Music is produced in DAWs (Digital Audio Workstations). This lesson is going to look at the basics of DAWs, specifically Logic Pro X.
View the full lesson at What is a DAW?!? (Logic Pro X Basics) | JustinGuitar
Audacity is a very powerful daw for windows. Also MuseScore4 will allow you to write scores for many different instruments and it can even play them for you, and export it as mp3. MuseHub offers you free effect and sound plug-ins for both of these. These free tools are great for windows. I tried to record my acoustic with a dirt cheap mic. An equalizer effect made the sound much better.
Calling Audacity a ‘DAW’ is a bit of a stretch IMO. There’s a lot of things you would expect to do in a DAW (like multitrack recording and MIDI) that it cannot do.
It also has a rather clunky workflow for anything except fairly simple music production.
It’s a damn good audio editor/manipulation system and, in some cases, does some things which full DAWs don’t do so well and it’s a lot easier to learn than full DAWs.
For simple (mainly single track) recording and editing it’s OK.
But I wouldn’t call it a DAW.
Cheers,
Keith
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For Apple users, the free GarageBand app is available for MacOS, iPadOS, and iOS.
It is quite powerful, but I prefer VoiceMemo for simple recordings…tracking my progress, etc.
Also, Logic Pro has just been released for iPadOS and (maybe) iOS. Not free…subscription based, IIRC.
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@Tbushell I agree about Voicememo - a quick way to get an idea recorded as a demo before it escapes memory, and to find out ‘if you hear what I hear’.
Previously, I used Reaper, but now using Cakewalk (formerly Sonar). Having used two DAWs, you start to know what to look for. I agree with the comment about developing familiarity with workflow in your preferred DAW.
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This looks like a very interesting course. I am interested in having a go with Logic Pro. Obviously I need an Apple Mac of some kind. I was wondering what would be the minimum spec that I need. For example, would a Mac Mini M1 with 8 GB of memory be sufficient, or would I need more memory (e.g. 16 GB) or a more powerful CPU (e.g M2 or M4). The reason I mentioned the M1 Mac Mini is because those are now getting close to end of life, and there are lots of really good used deals online.
I currently own a very old MacBook Pro that is too old to support what I need for this (it’s an old Intel CPU based one), so I would like to know what I would need to purchase to enable me to run the latest versions of Garageband and Logic Pro, and have sufficient memory and CPU horse power to be able to run everything presented in this course. I’m concerned about being able to support enough tracks and plugins. For example, in the introduction video the project has at least 15 or 16 tracks, so I would want to support at least that amount to be able to complete the course. I’m thinking minimum hardware for now. I can always upgrade later if I decide to get more into it. For now, this is just an experiment, so I want to keep the cost to a miminum. Any advice would be gratefully appreciated. I’ve looked online but there is very little information about this. Everyone just recommends the latest thing, of which the least expensive option right now would be the M4 Mac Mini.
Sample size of 1 … I run Logic Pro (and Garageband) on my 2020 vintage macbook air, Apple M1 chip, 8Gb, and I don’t run into too many issues. I have had some latency on monitoring with LogicPro using some plugins, but you can reduce / remove these issues with changes to the I/O buffer size and LogicPro has a low latency monitoring mode that works pretty well.
Keep in mind that a full install of LogicPro will take up the best part of 75Gb. Right now that’s the thing that’s got me considering an upgrade. If I did upgrade, I’d probably go with more memory and faster processor but that’s more about future proofing.
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Sample size of 2 
. I was able to run LogicPro on my Intel i7 iMac with 16GB RAM. I’ve never needed more than half a dozen tracks and the memory footprint in prstat wasn’t high, but it can use a fast cpu. I didn’t mind the speed on the i7, but it was materially faster at stem extraction, applying its auto equalizer and bumping after I upgraded to a MacBook Air M3 (for unrelated reasons, namely portability to where the guitars live).
