Shootout: 6 Pro Audio Software Products Rated

Digital Music Doctor announces the release a new analysis which compares six of the most popular Digital Audio Workstation software products from DigiDesign, Steinberg, Cakewalk, Sony, Apple, and Ableton. This analysis is an update of a previous study and includes ratings based on the new features in Sonar 7, Cubase 4.1, Logic Pro 8, and Pro Tools 7.4.

San Francisco, CA (PRWEB) February 20, 2008 -- Digital Music Doctor announces the release a new analysis which compares six of the most popular Digital Audio Workstation software products from DigiDesign, Steinberg, Cakewalk, Sony, Apple, and Ableton. This analysis is an update of a previous study and includes ratings based on the new features in Sonar 7, Cubase 4.1, Logic Pro 8, and Pro Tools 7.4. T

he analysis measures these products based on two ratings, an overall functional rating and a value ratio. In the functional rating Cubase 4 remains the leader by a small margin over Sonar 7 (Producer Edition). However, in the value ratio Pro Tools 7 (LE/M-Powered) provides the most value for the money, whereas Cubase 4 ranks lowest.

Product (Functional Rating)
1 - Cubase 4 (4.7)
2 - Sonar 7 (4.5)
3 - Logic Pro 8 (4.3)
4 - Acid Pro 6 (3.5)
5 - Pro Tools 7 (3.2)
6 - Live 6 (2.8)

Product (Value Ratio)
1 - Pro Tools 7 (1.29)
2 - Acid Pro 6 (0.92)
3 - Sonar 7 (0.90)
4 - Logic Pro 8 (0.86)
5 - Live 6 (0.60)
6 - Cubase 4 (0.59)

In this update of the study Apple Logic Pro 8 was included for the first time. Apple recently introduced Logic Pro 8 as well as cutting the price of Logic Pro in half and bundling it with several other products into Logic Studio. The ratings for the other products have been published previously and did not significantly change.

The functional rating evaluates 130 different factors on a scale of 0-5 (5 being best) which are combined to arrive at an overall rating. The second metric of the analysis is the value ratio which is the ratio of the overall functional rating divided by the representative dealer price. Each main category of the functional rating has several subcategories which provide overall ratings for such functions as mixing, MIDI editors, recording, and track management. The analysis also includes an explanation for each rating as well as a description of what a particular function is and why it is important.

This analysis is based on the materials used in the video training courses produced by Digital Music Doctor for Digidesign Pro Tools, Cakewalk Sonar, Steinberg Cubase, Sony Acid, Apple Logic Pro, and Ableton Live. The complete analysis is available at the Digital Music Doctor web site:
http://www.digitalmusicdoctor.com/shootout/shootout_summary.htm.

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