Long term Reaper user, thinking of Logic Pro -there are reasons :)

[Winstontaneous]

To the OP - have you used Garage Band?
If you don't like that workflow, Logic Pro is just more complexity on top of it.
I use Ableton Live, Logic, Reason (more as a rack, but sometimes the DAW 'cuz I started using it 20 years ago) and they all have their strengths and flaws.

[ksandvik]

Garageband and Logic have very different UIs, I would not say their workflows are similar....

[apoclypse]

I've been a Logic user (off and on) since 5.5 Platinum. LP is imo the best bang for buck DAW in the market and its not even close. It a powerful piece of software but its also super old in places and could use a bit of a revamp. If you don't mind some quirkiness then its the DAW to beat imo.

[Starbright]

I think the only other DAW that might be less like Reaper than Logic is Ableton Live.
Sort of surprised this isn't stressed more? I've used both as exclusive DAWs, Logic for about 7 years, Reaper for a solid year.

First off Logic is not customizable, there's a workflow, you learn it, you use the parts of the DAW you need. It's got a shit ton of features, best instrument collection of any DAW. Logic has fantastic drum comping, decent auto detect tempo features, and pretty much any feature you would need. The isue again is it's lack of customizability can be a bit frustrating at times, you either like how they implemented a feature or you don't, nothing can be done about it really.

Reaper is bare bones, but very strong bones, some features like articulation mapping and Ableton style clip firing are third party scripts, it looks like Windows 95, and pretty much only looks like a good application on Win95 even with a theme. That said I prefer the way Reaper does track assignments, bouncing is a dream, on Mac it's CPU friendly and never really crashes. I like the way Reaper deals with frames or chunks of a song,

So yeah, they present vastly different ideas on workflow. Which you should decide to use? hell if I know I'm on Digical Performer.

Actually you can configure quite a lot (definetely not as much as Reaper).
I created a post on the logic forum to suggest some features and I got a reply from speakerfone who built their own SWS style extension for Reaper which solves almost 90% of the features I missed from Reaper.

[machinesworking]

Actually you can configure quite a lot (definetely not as much as Reaper).
I created a post on the logic forum to suggest some features and I got a reply from speakerfone who built their own SWS style extension for Reaper which solves almost 90% of the features I missed from Reaper.

I think you meant to say "speakerfone who built their own SWS style extension for Logic"?

Anyway, yeah Logic, DP and Cubase can all be customized to a degree, even Live can be changed with Max/MSP, but it's not at the level of how the mouse behaves in the MIDI editor in Reaper for instance. If you want that level of micro control Reaper is hard to beat.

Everything is a trade off though, DP and Logic compete decently with Live in terms of Clips, with Reaper it's an OK to so so script. With Logic you can buy articulation mappings for popular orchestral and sound design Kontakt libraries, speeding up that process etc. It's all DIY in Reaper.

[Starbright]

Actually you can configure quite a lot (definetely not as much as Reaper).
I created a post on the logic forum to suggest some features and I got a reply from speakerfone who built their own SWS style extension for Reaper which solves almost 90% of the features I missed from Reaper.

I think you meant to say "speakerfone who built their own SWS style extension for Logic"?

Anyway, yeah Logic, DP and Cubase can all be customized to a degree, even Live can be changed with Max/MSP, but it's not at the level of how the mouse behaves in the MIDI editor in Reaper for instance. If you want that level of micro control Reaper is hard to beat.

Everything is a trade off though, DP and Logic compete decently with Live in terms of Clips, with Reaper it's an OK to so so script. With Logic you can buy articulation mappings for popular orchestral and sound design Kontakt libraries, speeding up that process etc. It's all DIY in Reaper.

You're right

But when it comes to mouse behaviour you actually can do a lot with the shortcuts menue or the tools menue. The only thing that's annoying to me is that I can't create circle actions but every action I've created for Reaper allready had an equivalent in Logic. And I haven't figured out how set up the autoclour function in PlugTools yet.

[Morty-C-137]

With Logic Pro you get Alchemy, that synth alone is worth the price of Logic Pro. Think of Alchemy as a contender to Omnisphere.

Having used both extensively, I have to disagree. Alchemy is great but the quality of the filters, fx and sound engine just does not match Omnisphere.

[Morty-C-137]

I've been a Logic user (off and on) since 5.5 Platinum. LP is imo the best bang for buck DAW in the market and its not even close. It a powerful piece of software but its also super old in places and could use a bit of a revamp. If you don't mind some quirkiness then its the DAW to beat imo.

I agree.

Logic Pro is amazing value. Can’t get a package at a price like that elsewhere in DAW land. And, subscription is not required. You can still buy Logic Pro outright (for now).

[starflakeprj]

With Logic Pro you get Alchemy, that synth alone is worth the price of Logic Pro. Think of Alchemy as a contender to Omnisphere.

Having used both extensively, I have to disagree. Alchemy is great but the quality of the filters, fx and sound engine just does not match Omnisphere.

I don't own Omnisphere, I have only watched videos on it. But based on that I would say the sound output is very comparable to my ears. However, I don't have the "ears" to find the small differences in filters or effects. I listen to the sounds as a whole product, what sounds good to my ears

[Starbright]

With Logic Pro you get Alchemy, that synth alone is worth the price of Logic Pro. Think of Alchemy as a contender to Omnisphere.

Having used both extensively, I have to disagree. Alchemy is great but the quality of the filters, fx and sound engine just does not match Omnisphere.

I don't own Omnisphere, I have only watched videos on it. But based on that I would say the sound output is very comparable to my ears. However, I don't have the "ears" to find the small differences in filters or effects. I listen to the sounds as a whole product, what sounds good to my ears

I own it, upgraded last month and it really is worth every buck. Alchemy is great and really versatile and I love the modulation layout a little bit more than the one in Omnisphere.
That beeing said, a lot of the presets in Alchemy are a bit hit and miss.
In Omnisphere it's the opposite: you'll get so many amazing sounds that if it weren't for the random button for presets you'd get option parallesis.

This doesn't mean that Logic isn't probably the best stock synth of any DAW.

[isndotbiz]

Awesome info guys thanks

[stoopicus]

I own Logic Pro, Reaper and Bitwig. If I look at my dock right now I see:

Screenshot 2026-05-15 at 6.32.05.png

I've actually removed Logic from my dock due to underuse.

It's an outstanding DAW, but I simply prefer the others. At this point I mainly use Bitwig. Some pros and cons for logic:

Pros:

- It comes with a lot - and the builtins are largely great
- It's the best mac app of the three - feels much more like a native app
- It's got the second best pricing model of the three (you can't beat Reaper)
- It's very versatile

Cons:

- It's the buggiest of the three in my experience, and sometimes in dumb ways
- Much more limited than Bitwig for electronic music, much more limited than Reaper for full band work, though still quite good at both - jack of all trades, master of nothing, etc
- Significantly worse routing than Reaper (kind of unfair though as this is Reaper's superpower)
- After Aperture I don't trust Apple for long term app support. Yes I am STILL pissed.

[soulata]

I use Studio One and Logic. Right now I'm moving my "studio" out of my house, due to space issues (kids taking over a room soon and my wife is going to have her office in it in the meantime).

I purchased a Mac Air just to run Logic for my mini Studio B setup (in use at home, when needed). One keyboard, Motu m2, Mac Air and one mic.