@Mark:
In my experience, there is a huge advantage to using third party sequencers like Logic, Sonar, and Cubase in that you are free to mix and match your gear. As such, how well your gear sounds is entirely up to how much you want to invest in your setup. I started off using Cubase and Logic in the early 90s so I am a bit biased to say that I really don't see very much of a difference between all the full blown sequencers because, while Cubase/ Nuendo/ Logic has a great number of features, you trade off with latency lags since no single manufacturer makes dedicated hardware to solve the latency issue. On the other hand, PT, while the industry standard (in the US), comes very, very short of being an all-in-one setup because of the MIDI problems it frequently experiences. Between low latencies and MIDI implementation, as a user of multiple platforms, I prefer to have something that will allow me to do EVERYTHING in one setup but, alas, this is not yet fully possible.......so here I am, using PT and Cubase/Nuendo to get projects done.
Yeah, MIDI in PT has always been its weak point and I am surprised that digidesign hasn't done anything to bypass the use of Rewire into its environment and use MIDI routing like Logic, Nuendo and Cubase.
On sound, the quality of audio between PT and the other sequencers narrows down to your converter system. This is a subjective viewpoint and people might argue with me on this. The algorithms in the programs themselves do not matter as much, I think, and this seems to hold true in the comparison's i've done on my gear. For the most part, I keep pretty short signal pathways when I record and transfer data into my DAWs and I can say that I don't hear a very big difference between the competing platforms when I finally mixdown to digital media. Up until recently, I was using the built in converters in my PC DAW soundcards to transport audio. The PC converters sounded great to me. Ditto for PT. Then, I gave Apogee converters a listen after using a Rosetta 800 on a (indie score) mixing project at a friend's project studio. Though the guy's setup sounded great on an RME MADI/ AD setup, the addition of the Rosetta made his tracks wider and more multi dimensional. The resulting sound with the Rosetta wasn't necessarily better than the PT or my native PC DAW platform, it just sounded - different - and I liked it. I traded a few things in for a Rosetta 800 recently but have not had a chance to fully use it. I have an up and coming bossa nova jazz project to record my uncle's work for a CD and that will be a good environment to test the Rosetta and do a shoot out between PT, native RME converters and the RME+Rosetta 800 setup. He will be playing a digital piano and my Rhodes on several tracks.
The take home message here is the signal chain is a very important part of the DAW setup because you really do get what you put into your system; the cleaner it is, the more unadulterated the sound. I think that when people say that PT sounds better than other systems, they should specifically address PTs ability to process information as a SYSTEM and not just as a program because, this is how Digidesign mainly designed PT systems: to carry a lot of data transfers with the least amount of latency. The bad part about this situation is that the gear is proprietary. Now, PC DAW setups using Nuendo, Logic, Sonar and Cubase can get just as good quality audio, I think, if the right pieces are put together to maximize the sequencer features and the type of work that you do on the DAW. Some examples of pro sounding work done on non-PT systems include:
-Moulann's indie CD (Cubase and Logic) (tracks at:
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=14420953)
-Uneaq (Cubase) (tracks at:
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction-user.viewprofile&friendid=1028161)
-Whatever project Hans Zimmer produces (Cubase and Nuendo)
Last time I checked with him, Andrew (Uneaq) was using an M-Audio Delta 44 on a Cubase setup to produce his tracks. DJs and musicians in the UK largely use Cubase and Logic systems to produce their music on a wide variety of platforms which use hardware from a varied number of manufacturers. Magazines like Future Music showcase pro setups everymonth and it is a good way to see how you can design your system by "cherry-picking" your gear.
