Why I Use Pro Tools
What I liked about Sean’s article is that he gave his honest opinions about why he uses Logic. He also makes it very clear that he doesn’t use Logic exclusively. There are some tasks that he prefers to do in Pro Tools.
Having used both programs extensively myself, I feel that Sean paints a very realistic picture.
As you know (and as several readers have pointed out), I’m a pretty big fan of Pro Tools. All the tutorial videos I’ve done so far have been in Pro Tools.
So am I anti-Logic? Not at all! In fact, Logic was my primary DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) for a couple years. I got to know it very well. I even won a songwriting contest with one of the songs I recorded in Logic.
So why the switch?
My reasoning for switching back to Pro Tools is very similar to Sean’s reasoning for choosing Logic. It was the program that I “cut my teeth” on. Everything I know about digital audio workstations, I learned in Pro Tools. I’ve taken courses, read books, and spent countless hours in front of Pro Tools, both in big studios and in my home studio.
Pro Tools was the first full-featured recording platform I ever learned. Had I learned Logic first, then I’m sure I’d be singing its praises today instead.
My Logic Sabbatical
As I mentioned earlier, I switched completely over to Logic for a couple of years. I did this for a few reasons.
- I had outgrown my Mbox. I needed more inputs, and I didn’t want to spring for a 002.
- I had become very familiar with all the non-Digidesign audio interface manufacturers. I was particularly impressed with PreSonus at the time, so I bought a Firepod.
- I knew Logic was powerful, and I knew the basics of how it worked, but I wanted a more in-depth understanding, so I opted to learn it by using it exclusively in my home studio.
Switching DAWs is a painful process. While they all do the same basic functions, they each do them completely differently from each other. I had to re-learn keyboard commands and drop-down menus and workflow…everything.
I would be lying if I claimed that the process was without frustration, because my patience was tried many a night, as I struggled to do simple tasks like cross-fades and MIDI quantization.
After a few months, however, I was rolling. I wouldn’t say I was a power use, but I could run a recording session with confidence and produce a passable mix at the end of a project.
I remember the turning point for me, the moment that started me back on the path to Pro Tools. A friend and I were tracking drums at his home studio. He was playing drums, and I was running the session, which happened to be in Pro Tools.
Everything came naturally. I had always felt a little bit clumsy in Logic, like I didn’t quite have complete control of the session. Not to overly romanticize things, but sitting in front of a Pro Tools rig again felt like coming home for Thanksgiving after being gone since Christmas.
The Prodigal Son Returns
I knew I had to get back into Pro Tools. But why? Aside from the fact that I learned Pro Tools first, why couldn’t I just stick with Logic? Well, there are a few features I missed. I’ve listed them below. This is by no means an exhaustive list, but these are some of the big reasons that mattered to me.
Simplicity – A Blank Slate
When someone completely new to recording asks me what software to get, we obviously discuss Pro Tools, and simplicity is a word that I often use. Don’t get me wrong, Pro Tools is complex (as are all DAWs), but to me it has the most simplistic layout.
There are two windows – the Mix Window and the Edit Window. (Version 8 introduced a MIDI edit window, to be fair.) Logic, much like Cubase, Sonar, Digital Performer, etc., has a lot of windows to navigate through, and there are a lot of buttons in each of those windows.
It’s not a difficult thing to learn, but being away from the two-window layout of Pro Tools, I felt like my workflow suffered a bit.
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