I have been a fairly avid (but not AVID Pro Tools) user of Apple LOGIC Pro for many years. I actually tried to use Ableton in the past but finally I have taken some time to learn about it.
If you are starting out with a Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) to compose your music and record, you are likely to wind up with one of the two. There are other options like Avid, Sonar, Reason, Digital Performer too, and I am sure they are just as good but have not heard many people using those.
So it is likely that your initial choice boils down to how you get used to the one of the two. Both are equally capable and you can produce same types of songs regardless of which you choose. So it is not about one is better than the other, but now that I used both for some time I can say confidently that you can produce the very very similar results with either ones.
You may be reading this because you have neither. So if I was in your situation, what would I have chosen?
If you are used to thinking about recording songs linearly on a multi-track tape and thinking in terms of how you'd approach it in a studio setup then he Logic is really the workflow. Granted it has loops, but even on the loops, you would cut and paste the loops on the "tape" type flow that it is like splicing a piece of tape. If you grew up in this mode of operation, actually first time you look at Ableton, you might starting to wonder how would people make music with it.
Also, on the Logic mixing and all that are pretty much works
visually the same way as the real equipment, and when you are mixing it is like sitting in front of a huge mixing console you see in a studio. The interfaces are really so polished that it does look like you are right there.
Though many people do not realize when you first see it, Ableton does support tape or sequencer like workflow too, so if you can work Ableton this way, there is not much difference in how you would record and mix. They also both record all automation of knobs and dials. The UI is minimalist on Ableton and in my opinion kind of ugly.
One of the best attractions of the Ableton is that tempo adjustment is fairly transparent especially at loop level. This means that if you drag and drop a "loop" it figures out the tempo and produces the best possible sounding loop without changing the pitch. Do note that the Intro version does not have as much of a re-sampling algorithm as the rest of the lineup.
The next attraction of the Ableton is the ability to play songs live by scenes. On LOGIC you could use the Mainstage ($30 more) application. Personally the scenes based track creation is the most unique and single-most productive feature of Ableton.
On the LOGIC flexible tempo changes requires some knowledge and work. Though it is very very flexible once you know how and extremely powerful.
This aspects of dragging and dropping clips is fairly automatic and transparent to users that some people may not even realize that there is quite a bit of computations being done to make everything fit together. And from that stand-point I can see why people say it is more intuitive to operate it.
It is more like building songs from blocks and in many ways users can come up with complete song from intro to outro without even touching any musical instrument. In some ways Ableton is a musical instrument of its own. Whereas LOGIC is more like a recording-studio in a box. I cannot tell which is more intuitive to musicians. I, for one, could not figure out Ableton for the longest time while I can pretty much do LOGIC without a manual. But there are others who swear Ableton is more intuitive. So there is no way around but you try it yourself. I would guess that if you have not seen a mixing studio and starting from a complete clean set of mind then Ablton might do it better.
Incidentally I have a KORG M3 keyboard workstation and its KARMA interface works very much like Ableton's Scenes. That's a handy tool to develop ideas for compositions and arrangements.
Asides from that one of the best attractions about the Ableton for me is that I can use it on the Mac and my Windows PC. This is not possible with the Logic, which is Mac only. In my situation, I do a lot of work on the Windows for my day job, and sometimes that requires a travel. It is nice to know that I can edit my songs with my PC laptop while I am away from home on my "work" PC. Ableton allows you to install the license up to 2 computers. On the LOGIC 9 so long as you are not running the software simultaneously in more than two places it seems to OK. It is kind of important as you may be recording on your laptop but you could be editing on your desktop at home, which is exactly my workflow. Of course, the Ableton project files are interchangeable between the Mac and PC versions (provided that you have the same level of Ableton on both and also you have the same plug-ins on both, which could be tricky as some plug-ins require you to "pay twice" for each PC and Mac versions.
So again if someone is to ask me which to choose. If your primary mode of music production involves live recordings and mixing then LOGIC PRO seems to be a better choice. It also comes with a lot of good "real" instrument samples, synthesizers and much more sophisticated sampler plug-ins built in right from the start.
If you are a song-writer and need to come up with song ideas quickly, assembling intro, A, B to outro sections then knowing Ableton may work to your advantage. It is much like a music construction kit and like I said it is a musical instrument in its own category. Especially if you are looking at the Push controller or N-I Maschine, they are dedicated instruments specifically for Ableton.
Finally if you need to work both on the PC and Mac, then Ableton is great. If you need software like LOGIC on the PC then I may consider going to Digital Performer.
By the way, a $100 Ableton Intro seems to be fairly crippled. The free sounds you can load are very much dance centric and much of its key attractive features are disabled. You cannot create demo in most pop music styles out of the box on Ableton, as far I can tell while on Logic I can come up with various styles out of the box.
One major draw for Logic is that for its $199 price, you get a whole lot more "out of the box" software instruments, and plug-in effects. For Ableton, you pretty much have to go to the Suite to get the level of effects plug-ins the Logic has out-of-the-box which is $749.00 So LOGIC wins significantly in the price (though I did not talk about committing yourself into the Apple culture.)
In the end the best scenario is to learn these two. You can learn a lot too from two different approaches in software design and workflow differences, and both being the industry leading tools, the knowledge of both would become handy some day! I also know that people start writing on Ableton and finish up on Logic. Ableton is definitely fast in terms of composing songs on the fly.
