Logic audio sound quality evaluation?

[Dedric]

Has anyone ever compared Logic's sound quality to other DAWs (Nuendo, DP, Paris, etc)? Just curious if there is a significant difference between any of them, or if it all comes down to what you put in and the quality of plugins/mix tools you use. Host-based systems should be mostly 32-bit floating point, which would steer any sound qualtiy issues to non-summing aspects of the system (plugins, "built-in" EQ, etc). I'm not looking for bashing any app - just an objective look at whether there is an audible difference between them (specifically Logic as it is my sequencer of choice). I'm considering using it for 96k and 5.1 work in the future with a UAD-1 and Logic Control.

Regards,
Dedric

 

[pan]

Hello Dedric,
The sound of logic is mainly dependent on the Hardware, you're using - logic on MOTU sounds "different" than on TDM. This is really game between internal resolution, clock-stability and plugins you're able to use.

There were words, that logic TDM sounded different to ProTools on the same hardware, never checked, but I can certainly imagine the possibility, that there are audible differences, and I know, that PT-fades sound better than logic(4.x) fades, (dithered/nondithered).

Do you have any info on this UAD-1-thingie, is it a VST/DSP-Card?
Anyone else?

 

[Dedric]

Thanks for the reply - that has been the assumption I've made - 32-bit float is 32-bit float unless the app fails to dither at the final output, or a plugin is garbage, or you track/monitor with an average-to-lousy front end. I'm running an RME Digiface to my Paris rig (using Paris 24-bit converters for now, and adding an RME ADI-8 DS or other converters in the future). Clocking is of course another issue, but I'm not sure how Logic's internal audio playback/recording clocking is (i.e. if running alone, hardware internally clocked).

I have a UAD-1, but haven't tried it yet (still building the PC). It is a VST/DSP card - shows up as regular VST plugins in a compatible app (currently PC-only, Mac coming soon). Word is that it sounds fantastic. Some say better than the TDM and native equivalents, and the claim is the emulations of LA2A, 1176, etc are quite close to the hardware originals. The reverb is supposed to be superb (better than native) but I haven't heard any specific comparisons to hardware yet.

I am thinking POW-r dithering in Logic 5 may answer the question of what happens to the 32-bit float mix sum when output to a 24-bit file (truncated currently I would guess). This could have a significant impact on sound quality of mixes in Logic. I don't know if Emagic is implementing POW-r in other portions of the processing chain. I've posted to the LUG to try to find out what processing is done along the path, but no response so far (it may be 32-bit float from start to finish, then truncated to 24-bit at the master output/bounce stage, but it is hard to say for sure).

Regards,
Dedric