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Logic Pro is paid-for software and runs only on Macs. I use Cakewalk Sonar these days. It has a good free tier, and it runs on Windows. Also, there is a simpler version called Cakewalk Next which runs on both Mac and Windows and is completely free.
Download links below:
Cakewalk Sonar and Cakewalk Next - Windows
Cakewalk Next - Mac
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Contrary to what some people are saying, logic pro has been available for iPads with an M series chip for a while now.
I did the one week free trial when it came out, and it worked fine on my M2 iPad Air.
I was talking with somebody at work on Friday. She is a long time guitar player who likes the Blues but donated all her gear due to arthritis. I suggested she look into lap steel as an alternative.
Anyway, the conversation pivoted into home recording which I have zero experience in outside of recording myself on my phone and posting it to YouTube. She mentioned Garage Band and then really talked up Logic Pro.
This sent me down the rabbit hole of looking into it. As I normally do, I looked at the reviews, sorting most recent to display first. From what I read, if you have Logic Pro I advise against upgrading to the most recent version. It is getting some serious hate, like 75+% negative reviews, many of which say they are abandoning it altogether.
Having never used it, I can’t speak from a first hand experience but want to put this out there for anybody currently using it to do your homework first before upgrading.
Many thanks to all of the people who replied to my original post from a couple of weeks ago about Garageband and Logic Pro. Just to let you know, I ended up buying a used M1 Mac Mini. I was a bit concerned about the 8 GB of memory on the base model, but I was able to find one with 16 GB for 220 pounds on Ebay, which I thought was a really good buy. I’ve just started using Garageband. So far it looks great, but I don’t have many comments yet because I’m so far on scratching the surface of what it can do. It is very easy to use though.
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Hi Joe, I’ve just started using Garageband. I think it will take a while before I will need to upgrade to Logic Pro, but so far I’m only scratching the surface of what I can do with it. Currently, I’m just using it to create backing tracks, and then record myself playing over those backing tracks so I can critique my playing. Previously, I have been using a looper pedal to do the same kind of thing on a simpler scale, bascially playing along to myself. WIth Garageband it is much more flexible. I can add drums and bass etc.
Regarding your comments about Logic Pro, Apple have recently made a big change to how they deliver the product. Previously, it was a one-off payment of (I think) 199 pounds for the full ownership of the Logic Pro app, which also included free lifetime updates. Apple have now changed that to a subscription-based system. For a subscription of 12.99 per month, you get something called Creator Studio, which includes Logi Pro plus a bunch of other apps such as Final Cut Pro, which is video editor like Adobe’s Premiere Pro. I think that is the thing that a lot of people are upset about. I’ve watched some reviews on the latest version of Logic Pro. It looks really good to me. They have a added a lot of useful things. I could be wrong, but I don’t think people are upset about the latest version of the software. I think they are upset about the subscription idea. Also, for me personally I am ok with the subscription model. I think 12.99 per month is good value. It just means that you don’t own the software, so you have to keep paying the subscription otherwise you lose access. I am familar with this system because I’ve had a subscription with Adobe for years for their photo editing software, and I don’t have a problem with it personally.
Hi Mark, that’s a possibility, but the reviews I read were specifically on the Logic Pro app vs. the creator studio. Many of the commenters talked about functionality that had been removed. It did still seem to have the option for the purchase when I looked.
I haven’t used anything other than my phone. I feel I want to get better playing before I put in the time using garage band, or anything that costs money. My post was more to alert those that do use Logic Pro to read the most recent reviews before moving forward with an update.
It’s still offered as a one-off payment, with the same features as the subscription version (but without the other software included in Creator Studio).
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I might be wrong, but I believe the issue is that the new version defaults to having a lot of advanced features turned off. They are still there, but not the default setting. I guess this is to make the transition from GarageBand easier and less daunting.
You can currently purchase Logic as a one time thing - I did that because I already ‘own’ FinalCut Pro, so didn’t want to get a subscription to something I own already. I would expect that at some point they will drop the one time purchase thing though.
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