OT: In praise of Logic Express

["Warren Sirota" <wsirota@wsdesigns.com>]

I've been goofing around for about a year with Ableton 6, not seriously trying to stretch it for performance - just using it as a recorder/editor/mixer, and I just decided to give Logic Express a try, simply because so many of the people here commend the sound of Logic. Oh yeah, and I got ticked off that the $500 Live package doesn't  come with an integrated audio editor.

I haven't played that much yet with Logic Express, but I have to say that what you get for $200 is extremely impressive, and so far seems to fit my way of working and thinking much better than Live. 

Here's a small sampling of what is included, that's not in the ableton base pkg:
- Notation (and not bare-bones, either, tho I'm sure it's no Sibelius)
- audio file sample editing
- some very nice guitar effect presets and amp simulations
- a number of very interesting synths and drum machines 
- a sane, multi-dimensional interface to loop management
- the most intelligent approach to take management that i've yet seen

It's harder to learn than Live.  It thinks quite differently than Live. But I'm producing so much cool stuff just going through the tutorials that I'm having a great time.

My feeling with Live after a year (blame it on my own lack of creativity if you like) was: man, i sure am going to have to spend a lot to get really tricked out here. My feeling with Logic Express is that there are months of exploration ahead with the resources provided out of the box.

Warren