GarageBand vs Logic Pro X which one
do you use? In this video I'm going to go
over the key differences between each of
them to help you decide if GarageBand or
Logic Pro X is better for you.  A big
question to ask yourself is if you're
deciding between Logic Pro X and
GarageBand then what do you want to make?
Is it professional sounding recordings
are you a singer/songwriter where you
just want to make demos this is an
important question to make because it
really will depend on what platform is
better for you for an example I'm a
singer songwriter myself I use Logic Pro
X because I'm taking my demos to a
certain extent where I do want the
features that Logic Pro X has that
GarageBand doesn't have however if
you're just a beginning musician or just
a beginner songwriter and you want to
get your feet wet with recording music
or producing music perhaps GarageBand
might be a better fit for you so ask
yourself first what kind of music do you
want to make now let's get into the key
differences which are the interface and
the functions of each platform and if
you don't know GarageBand is free if you
have a Mac computer so you can download
right away from the App Store it's free
to use Logic Pro X on the other hand is
$200 but that is a one-time fee at a
fundamental level GarageBand is
essentially the same as Logic Pro X
however Logic Pro X takes you further in
your music and production capabilities
because it gives you more high fidelity
features you can do more fine-tune
editing and you can essentially just do
more and so let's get into what actually
that means here I am in Logic Pro X this
is a song I've been working on and if I
switch over tabs this is now me and
GarageBand we can see we have tracks
going down from top to bottom here and
essentially the interfaces have the same
colors they look more or less the same
just noticeably though Logic Pro X looks
like there's way more going on not to
mention this song is just bigger but
there's more icons
there's more things just to look at
where we go back to GarageBand it just
seems more simple there's less buttons
there's less icons and essentially
that's what GarageBand is it is the
slimmed down version there's just less
things to worry about so let's start at
the top left here we have the GarageBand
library icon information bar controls
window and scissors window for example
if we're on this Steinway Grand Piano
track we can look at the controls and
change the controls here we can also
change the EQ of our piano then we also
have the ability to edit and zoom in and
actually edit the notes of our piano the
library icon is essentially the preset
instruments that come with GarageBand if
we hop over to our Logic Pro X now and
do the same thing on a track for example
I also have a piano track it's the same
piano that I have in GarageBand because
it's exactly coming from the same place
you'll notice I have a couple more icons
here I do have this editor window like I
did in GarageBand where I can do the
same thing and edit the notes I have my
controls window where I can edit the
sounds of the piano and it looks exactly
the same because it is exactly the same
I also have the information bar sorry
the library icon here is where I can
choose different sounds like I did with
GarageBand but with Logic Pro X you just
you get more sounds so you'll notice in
piano here in Logic Pro X I have one two
three four five six seven eight eight
different pianos not to mention a whole
of the other experimental piano section
and if I switch over to GarageBand under
piano I only have the gret one Steinway
grand piano available to me so that's a
big difference right there is logic just
comes with way more instruments and way
more sounds available to you here's the
information bar which gives us yellow
helpful hints on every icon which is
great if you're just learning and if we
go over to GarageBand we have this same
helpful hints section as well let's go
back over to logic and we'll notice a
couple more different icons we have this
in
their icon so if we're still on our
piano track here and we press the
inspector icon we will get this little
section which shows us what type of
plugins we have on our track and it will
show us anything that we're busing out
and you will be able to play with our
volumes here add new tracks add presets
it gives us a quick look at all the
plugins and effects on our track and
what our track is essentially doing
instead of us opening up the mixer and
so that would be the next thing is this
mixer icon and if we open this up we'll
see our mixer and this is something that
is just not available in GarageBand and
this is essentially the entire mixer of
our track so we have all our tracks here
vertically where we have different pan
pots here where we can edit things we
can add plugins here compressors
dynamics we can edit plugins we can
change eq's now if we go over to
GarageBand for a second you'll notice
that there is no mixer icon or inspector
icon as well so how do you add plugins
right and how do you change the volume
faders and everything else in GarageBand
well GarageBand you can still do this
stuff it's just a little hidden and it's
just not as flexible at all for example
there is no mixer in logic you have to
just go here and use the volume faders
that you have to mix your song you can
go to each track and then open up the
controls and you'll see here where we
have plugins let me just close that to
get some space this is where we have
plugins so similar design as we would
jumping over to logic under our piano
here we have channel EQ a compressor and
a tape delay where we
and other plugins it's the exact same
thing over and Raj ban where you have a
channel EQ compression and delay we can
add more plugins here and these are all
the same icons they're just simple fast
and forwards stop and plays and records
and if we go over to GarageBand exact
same icons this displays where you can
customize the what you see there are a
lot more options available with logic
for example in GarageBand here we have
beats and project beats and time
beats and time and then if we go over to
logic we can customize this display
actually making it quite custom we can
add things if I open up the custom
control bar on display I can add things
that I want to see in my display as well
for example if I want to very see the
entire track and make the entire track
slow or make the entire track faster I
