Because GarageBand is included on macOS and iOS purchases, and we already use an Apple environment at our office, it was an easy decision to go with the 'free,' included program for our basic audio editing needs. We did also purchase Logic Pro X, since it is the 'big brother' …
Logic Pro X is the natural successor to GarageBand. GarageBand is a fantastic app, however, it's fairly rudimentary and doesn't have the robust features that Logic Pro X supports. Pro Tools is more expensive but does similar things to Logic. Thankfully, Logic rests in the …
Logic Pro X is in that sweet spot between amateur Digital Audio Workstations like GarageBand and high end DAWs like Avid Pro Tools. Logic Pro X is good enough to be used on high end productions for film, TV, commercials and such, while remaining inexpensive and accessible, with …
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 …
GarageBand and Logic Pro X are both music creation and audio editing software created by Apple.
GarageBand is a free offering that allows Apple users to create and edit music on all of their devices. Logic Pro X is a more robust creation and editing tool that offers users greater creativity and editing options.
GarageBand can be used by anyone with an Apple device. Users with no musical experience can pick up the software and create something, but it is also useful for skilled musicians who need to make something quickly and at no cost. Logic Pro X is aimed at music creators and editors who need more control and a greater number of features for their music, but who are also willing to pay a fee to do so.
Features
In this section, we will examine the respective benefits of GarageBand and Logic Pro X.
GarageBand is a free product, but it still comes with huge amounts of content that can satisfy the needs of music pros. It also has the advantage of having a very simple and clean user interface that makes learning the program less intimidating for beginners or users who are new to the Apple ecosystem. GarageBand even has a Learn to Play feature which provides tutorials and can teach users to play an instrument.
Logic Pro X offers some key advantages over its free counterpart. It includes nearly 20,000 loops and samples which is about 40 times larger than the library offered by GarageBand. It also offers a greater selection of sound stages and effects such as Space Designer to reproduce reverb in certain environments, and Sculpture. which can replicate the way objects vibrate to create and combine sounds. Logic Pro X also offers advantages to podcasters who feature multiple speakers or studio call-ins due to its ability to handle many different audio channels.
Limitations
GarageBand and Logic Pro X don’t have many drawbacks, but let’s look at a few for each.
GarageBand being free leads to it having fewer overall options than Logic Pro X. It is missing some key features like live looping and the ability to change tempo during a composition. It also contains smaller libraries of loops and effects options. For singers, it also features fewer and more rudimentary pitch correction tools.
Logic Pro X is targeted at more advanced users and due to its greater list of options and features has a steeper learning curve. Users have also reported that the program can be a resource hog and computers may need to be upgraded to really take advantage of the software. Another downside is that Logic Pro X (like GarageBand) is only offered on Apple devices and some users prefer software that works on all platforms and is similarly priced.
Pricing
As mentioned in previous sections, GarageBand is free on all Apple platforms and even comes preloaded on Macs. Logic Pro X can be purchased for $199.99. A 90-day free trial is also available.
GarageBand is great for demo tracking for songwriting and and simple audio editing of spoken word or podcast applications. It is also great for making EQ adjustments on audio from other macOS or iOS programs for easy export back into those programs. GarageBand isn't well-suited for mastering, however, and it's a little difficult to get volume levels up in post-production if capture wasn't just right
Logic Pro X has been particularly well-suited for recording, mixing, and mastering our full-band audio content. We have used it to capture several songs each year and have mixed and mastered them to professional levels for posting to streaming services. We have been able to use it with our current digital console as a great DAW, seamlessly connecting for the 'live' recording of several services. It is also well-suited for the mixing and editing of podcast and sermon content. Logic Pro X is not the best for mixing livestream audio, in a live environment, even with the added plug-ins and effects available. There is just enough lag that it was not the best option for this usage
It's dang simple for anybody who knows even a little about recording software. It's not something just anyone can open and immediately be a professional at, but things are clearly marked, the help documentation is great, and it's easy to explore and discover functionality that can aid in your production workflow.
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.
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.
Adobe Audition is another great audio editing/recording software, in fact it is much better compared to GarageBand and has much more effects. However, it has a pretty large price tag while GarageBand is completely free. Also, Adobe Audition has a very steep learning curve which makes it hard for our staff to get used to the software. Considering all this and after deep analysis we decided to opt for GarageBand, well at least for now. We may change in the future depending on our needs.
We use several different audio editors, the main reason for this is to have software available to cover most staff experience.
However, we find that a good portion of new staff were familiar with Logic Pro X, meaning that there was reduced training time involved by having the software available. This was perhaps the main reason we made the purchase decision and this fact is testament to how prolific Logic Pro X is in the audio community, you'd be silly not to have it available in any business where content creation is important.