Going crazy over sound-quality in PT vs Logic

[timeey]

Okey, so i just bought Logic Pro, and i am truly truly sorry to say that i like it better then Pro Tools (i hate the fact that i like it better).

The reason being very simple as to why i like it better; EVERYTHING sounds louder and more in your face, and almost "pre-mixed" inside Logic Pro.
Now just to be clear i am using exactly the same plugins inside of Pro Tools as i am in Logic Pro, but for some reason everything sounds louder and better inside of Logic instead of Pro Tools LE 8.0.5.
It just sounds like your putting all of your sounds through a "process-factory" or something and it just sounds commercial right away.
It feels like i am making music inside of a cheap toy, and that´s why i just can´t stand that everything sounds better, because it´s not supposed to (according to the price-tag)
I hate the fact that it´s better because the feeling of Pro Tools is much more "open" and has a better layout of all the functions i need (for my taste).
And i use Xpand 2 alot.

But even recording vocals and acoustic/electric guitars sounds better, it just sits better, and faster inside Logic and the mix. In Pro Tools i feel like i am using a big shell with plenty of opportunities, but only if you know how to mix properly, set levels and route busses correctly. In Logic it seems like all of this is pre-done for you and all you have to do is play. Then throw on a few EQ´s and compressors and your done. I´ve been scratching my head going crazy over how to get that commercial loud, "in-the-box" sound, and along comes Logic Pro and i finally see instantly why people have better mixes then me.
It´s frustrating because i feel like Logic Pro is so much cheating! And as much as i wanna learn how to mix and use Pro Tools properly, i also want to have great sounding music right away

I have no idea why this is, but could it be that Logic Pro has a 32-bit floating point and can support 64-Bit plugins?
I wanted to get PT 10, but i am really on the fence about it now because of this late discovery.

Also i would like to add that bouncing a track in Pro Tools 8 makes it sound worse (lifeless) and reduces the volume drastically, but when bouncing in Logic Pro the track actually sounds louder, better mixed and with more life to it, then inside the DAW. And that´s with nothing on the master buss!

PS!
This is not a Logic Pro vs. Pro Tools thread, it´s only about the sound quality of the two!

[Lincoln Mitchell]

Dude

[ejwells]

I guess that explains why all the pros are switching to Logic.
Especially the "bounces in Logic sound better mixed, with more life" part

[timeey]

i get the sarcasm here, i do, especially since this is an Avid-forum

But i´m not just making this up. I´ve been using Pro Tools for 2,5 years, and always struggled to get my music sounding loud enough. Never managed to do it until i tried Logic. That´s all i´m saying. And it was effortless..

This is not a thread where i am throwing PT under the bus, i am just stating my experiences and wondering WHY
I would really like to continue the use of Pro Tools, but it just seems completely backwards when i get more quality inside of Logic.

[ejwells]

Originally Posted by timeey

i get the sarcasm here, i do, especially since this is an Avid-forum

But i´m not just making this up. I´ve been using Pro Tools for 2,5 years, and always struggled to get my music sounding loud enough. Never managed to do it until i tried Logic. That´s all i´m saying. And it was effortless..

This is not a thread where i am throwing PT under the bus, i am just stating my experiences and wondering WHY
I would really like to continue the use of Pro Tools, but it just seems completely backwards when i get more quality inside of Logic.

I just tried Cubase. My mixes sound like they were done by Rick Rubin, and I haven't even added plug-ins yet!

[timeey]

I just tried Cubase. My mixes sound like they were done by Rick Rubin, and I haven't even added plug-ins yet!

Okey forget about the "mixing" part of it, i didn´t mean it like THAT
But focusing on the loudness part of it, there is a noticeable difference.
To say that it sounds better mixed was a misstatement, i´ll give you that.
And obviously you ran with that misstatement as far as you could, fair enough

But now back to the original question (before you say your mixes sound like Dave Pensado inside of Reason), could it have something to do with Logic being 32-bit floating point and it can take 64-bit plugins?

[powerjoe]

I've thought for years that Logic sounded better ITB than PT, but Logic is SO much quieter when monitoring (even when the 2buss is being slammed (in the red) and editing and tracking in Logic is not logical.

I like both, but in my experience Logic is much quieter whilst tracking.

[timeey]

Normalisation is activated by default when logic bounces.

The OP should try to bounce once with normalization activated and another time with normalization deactivated and then compare both results.

That should clear things up.

Tried it in logic, not much difference, still sounds better then PT.
Sounds a tiny bit less loud then when normalize is engaged, but still sounds better then any mix i´ve ever done inside of PT 8. Which might be because of the lack of automatic delay compensation in 8.

That being said, if there is no "engage normalize" button in Pro Tools 8 when you bounce, i am definitely sticking with Logic for now. I might try out PT 10 if i ever decide to get an iLok :)

[ejwells]

There's no "engage normalize" function while bouncing in Pro Tools because no serious engineer would normalize while bouncing.

[stratquebec]

Umm.... This thread begins to be very funny There's a lot of damn good engineers out there that are not serious at all

I think I once got a warning in Logic sayin' something like " You are about to use normalization. This function should be avoid if you are really serious about your work. Use it at your own risk."