can do that and make this whole track 1%
faster these are things that you cannot
do in GarageBand we have a replace icon
here and a solo icon tuner icon as well
which is not on because I don't have the
instruments plugged in if we go over to
GarageBand we see we have the tuner but
we're missing a replace and the solo
tracks button but we have the accountant
and metronome which is also available on
logic and the same design in UX and then
lastly these four icons we have in logic
which three of them are available in
GarageBand if I switch back I had these
three in Logic Pro X we have these this
is called event details which basically
means anything that you do in Logic with
inside this project it's going to make
an event and so if you want to move back
to something that you thought was really
good or you made a mistake you can go
back in the events and replace some of
the work that you thought you lost in
GarageBand this is just not available
the last biggest difference is you
probably noticed already that if we're
in Logic Pro X here you can see a lot of
information
at the top here we have different tools
and settings in GarageBand we don't have
any of that and that's again the high
fidelity capabilities that Logic Pro X
gives you that GarageBand doesn't so
simply as an example if we go to logic
we have tools which are very handy when
it comes to editing audio or editing
MIDI any any tracks really when you have
a recording and you're producing it you
need to be switching back to tools very
quickly for example you want to go to
your pencil tool quickly or you know you
want you want to cut things up or you
want to crossfade things you need to be
switching between tools very quickly and
you can do this in logic very quickly by
key shortcuts and switching tools you
can't do this in GarageBand at all
except if you do press command when
you're on this view here you can have a
pencil and that's the only available
tool that GarageBand gives you so that's
a good segue to talking about the key
differences when it comes to the
functions between Logic Pro X versus
GarageBand a big difference between the
two for a long time with something
called flex time which is something
really basic that you'd want in an audio
service so you can edit audio and edit
the timing of audio but now GarageBand
has this service so if you didn't know
that you can go on any audio track here
and we can press e to bring up the
editor and in this is inside logic and
we can press this button which turns on
flex for our lead vocal and so with
logic we get flex time and we get flex
pitch and a lot more capabilities to
edit this piece of audio but if we go to
GarageBand it is available in GarageBand
now so if we go to our piece of audio
here double click to bring up the editor
we can see that it has the same exact
icon here and
can turn on flex and we can actually
start dragging and dropping editing the
timing of our audio so make sure we're
perfectly in the beat however when it
does come to flex logic has something
called flex pitch so here we go under
this flex time drop-down we can go up to
flex pitch and there we can actually
edit the pitch of our audio which is
super or valuable if you want to be
pitch perfect and sound perfect with
GarageBand if we go back here we don't
have any other available flex options
it's only flex time another big
difference between the two when it comes
to audio and tracking vocals is vocal
comping and when you're recording vocals
a lot of the times you want to do more
than one take and logic makes that
really easy for you the features are not
available in GarageBand so for example
we are in logic here and we have a lead
vocal track let's just duplicate that
track and record a simple audio with my
voice so I'm recording audio recording
audio with my voice this would be like
take one in a vocal track and now I'm
gonna do take two recording audio this
would be take two GarageBand versus a
lot of pros okay so what Logic Pro X
does and what is so great about Logic
Pro X is this makes it a comp for you so
if you are doing vocal takes and you
have your take one here where you're
like oh I really like this intro part
two take one but I don't like the rest
but I do like that part of take two then
you can make a cop and that will make a
crossfade for you if we go over to
GarageBand and try to do the same on our
audio track if we can recreate a track
and just record some audio I'm gonna do
the same
so now I'm recording audio and
GarageBand this is take one and let's do
it take two and now I'm recording audio
this is take two so you'll see it just
deleted that first part of our take one
and now we're left with half of our take
one here and the first part of our take
two which it just doesn't make a con for
you so a big difference there if you are
really into doing vocals and vocal
tracking let's talk about the
differences when it comes to mixing
tracks and adding effects so we are in
logic here and we just have this vocal
where are this vocal thinks that we just
added let's just say and we can pull up
this inspector window here and quickly
add effects or we can copy channel
presets from other channels for example
let's say I really like the effects I
put on in my lead vocal recent I can go
to lead vocal here and I can say copy
channel trip channel strip setting go to
this and I can pace channel strip the
settings things like that which make it
really quick to copy and paste different
effects instead of starting it over and
having to redo the whole channel strip
setting in GarageBand let's go over here
unfortunately you don't you can't do
that if we go to our audio track here we
have under our controls our main plugins
here where we don't have like channel
strip settings where we can't copy and
paste from different tracks so that will
save you a lot of time and logic if you
are using like big channel strips and
you have a lot of effects that you want
to reuse a lot in GarageBand that's just
not possible to do on the same note in
the inspector window here with Logic Pro
X we have were able to bust out
different effects to our stereo out for
example this bus 8 is a reverb in
GarageBand I don't have the option to do
any busing there's no routing or sorry
there is no busing to go to stereo out
so so you have to put the Reavers on the
track itself and not bussing it out okay
let's talk about mixing now and bring up
our mixer in Logic Pro X you can bring
the mixer up inside the view but you can
