Logic Pro X vs. WaveLab

Logic Pro X is excellent for anyone already in the Apple ecosystem because it's based on a similar style of user interface and integrates well with other Apple products (iPad, etc.). It's great for recording live instruments, as well as electronic music production and podcasting, etc.

Incentivized

WaveLab is well-suited when you want to apply a lot of VST FX processing to audio, or do a real-time recording and be able to hear how the FX processing sounds as you're recording. It is an excellent tool for recording in the studio. However, it lacks the sophisticated multitrack capabilities you find in a Digital Audio Workstation (DAW), instead of focusing on the features of an audio editor. It is also great for quickly opening, editing, and saving a lot of files because of how fast it is.

Incentivized

• Audio Editing
• Midi Editing and composition
• Audio mix down and mastering
• Live music performance, although we don't use this feature in our business

Incentivized

• Realtime FX Chain - This is the big one for me. I always had both WaveLab and Sound Forge (along with some other audio editing programs, and using Pro Tools at school). Of the two, I preferred Sound Forge for its user interface and hotkeys, but I preferred WaveLab for its realtime FX. The ability to easily chain FX together and tweak them on the fly while the audio is playing is enormous for me.
• Speed - Quite simply, saving a huge file in WaveLab is orders of magnitude faster than in Sound Forge. To this day, I don't know why that is, but it's just faster. Opening and saving files is a breeze in WaveLab, while in some other audio editing programs, it can take 30 seconds or a minute for a large file.

Incentivized

• Logic Pro X is designed for music editing, so the help documents and videos don't often address my needs--would love tutorials for podcasts
• It's designed for someone with more technical expertise than I have, so it can be overwhelming at times
• Would like to color code segments more easily

Incentivized

• User Interface and Hotkeys - I've always struggled with the UI in WaveLab, and even after all these years, I am just much faster in Sound Forge. I used to have a job as an audio editor, where I edited hundreds of hours of interviews. By using the "Mark" feature, I could easily cut out silence, "ums" and "ahs," and other audio artifacts in Sound Forge. I struggled to do the same in WaveLab but was never able to work even a fraction as quickly.
• Built-In Audio Processing - I much prefer Sound Forge's built-in audio tools like time-stretching, normalization, compression, and so on. WaveLab has many of the same tools, but I have not found them to be as easy to use, and in some cases, nonexistent (relying instead on a VST plugin).

Incentivized

Like every DAW, it takes some time and getting used to, but Logic's tools and interface just make sense to anyone who is familiar with Apple products and music tools.

Incentivized

The user community of Logic Pro X is vibrant, responsive, and lively. There are many great forums out there where you can solve any problem you encounter, whether it's sound card latency, a certain plugin not working, audio routing, multitrack issues, or virtually anything else you run into. The community is so helpful that I'm giving Logic Pro X a 10 in this department, despite having never contacted their official support department. I've never had to, since there is such a great user community.

Incentivized

I have never contacted Steinberg, so I am not sure how responsive they are. Still, I've watched countless tutorials on audio editing and mastering in WaveLab, so I am pleased with the level of support available from the online community of users. It is a much-loved program among audio industry professionals, and there are all sorts of great tutorials, tips, and tricks available online.

Incentivized

Logic Pro X is like the big brother to GarageBand - it can do SO much more and has many more attractive features. The workflow and interface are similar enough to make onboarding a little easier if someone has used GarageBand, but the effects and plug-ins of Logic make it a far better product in the long run. Logic is able to utilize more of the computer's power, as well, taking full advantage of Apple's processors in bouncing and rendering the final products

Incentivized

I am relatively agnostic about what audio software I use. I still use WaveLab to this day, 21 years later, for applications where I want to apply effects chains and tweak them in real-time. Sound Forge even can't do this for some reason. But when I have a lot of editing to do, I'll typically open Sound Forge instead, because I prefer the workflow of using the "M" hotkey to mark the audio as it's playing, and then quickly skip through markers and edit out audio artifacts. When I'm recording a vocalist, however, if I am not using a Digital Audio Workstation (like Ableton Live), then I do prefer WaveLab. I can apply VST effects in real-time to the audio coming in through the sound card input and playing back in their headphones.

Incentivized

• Powerful sound tools, centralized in one place for relatively very little money (when we purchased it, it was $200/user for a perpetual license)
• Simplified workflow, since we handle all our sound needs in one place
• We used to do our sound editing and mixing in Adobe Premiere, right along with the video. Moving sound production to FPX has DRAMATICALLY improved the quality of our soundtracks.

Incentivized

• Positive Impact - Ability to rapidly edit audio for EPUB3 ebooks and interviews.
• Positive Impact - Being able to hear in realtime how audio effects chains will sound, and to save commonly-used effects chains.

Incentivized