Live 7, Logic 8, and Digital Performer 5.

All three cost about $200 to upgrade, and all three offer improvements:

Live 8gets functionality improvements in many ways, and the option is there for roughly $140 more to get the Suite, which includes Session Drums (looks really good) and a ton of other synths and sample libraries. Also, Live 8 paves the way for Max For Live, which should be just insane, as most things in Live can be modified with a Max patch.

Logic 9 Has Mainstage 2, which is a great compliment to Live in many ways, but Kore 2 does a lot of what I would use it for. Logic is my favorite workflow, but that's in part because I spent months years ago working out a workflow in Logic, and many of the things I learned ther could be used in...

Digital Performer 6 The odd duck of the bunch. Most of the target audience isn't doing what I would do with it, so things like glitches in the audio while tweaking the sequence don't bother them, but in many ways DP is the most set up for playing a single instance as a long set. It's pretty easy to create a template where every Chunk is a separate song in your set, and to rapidly rearrange that set. Sure you can do similar things in Live and Logic, but they require an even more convoluted process to make sure everything is kosher etc. (track automation could be a real mess for one)


So, the question is, what update is the most valuable in your opinion? I'm tempted to stick with throwing money at Ableton Live, but I'm also tempted by Logics workflow, and DPs performance design. (plus DP is the current CPU champ apparently)

[michael]

Almost 30 views and no replies..... I'm thinking about just going with Live 8, I've been cashing coins for Amazon gift cards, and I'm almost to Suite!
I'm honestly thinking about going with DP6 as well, I love Logic, but I may be crazy, and it's probably my imagination, though it really sometimes seems that DP records MIDI more accurately, and has better quantizing features than Live or Logic....

[biomuse]

Good to see some well-deserved love for DP6 from you on this thread instead of that cloud of red herrings coming from you on the other thread.

For studio work, you know my biased opinion: DP6 all the way for its highest track/VI/fx count record (thanks to prerendering mode), per-track integrated pitch detection/editing/correction, superb workflow and powerful midi and audio editing/processing features.

Having said that, you should know that for live applications, when DP's prerendering mode is active, you will get gaps in the audio when you edit or tweak the active track due to DP having to refill the prerendering buffer with the changed data. Prerendering mode is awesome for working on tracks; but it's plainly not intended for use in live performance situations.

If improved live gigging is your main reason for the upgrade, I would agree with you that Live 8 is the best choice for that purpose.

[michael]

Good to see some well-deserved love for DP6 from you on this thread instead of that cloud of red herrings coming from you on the other thread.

No red herrings, I have mixed feelings about every DAW I've used and loved. It's the whole Yin/Yang thing.

I get glitches when tweaking tracks in DP 5.1.3, not sure if it's related, but yeah, one thing I would love to see MOTU do is make DP not stutter as much when tweaking things while cycling a few bars etc. Especially since I really think the interface lends itself to hour long sets.

[michael]

I'm importing our convo there here, but I'm still really thinking about DP BTW! Rest of your ending points were took.

CSEye's experiement is well-designed. There is no rational reason to be unsure of his results that I can see.

No, in that comparison you're referring to, DP5 had 75-80% OF the performance of Logic. There's no possible way that Logic could have been CPU kind and DP audio track king with the kind of difference in performance you're talking about.

BIG difference in soft synth performance (all CPU based) and audio track count (how well the DAW has implemented it etc.), with CPU, for at least 8 years if not longer, Logic has been vastly more efficient than any other DAW in soft synth/ plug in performance. DP though has always had crazy audio track counts.

Clippings is cool, but take a song that has time signature changes, and 15 plus parts and after arranging the 10 minute piece, try re-arranging the order of the parts in the sequence. This is where object, or clip based arrangement windows are sweet compared. Live and Logic are much better at that. The reason to use chunks during composition is for that sort of super fast arranging of the basics in a song. So in that sense there are workarounds, but it doesn't mean I still wouldn't love to see DP allow users to group MIDI in the Track Overview based on riffs etc.

See I'm kinda trying to convince myself to jump on DP.... arrgh!

[lord toranaga]

do them all.

you will eventually any way.

[michael]

do them all.

you will eventually any way.

I probably will. I have it be honest though, it's breaking my bank to keep up three DAWs, plus I have at least three plug ins and bundles that are due updates.... some of these will probably be necessary when I break down and move to Snow Leopard. Logic might just sit at 8 though. I love a lot of things about Logic, but I already have Guitar Rig, Live, and I don't really do that much time stretching anyway. Besides Lives time stretching was improved etc. and DP comes with a Melodyne type version of it!

[Slovenec]

I've never used DP but have been tempted to get it on several occassions as to me, it seems to be the ideal 'halfway house' between Protools' superior audio capabilities and Logic's superior midi capabilities.

If you are comfortable using DP, then stick with it. Personally, I don't think it offers nearly as many bells and whistles out of the box as Logic does with all those great synths and fx plug ins, not to mention that huge 40+GB library. DP also comes with quite a few nice plug ins including the Masterworx stuff and that new convolution reverb. I think Motu would do very good to build ALL of their current softsynths into DP itself and sell it at a reduced bundle price to compete with Logic for 'value for money'!

DP seems to be superior in the audio department (even comparing the latest Logic 9 version that still doesn't have any elastic pitch functionality agghhhh). Midi wise, both are right up there although I can assume that Logic would be superior in the notation editing department.

I haven't used Live but after playing with the 'lite' version of Live 6, I can't say that I got into using the program and couldn't stand it's GUI..... however I'm sure that a seasoned Live user would be able to convert me!!!!!