Logic platinum or pro tools?

[Mark Wheaton]

As a long time Vision user, I have had a hard time porting over to either logic or Pro Tools. However on my last session I used a fairly simple system.
The composer uses Vision and plays his temp files on a JV1080. He then records live tracks in Protools and uses only some of the temp tracks to augment.
We took his Vision cues and exported as MIDI files once he had locked his arrangements. We then opened these in ProTools setting the offset to match his start time in Vision. The whole thing worked fine, he could even tweek velocities etc, mute sections, whatever, and the players had tracks to play to with the tempo map setting click in Protools. The biggest problem is that most composers start their sequences at the start of music, but the offset in Protools usually starts earlier to give time for clicks and pre roll on digitized video. therefore you need to jog the MIDI files around which can be a little cumbersome. My method is to open the ProTools sessions set to the same start time as the MIDI sequence file. Then change the start time in ProTools. The problem comes when the composer wants to reimport the MIDI stuff. If you have some kind of note on the start of all the MIDI tracks, you can use this to line up on, otherwise it gets tricky. Some composers start music into the cue with silence at the cue start time, If this is the case, you need to add a note at the cue start time and then delete it once it is in Protools and properly lined up.
anyway this is my way of taking advantage of Protools MIDI stuff. I do find for pure MIDI composing, Vision is still far beyond Pro Tools. the ability to get at the note info in Vision with Graphic windows and List windows and Notation and strip chart and the fluid subsequence method of piecing together parts is so well thought out, not to mention the great Transpose and Modify features blah blah, I hope something like Vision comes along, Logic is just too tweek-head for my taste. And the MOTU people seem determined to chart their own proprietary course, adhering to standards is hard for them even though eventually they end up coming around. I am very wary of the whole FreeMIDI concept. I would prefer a standard MIDI network protocol that really works built into the O/S. this would open up vast potential and get rid of the OMS vs FreeMIDI wars. An overall MIDI network system would allow greater patch name management for one thing. Anyway...