Anyone jumped ship / switched DAW this year?

[Munin]

Has anyone ever switched from Live or Bitwig to Cubase? Been using Bitwig but after the disappointment of 2.0 I am about done. Tempted to try Cubase for the maturity and bigger feature set. Is there anything in particular I would miss or not get used to? The two things that worry me are the limited number of inserts and the lack of automation curves. Anything else?

[zenophilix]

Has anyone ever switched from Live or Bitwig to Cubase? Been using Bitwig but after the disappointment of 2.0 I am about done. Tempted to try Cubase for the maturity and bigger feature set. Is there anything in particular I would miss or not get used to? The two things that worry me are the limited number of inserts and the lack of automation curves. Anything else?

I'm trying to learn Cubase LE after Live, it's pretty goddamn overhwelming. Still trying, though.

[kenobi77]

I'm invested in Ableton and Push both financially and time wise. This year I want to be more productive with my, erm, productions and Live just keeps me in this mode to keep on adding. Considering giving reaper a try as a DAW to move to once the ideas are all there and move forward. Perhaps a little to and fro. It may sound less productive but I know how I relate to things so think its worth trying.

[woggle]

I'm invested in Ableton and Push both financially and time wise. This year I want to be more productive with my, erm, productions and Live just keeps me in this mode to keep on adding. Considering giving reaper a try as a DAW to move to once the ideas are all there and move forward. Perhaps a little to and fro. It may sound less productive but I know how I relate to things so think its worth trying.

Reaper is pretty good for the final multitrack edit of wave files. It also has some nice creative functions but nothing is integrated into a coherent design to give an overall smooth workflow. It will go nicely with Live because they are so different. Reaper has a lot of drawbacks as a complete package though - the usability for creative work is as bad as people say, but it is good for well defined pre-planned processing of audio. And cheap!

[digitalboytn]

Reaper is pretty good for the final multitrack edit of wave files. It also has some nice creative functions but nothing is integrated into a coherent design to give an overall smooth workflow. It will go nicely with Live because they are so different. Reaper has a lot of drawbacks as a complete package though - the usability for creative work is as bad as people say, but it is good for well defined pre-planned processing of audio. And cheap!

Mr Woggle...

Can you please explain the "drawbacks" you see in REAPER please ?

I find the workflow intuitive and extremely fast on all levels...

There's a couple of things I had to learn to do differently from working in Sonar X3e,but I am extremely satisfied with the results...

As a pro,it was no small decision to change DAWs,because for most of us working in the digital world, the DAW is the heart of the studio,so there's a truckload of work involved in the transition

[woggle]

Reaper is pretty good for the final multitrack edit of wave files. It also has some nice creative functions but nothing is integrated into a coherent design to give an overall smooth workflow. It will go nicely with Live because they are so different. Reaper has a lot of drawbacks as a complete package though - the usability for creative work is as bad as people say, but it is good for well defined pre-planned processing of audio. And cheap!

Mr Woggle...

Can you please explain the "drawbacks" you see in REAPER please ?

I find the workflow intuitive and extremely fast on all levels...

There's a couple of things I had to learn to do differently from working in Sonar X3e,but I am extremely satisfied with the results...

As a pro,it was no small decision to change DAWs,because for most of us working in the digital world, the DAW is the heart of the studio,so there's a truckload of work involved in the transition

inconsistent and poor visual design eg scrollbars are more or less same color as background in main window
poor usability on multiple monitors - midi editor does not work properly across two monitors, has to be on main monitor
inconsistent keystrokes between audio and midi editing ie no keystroke grammar consistent throughout the application

of course I understand this is all user error, as are all problems anyone has with Reaper

(you might be a pro music producer but I'm a pro usability expert and I have no intention of spending my time in free consultation for any wealthy company or person - although I have donated plenty of time to software development for people living with disabilities for example )

[digitalboytn]

Almost EVERYTHING in REAPER is able to be customized...

EVERYTHING !

If you don't like the colours - change them...

I use dual monitors and I have no problems with the MIDI editing...

I've been using DAWs since Notator on an Atari and then Cakewalk Pro Audio 9 on a PC and I have absolutely no issues with REAPER at all...

And it's not a hobby for me...

I depend on it

[woggle]

Almost EVERYTHING in REAPER is able to be customized...

EVERYTHING !

If you don't like the colours - change them...

I use dual monitors and I have no problems with the MIDI editing...

I've been using DAWs since Notator on an Atari and then Cakewalk Pro Audio 9 on a PC and I have absolutely no issues with REAPER at all...

And it's not a hobby for me...

I depend on it

Actually I have studied the Reaper thing since Reaper started and it has been an interesting development - there is absolutely a user base for Reaper and one that is ignored by most of the other DAWs.
Tell me, which country are you from and what sort of musical productions are you involved in (genuine interest on my part)

[kenobi77]

...It will go nicely with Live because they are so different. Reaper has a lot of drawbacks as a complete package though - the usability for creative work is as bad as people say, but it is good for well defined pre-planned processing of audio. And cheap!

