Logic Pro X vs Pro Tools Vs Reaper (how is the reaper engine sound)

delirium trigge

New member
I have learned Logic Pro X and I love it, I love all the free plug ins I get with it. But I've heard that people who record with Logic in pro situations, still put the project in Pro Tools because the audio engine sounds better. I also hear that with audio pro tools is better. But I am able to do all the same things in Logic X as far as edited my audio files that I did back in the day with the REALLY old pro tools, ( like 10 years ago pro tools) and it wasn't the full pro tools.

I thought about buying reaper, as some have compared it to pro tools.

At this point, are they all pretty much equal?

And let's say, I record some audio in reaper, as long as it's set to .wav, I can get that project into pro tools or Logic correct?

I like how reaper has all of those plug ins that users create for free. But I'm still curious as to what pro tools 11 is like. Because I have not used newer versions of pro tools. The last version I used was pro tools 9, and in my mind, it doesn't come close to the things Logic Pro X can do. But that's because of years of technology advancement.

My main thing too, is I don't want to have tracks in different DAW's, I want to record in different DAW's but then import them into my main DAW.

Some people same the engine sound is a myth. That is not true, because when I upgraded to Logic Pro X form Logic Pro 9 there was a huge improvement in sound.

Does reaper even come close to how good Logic Pro X sounds?

I also notice I can run reaper on a USB flash drive or external hard drive. Which I like. But reaper on my mac, has all my logic plug ins show up as well. If I took it to another computer, how could I bring those plugs in with me? Or even things, like superior drummer without having to reinstall it?

There are a few people I know who use all 3 and they always put their project in pro tools when they are done. They say this is because pro tools sounds better.

I would like to do a pro tools 11 trial but I do not have an iLock key. If I did get one, could I put my superior drummer license and other VST license on it as well? That way, if I go to a friends house to record, I don't have to install all these programs on his computer?

I'm asking this for both reaper and for pro tools. I plan on getting both.
 
I say for fact that there is no audible difference between the various programs out there, but I've never noticed a difference between Protools, Reaper, Logic etc.
There will, of course, be a difference between the work flow and stock plugins which can make you believe one DAW sounds better than the other.

To answer your question about session compatibility, you can't open a reaper session in PT or anything like that.
The best you could do is record in one DAW, apply any processing you want and then export your files as WAV.
You can then import those WAVs into any DAW.

Honestly, I don't see the point. Pick the one with the best tools and workflow for you and just use it. :)
 
I have to disagree with this because I can put the same song in Logic Pro 9 and put it in Logic Pro X and it sounds different. You can see examples of this on youtube also and I have tried it myself. I am not sure where reaper stands in quality.

There is a video on youTube where a guy records in Logic and exports the wavs and puts it in pro tools simply because he thinks it sounds better. I don't own pro tools so I can't test that. But I hear a big difference in Logic 9 and logic x. And when Logic x came out I remember them saying something about how they totally recreated the sound engine. I don't know enough about it to know what they did.
 
Tim O'Brien said this in another forum (but probably here somewhere too):

"DAWs do not have a 'sound'.
They sequence the playing of audio files.

High-end guys with 'golden ears' in bajillion-dollar studios have done blind A/B tests for years and have never been able to accurately pick one sequencer from another on the same equipment when set up the same way."

Steenamaroo's advice is sound: "Pick the one with the best tools and workflow for you and just use it".

The moral of the story: don't worry about pursuing imaginary differences, and concentrate on the things that really make a difference: performance, recording skill and critical listening.
 
I have to disagree with this because I can put the same song in Logic Pro 9 and put it in Logic Pro X and it sounds different. You can see examples of this on youtube also and I have tried it myself. I am not sure where reaper stands in quality.

There is a video on youTube where a guy records in Logic and exports the wavs and puts it in pro tools simply because he thinks it sounds better. I don't own pro tools so I can't test that. But I hear a big difference in Logic 9 and logic x. And when Logic x came out I remember them saying something about how they totally recreated the sound engine. I don't know enough about it to know what they did.

Yeah dude, sorry, but this is all psychosomatic hearsay. I also have to unequivocally agree with the rest of the replies and say that you're assertions are completely wrong. People on Youtube do all sorts of things and just because it's up there, doesn't make it correct. Anyone can post a youtube vid.

The only real difference in a digital system will be at the front and back end, i.e. your converters. It's very possible that someone using logic might prefer the sound of the converters in the Pro Tools system. But to say that a digital audio engine sounds better than another is rubbish, unless, like Harrison Mix Bus, it's got some sort of analogue console emulation adding saturation and harmonics to the sound like a real console. But in the world of pure digital audio, 1s and 0s are 1s and 0s. An audio engine either works or it doesn't. There's no degrees of "betterness".

Cheers :)
 
What I don't understand is that this is still such a hotly contested issue, when there clearly is a definitely answer out there, I myself, am on the "It's all 1's and 0's" side of the fence, but I'm still astounded that I am not 100% sure of this fact, even after days of searching the internet I could not find a conclusive answer. Where are all the programmers hiding? I'd like to hear what they have to say about the supposed differences in DAW's 'summing algorithms' and 'aliasing miscalculations' that people speak of.The sad truth is that opinions are given the same weight as fact, which blurs the argument further and nobody receives a definitive answer. The only thing I can think of is the individual panning laws of each DAW.

The best test would be to load up some tracks on separate DAWs, maybe pull the faders up and down, add an effect here and there, but just make sure that everything is EXACTLY the same down to the last dB, making sure panning laws are set to the same in each DAW, while also making sure to set levels by typing rather than dragging; as some DAW's graphical elements visually approximate their underlying settings.
After rendering/bouncing, load these bounces back into either DAW on two separate tracks, reverse the polarity of one of the tracks and see if the sound completely cancels out. If it does, great, but if it doesn't, then there's something fishy going on!
 
I think when you just run WAV files from one DAW to the next....it's not going to make any difference....however, when you start adding plugs and especially on-board plugs that came with the DAW, then the whole "audio engine" thing has some relevance.
IOW....how the DAW takes all those things and works them together and applies them to the audio, may cause some differences from DAW to DAW.

Not sure thoguh that they would really be outstanding sonic differences.
 
If there is a difference, I probably would never be able to hear it and I am already chasing so much sound that does make a difference, this would have to be when I can't improve anywhere else. Might be true they sound different, but I don't know how as even the drivers for the interface are created to be used by the OS, and that means one single point to get it to the interface.

Maybe the rendering process, but I would think as long as these things have been out there, if there had ever been a difference, reverse engineering would have fixed that advantage a long time ago. De-compiling code is not that hard. Understanding it. :)
 
I have noticed a difference in sound when I have transferred wav. files from reaper to samplitude but I get the feeling that samplitude may have a fixed non visible/ non accessible compressor or limiter in place as a default part of the program. What brings me to this conclusion is 1) in samplitudes own description of their DAW ...I para-phrase "Samplitude won't allow you to overdrive your projects output" and 2) while in reality you can but it does take some deliberate doing. I also believe samplitude is not the only one. Just my humble opinion/observation...I could be wrong. These days I start, edit, render and master all in reaper.
 
I think I've heard that about Samplitude, but the fact is if you're getting anywhere near 0dBFS while tracking/mixing you're already drastically off course.
 
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