SOUND QUALITY COMPARISON, Live versus Logic

[agent314]

I love ableton live but logic sound better bigger warmer.

Live sounds crisper and faster than Logic though

[nebulae]

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[Tarekith]

Your test is a perfectly valid view of the two summing engines, yet does not really end the argument of 'DAW A vs DAW B Overall Sound Quality'.

Most of the actual sound quality differences will surface when multiple tracks have multiple plugins on each track and things like plugin delay compensation come into effect. Errors in plugin delay compensation (acknowledged by Ableton in the past )may result in slight phase shifting, multiply that by many tracks and plugins, and you have potential for a muddy mix in the end. This is coming from a HUGE Ableton Live fan.

I have a feeling that if you tried using multiple plugins on each track (same across the two DAWs, of course), the final output would not be the same.

Just my $0.02

Well, I think I summed up at the end of my article stating that I don't expect my one test will end the argument. But at least it takes one aspect out of the picture, instead of everyone just relying on hearsay.

Your ideas for further testing are good though, certainly someone should run with that and see what they come up with.

[nebulae]

Your ideas for further testing are good though, certainly someone should run with that and see what they come up with.

If only we knew someone who enjoyed doing endless testing and was really (almost offensively) anal about it...

[Tarekith]

You ask him, I'm totally not going there.

[nebulae]

[djadonis206]

I'm curious, and know very little about technical things, but do you think only conducting one test on one computer is sufficient to make the claim both DAW sound the same?

It seems you would want to do this test multiple times using multiple computers, sound cards, and audio files. And then compare the average of whatever measurable outcome you choose. Even then you would have to make the argument for why you chose one outcome over another.

BTW - I'm a hardcore Live user and could care less about the sound quality between the two, but I am interested in your experiment. I'm glad you got this going, it's interesting.

[nebulae]

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[Tarekith]

I can't see how the computer or soundcard you use would make any difference. The soundcard doesn't even come into play until the DAW is done with all it's calculations. MAYBE the audio files matter, but I'd be really surprised if that was the case.

[Dr. Fluffenstein]

It probably comes down to the built in instruments and effects having a specific character, Logic's built in fx and instruments have always sounded better to me. I think it's partly because it's the DAW of choice for quite a few big name artists, so when you hear logic's effects/instruments they sound similar to tracks you already like, and that equates to "better sounding" imo.

I don't see Live being used nearly as often, take a look at some of the future music studio sessions. Most of them are using logic and making good use of the built in effects.

Not saying anything bad about live though, I still prefer its workflow over logic. But it would be nice having logic's plugins in VST form, since they are pretty much the standard for getting that widely recognized sound.

ps: I'm mostly referring to EDM.

[Saxer]

it´s a bit like comparing two synthesizers by looking at the oscillators only. both have the same sawtooth, wow, so they have to sound identical!

but why all this testing again and again? result is: the daw you know best sounds always better.

[chapelier fou]

I'm curious, and know very little about technical things, but do you think only conducting one test on one computer is sufficient to make the claim both DAW sound the same?

It seems you would want to do this test multiple times using multiple computers, sound cards, and audio files. And then compare the average of whatever measurable outcome you choose. Even then you would have to make the argument for why you chose one outcome over another.

BTW - I'm a hardcore Live user and could care less about the sound quality between the two, but I am interested in your experiment. I'm glad you got this going, it's interesting.

Sorry, but this is totally wrong. Sound cards and computers have nothing to do with this.

[grooverb]

That's really interesting Tarekith. Thanks for the effort

Computer Music have said the same about the DAWS all sounding the same cos it's just 1s and 0s.

Quality of sound source and experience is probably what makes the most difference in people's subjective experience's I guess.

I'm sure I could hear a difference between FL and Live when I got the Live demo, but, I don't know how good the source material is in FL compared to Live

[grooverb]

I'm curious, and know very little about technical things, but do you think only conducting one test on one computer is sufficient to make the claim both DAW sound the same?

It seems you would want to do this test multiple times using multiple computers, sound cards, and audio files. And then compare the average of whatever measurable outcome you choose. Even then you would have to make the argument for why you chose one outcome over another.

BTW - I'm a hardcore Live user and could care less about the sound quality between the two, but I am interested in your experiment. I'm glad you got this going, it's interesting.

Sorry, but this is totally wrong. Sound cards and computers have nothing to do with this.

Yeah. Changing all the computers and sound cards and files would make no difference. Its about how the software interacts with sound. The phase cancellation test kinda sums it up. If there was a real difference, Tarekith would have been able to hear something from one of the tracks.

[pencilrocket]

This forum got behind years. I'm surprised to see many noobs in this forum still believe difference of the daws' sound. I'm in Galapagos island now .