also bring it up in a separate window by
pressing command two and that's really
helpful when you have two screens
sometimes you can have your mixer on one
screen and your main view in the other
but this is our main mixer in Logic Pro
X which is just not available in
GarageBand and in this view you can
quickly be copying and pasting different
effects from each tracks but it also
just gives you a good high-level view of
what's going on you can do you can press
command and you can grab different
tracks and raise the faders of all the
tracks that you've grabbed which is
actually something you just can't do in
GarageBand
let's go back to GarageBand and let's
say we're mixing our track here we like
the sound of the mix but both the piano
and drums are we want those sound we
want the faders to go down at the same
time unfortunately we can't click both
tracks by pressing command or Shift +
highlighting both tracks so you have to
go one at a time and change the faders
not a huge deal but just to seems like a
simple thing that they they missed on
that another thing in the mixing board
is metering and this is a big thing when
you're mixing song because you want to
know how loud your tracks are for
example if we play this song in the
background you'll be able to see the
volumes starting up here and you can see
that this bass is peaking at a negative
25 this piano a negative 24 so that
gives you a reference of how loud things
are and what things you might need to
make louder or make softer and then you
have a stereo out here where you can see
Oh am i peaking in my entire track or is
everything ok right now my stereo out is
at a negative 3.6 which is fine with
GarageBand there is no metering so I
actually
know what where tracks are peaking and
at what DB I do have the view here where
if I play this track I can see the
colors and I can see this audio is
getting yellow and I might be able to
drop that down but when you're doing
professional production work you do want
to make sure that you are looking at the
metering another thing you may have
noticed is some of these effects in
Logic Pro X here are from third-party
effects
sorry third-party plugins and you can
actually get their party plugins in
GarageBand too so that's one key
difference that used to be a difference
but is no longer a difference so in
GarageBand you can for example if you
have a plug-in from like fab filters or
using their e key or their limiters or
reverbs or whatever you can use those in
GarageBand as you can use them exactly
the same in logic to automation is
available in GarageBand as it is in
Logic Pro X but Logic Pro X extends it
more for example if we are on my track
here in logic and we press a we can pull
up the automation for example if I want
to put automation on this vocal or this
bass or this piano I have the option to
put a volume automation smart phone
smart controls many different types of
automation this is still available in
GarageBand if I go here and also press a
I can go to my grand piano here and see
the different types of automation I can
put on as well the key difference here
is when I go to logic you can see I've
read touched latched and right well that
helps when you're doing automation
because for example when I do a latch
automation and I actually suppress
record on my track now in play I can use
the filters on my MIDI controllers and
the keys on my MIDI controllers to
actually do the automation for me and in
GarageBand we don't have any of those
options at all we don't even we can't
even choose Reed latch or right so
that's a limiting factor to your
automations if you want to extend them
more which is why people use Logic Pro X
because it's just in general
as more you can do would be a big one
that I use a lot are saving projects as
alternatives in logic so if we go up to
file and instead of just like saving a
copy you can save a project alternative
and a new alternative here and what
that's going to give you is you can save
like for example this song called don't
start now maybe like mix you know May
first because sometimes you do a mix and
you really really like those settings
but then you switch it in the afternoon
and you really want to refer back to
what you did and so you can save an
alternative mix and you can actually
just go back to that alternative mix
something you can't do in GarageBand so
if we go to garage bin there is no
option to say things as alternatives and
so that's not really great if you are
working on a big production and you're
switching a lot of different dials and
turns out like you wish you could go
back to that one you had in the morning
in the same vein of that when we're
exporting our projects and we want to
share our songs for example if we were
in logic here and we want to bounce a
project we can go bounce we can do
regions in place or tracks in place we
can bounce the entire project we can
also export export files as MIDI export
selections as MIDI it gives us many more
options to share and export projects
when we move over to GarageBand the
export song to disk we can share to
iTunes media browser SoundCloud that
kind of thing but there's no bouncing in
place which really limits your
capabilities here if you want you really
like a track and you want us to have it
mixed I believe what you'll have to do
is get someone that has Logic Pro X and
they can open up the GarageBand file in
Logic Pro X and then they can bounce the
stems for you there I think
that would be the only workaround as you
probably figured out by now Logic Pro X
is really just more extensive in terms
of their functionality when we're
comparing it to GarageBand
and that's not to say that GarageBand is
a bad product at all I use GarageBand
for many years before I used Logic Pro
back you're just beginning and you don't
know anything about music production I
wouldn't suggest going into Logic Pro X
right away it can be overwhelming
because there's so much you can do with
it so start with GarageBand if you've
been using GarageBand for two or three
years maybe it's your time to step up to
Logic Pro X and start getting more in
depth into your editing in your music
production I hope this review of
GarageBand vs. Logic Pro X helped you
figure out what was better for you in
some type of way I'm a singer songwriter
myself so please feel free to check out
some of my music I'll leave a couple
links in the description hope to see you
in the next video
