Quote:
Originally Posted by dscheidt
I think that they are all excellent DAWs, and Logic is wonderful to write in, but ProTools does seem to have something in the mix engine that is not in the others
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The key question is ....
Do you have the exact same plugins instantiated on every track, aux busses, mix buss etc etc in all three daws? Or no plugins at all? Have you exported audio from one to the other and set up a static mix with all levels and pan positions the same?
If not, it can never be a true comparison of the qualities of the 'mix engine'.
I've never been a great fan of Logic's stock plugins, they always seem to be a bit uninspiring to me. I have done some albums excludively stock Logic plugins, but, subjectively, it felt like it took a lot longer to get the mixes nailed. Impossible to be objective about it, as every mix is different, every client is different, etc. I dislike the standard gui of stock Logic (and Cubase) plugins too.
I've got some mixes that still sound great to me dating back to Cubase's VST5 era, late 90's, but again it wasn't stock plugins, I had Yamaha's DSP Factory cards in there, giving me Yamaha 02R quality DSP Powered compressors and EQ on every track, and I was using reasonable 24bit convertors even then, and external hardware for reverbs, delays, exciters, finalizers etc.
Since I bought into the UAD plugins system, and McDSP ported over to Audio Units, I've been much happier with Logic's 'sound', and Cubase's for that matter.
I guess consistency, using the same plugins you know and like, probably has much greater impact on the final sound than any mix engine difference.
I think Pro Tools attracted the best plugin makers first, and has a longer history as a platform supporting plugins, as well as a long history of clients with deep pockets, and so the quality of plugins is a key factor, as more money was spent developing them early on.
I do think that whatever difference there is in audio engines must be very subtle, otherwise you'd hear the manufacturers actually making claims that their's is best! After all, why wouldn't they, and quite rightly too, but you don't see much of that.
So I guess it is largely down to plugins, and, perhaps, a more intuitive gui and workflow in Pro Tools.
PS I use Sonnox's Codex Toolbox for all my MP3 conversions, and am very happy to say I hear minimal difference between wav and mp3 files when using it, especially at the highest bit rates.