I tried the demo a few years back, out of curiosity after hearing about in on here, but no intensive use.

You mention it as compliment to live, and your point of it's "usability for creative work" would be plus point to me from my point of view, as I'd be looking to focus more on using what I have already got already rather than creating new content. Alternatively I considered also bouncing and creating a new project in Live, but I think the temptation to create more content will be there as that's my mindset when I use Live.

[dgmulf]

FL Studio 12 -> Cubase 8.5 last year, and as of a couple days ago, Cubase 9.

I dearly love FL Studio and Image Line, and WISH that FL could be my one-and-only DAW. It would be, except that project organization becomes too cumbersome for me once I get into the later stages. E.g. Channels, Mixer Tracks, Playlist Tracks, and Patterns are all independent, which is cool because of the flexibility, but if I want to have all corresponding elements properly named and color-coded, it becomes a bit of a PITA.

The way FL handles audio is also a little clunky. You can't easily render audio in mono, which is a waste of disk / cloud space. And you can't organize or rename audio files without using the Windows Explorer because the built-in Browser is fairly limited.

What I miss about FL Studio in Cubase:

* The gorgeous, fully vector-based and scalable UI.
* The intuitiveness and relative simplicity of the UI.
* The convenience of great built-in plugins.
* The very helpful, well-written, and sometimes even humorous user manual.
* Image Line's great online video tutorials.
* Image Line's presence on their forums.

With the amount of love that IL put into their products, my prediction for the future is that FL will eventually address all my concerns, and leave Cubase in the dust, at which point I'll switch back over. But until then, I'm happy enough with C9.

[jinotsuh]

I use dual monitors and I have no problems with the MIDI editing...

Ditto !!!

[ghettosynth]

I'm invested in Ableton and Push both financially and time wise. This year I want to be more productive with my, erm, productions and Live just keeps me in this mode to keep on adding. Considering giving reaper a try as a DAW to move to once the ideas are all there and move forward. Perhaps a little to and fro. It may sound less productive but I know how I relate to things so think its worth trying.

I often use Live and Reaper together because I think that Reaper is the much better tape recorder. Two points that might be of interest to you.

1) If you are on windows Reaper comes with an excellent ASIO driver that makes it easy to send audio back and forth between the two apps. I find it more natural than using Rewire in a lot of cases and it doesn't impose any limitations on either app. It does add additional latency so you have to think about that. I use it quite frequently when I'm performing in push using clips and sample mangling. I route live into Reaper and treat it as a separate instrument. If I want low latency keyboard playing, I tend to host those plugins in Reaper.

2) While there is a free push app for Reaper that does a lot of stuff that you can do with Live. I don't find it as clean to use and it's a royal pain to set up. However, PXT-General, although it costs money and does less, is a rock solid and stable solution for using your push as an orthogonal controller with other hosts. It's pretty much just for using your push as a keyboard with scales, but it does that well. It also let's you use the strip as a mod wheel if you want.

Reaper is a solid audio companion for most other DAWs. Definitely worth the $60 for the personal version.

[tapiodmitriyevich]

My experience is from 2005? era, where I mostly used FLS. Now I am changing to Studio One, which impresses me, and is a tad more interesting for musicians, more use of musical terms. Also well organized and flexible, I wish I could enter/it would display notes.

[EnGee]

Not exactly switched, but I have just updated Cubase Artist 8.5 to 9

[kenobi77]

I often use Live and Reaper together because I think that Reaper is the much better tape recorder. Two points that might be of interest to you.

1) If you are on windows Reaper comes with an excellent ASIO driver that makes it easy to send audio back and forth between the two apps. I find it more natural than using Rewire in a lot of cases and it doesn't impose any limitations on either app. It does add additional latency so you have to think about that. I use it quite frequently when I'm performing in push using clips and sample mangling. I route live into Reaper and treat it as a separate instrument. If I wan't low latency keyboard playing, I tend to hose those plugins in Reaper.

2) While there is a free push app for Reaper that does a lot of stuff that you can do with Live. I don't find it as clean to use and it's a royal pain to set up. However, PXT-General, although it costs money and does less, is a rock solid and stable solution for using your push as an orthogonal controller with other hosts. It's pretty much just for using your push as a keyboard with scales, but it does that well. It also let's you use the strip as a mod wheel if you want.

Reaper is a solid audio companion for most other DAWs. Definitely worth the $60 for the personal version.

Thanks for that, I am on Windows and will have a look. The analogy of Reaper as a "tape recorder" is really apt to me (Although I'm slightly misquoting you as you referred to it as the better of a tape recorder compared to Live).