Ableton Live vs. Logic Pro X

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Ableton Live
Score 7.9 out of 10
N/A
Ableton headquartered in Berlin offers Ableton Live, the company's flagship digital audio workstation and audio editing suite.
$79
Logic Pro X
Score 8.6 out of 10
N/A
Apple offers Logic Pro X, an audio editing application.
$199.99
Per License
Pricing
Ableton LiveLogic Pro X
Editions & Modules
Live 10 Intro
$79
Max for Live - Crossgrade
$79
Live 11 Intro
$99
Max for Live
$159
Live 10 Standard - Students & Teachers
$269
Live 10 Standard
$359
Live 11 Standard
$449
Live 10 Suite - Students & Teachers
$449
Live 10 Suite
$599
Live 11 Suite
$749
Live 10 Intro - Push
$799
Push + Live 10 Standard - Students & Teachers
1,068
Live 10 Standard - Push
1,078
Push + Live 10 Suite - Students & Teachers
1,248
Live 10 Suite - Push
1,278
Starting Price
$199.99
Per License
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Ableton LiveLogic Pro X
Free Trial
NoNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Ableton LiveLogic Pro X
Best Alternatives
Ableton LiveLogic Pro X
Small Businesses
Descript
Descript
Score 8.4 out of 10
Descript
Descript
Score 8.4 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Adobe Audition
Adobe Audition
Score 8.3 out of 10
Adobe Audition
Adobe Audition
Score 8.3 out of 10
Enterprises
Adobe Audition
Adobe Audition
Score 8.3 out of 10
Adobe Audition
Adobe Audition
Score 8.3 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Ableton LiveLogic Pro X
Likelihood to Recommend
10.0
(0 ratings)
9.0
(0 ratings)
Usability
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
9.6
(0 ratings)
9.6
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Ableton LiveLogic Pro X
Likelihood to Recommend
Ableton can be used in all the scenarios where music production is required. Whether it be professional studios or if it is home productions. It can be used almost anywhere as the features of this software can fit almost in any place. It is also used by professional teams in big companies for marketing and presentation music. I cannot think of any scenario where this is not well suited. If you're making music the professional way, Ableton is the ladder to success.
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Logic Pro X is excellent for anyone already in the Apple ecosystem because it's based on a similar style of user interface and integrates well with other Apple products (iPad, etc.). It's great for recording live instruments, as well as electronic music production and podcasting, etc.
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Pros
  • Fast workflow, can go from idea in mind to actualy music in short time
  • Big community, always easy to find an answer
  • 3rd party bolt-ons like Max4Live
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  • Audio Editing
  • Midi Editing and composition
  • Audio mix down and mastering
  • Live music performance, although we don't use this feature in our business
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Cons
  • VST Plugin Management - Once you get 100s of VST plugins, it is a major pain to keep them all organized.
  • Replacing Moved WAVs - When you move the WAV samples, there is the ability to auto-search and replace, but it rarely works. Most often, you have to manually replace the WAVs.
  • Latency - The ability to autocorrect sync issues due to sound card latency is supposedly a feature offered by Ableton Live, but I have not been able to get it to work correctly, and often have to fix the latency issues myself.
  • Freeze Occasionally Doesn't Work - Theoretically, you can freeze any track to bounce it to a WAV, but sometimes these WAVs end up blank. This happens with the Access Virus TI-2, for example.
  • Clicks at Loop Points - Due to quickfades, loops sometimes have clicks in them, particularly if they have a lot of bass frequencies.
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  • Logic Pro X is designed for music editing, so the help documents and videos don't often address my needs--would love tutorials for podcasts
  • It's designed for someone with more technical expertise than I have, so it can be overwhelming at times
  • Would like to color code segments more easily
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Usability
No answers on this topic
Like every DAW, it takes some time and getting used to, but Logic's tools and interface just make sense to anyone who is familiar with Apple products and music tools.
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Support Rating
I haven't had to reach out to support yet, but they're great at keeping me abreast with updates, compatibility issues, new features, and tons of videos on how to use the software. I feel like they're helping me success by giving me tools I can use in my daily work.
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The user community of Logic Pro X is vibrant, responsive, and lively. There are many great forums out there where you can solve any problem you encounter, whether it's sound card latency, a certain plugin not working, audio routing, multitrack issues, or virtually anything else you run into. The community is so helpful that I'm giving Logic Pro X a 10 in this department, despite having never contacted their official support department. I've never had to, since there is such a great user community.
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Alternatives Considered
Ableton Live has just the right feature set for electronic music production. It offers more professional features than GarageBand, while not featuring the level of hardware integration or other high end features that you find in Avid Pro Tools. However, I prefer Ableton Live over Avid Pro Tools for electronic music and loop-based or sample-based music production. Pro Tools is great when you are in a studio that has the hardware and you are laying down track after track of recorded audio. But Pro Tools does not have any features to help with songwriting, production, composition, or arrangement. Ableton Live is made with the creator in mind so it has features like the Live view, as distinct from Arrangement view, which allow the creator to easily mix-and-match different sounds and arrangements as a way of discovering what works and what doesn't for a song. Pro Tools is better when the song is already written and you just want to record it, but Ableton Live is better when you are still searching for the eventual arrangement of the song and want to experiment with a lot of different options
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Logic Pro X is like the big brother to GarageBand - it can do SO much more and has many more attractive features. The workflow and interface are similar enough to make onboarding a little easier if someone has used GarageBand, but the effects and plug-ins of Logic make it a far better product in the long run. Logic is able to utilize more of the computer's power, as well, taking full advantage of Apple's processors in bouncing and rendering the final products
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Return on Investment
  • It's helped me spend less time troubleshooting and more time writing
  • It's allowed me to make my studio mobile, so I can work from anywhere
  • It's known in the industry, so it's easy to collabrate
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  • Powerful sound tools, centralized in one place for relatively very little money (when we purchased it, it was $200/user for a perpetual license)
  • Simplified workflow, since we handle all our sound needs in one place
  • We used to do our sound editing and mixing in Adobe Premiere, right along with the video. Moving sound production to FPX has DRAMATICALLY improved the quality of our soundtracks.
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ScreenShots