Cubase 4 Wins on Functionality – Pro Tools 7 Wins on Value

We have recently released Version 8 of our Digital Audio Workstation Shootout. This analysis rates 6 of the most popular DAW’s — Cubase, Pro Tools, Sonar, Acid Pro, Live, and Logic Pro — on 130 different factors. There are two different overall measures, a combined functional rating (5 being the highest) and a value rating which is the functional rating divided by the price. The main change in this analysis is the addition of Apple Logic Pro. The ratings of the other products have all been published before, although in this case we did make several minor changes to Cubase based on some discussions with representatives at Yamaha. Ableton Live is still Version 6.0.7 even though Version 7 has been released. You can expect to see an updated shootout which incorporates Live 7 in a month or so. Since this is Logic Pro’s first appearance in the analysis, I do have a few comments on some issues in constructing a value rating for Logic. Also, every time this analysis is published, I get a few of the same questions which I’m going to address here, namely: (1) “Since Pro Tools is the industry leader, why does it rank low in functionality?” (2) “Your analysis doesn’t include Product X-Y-Z. I don’t understand how this analysis could be considered representative without that product.” (more…)