Time to switch DAW?

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I think Bitwig would be cheaper than an upgrade from Cubase 4, especially if you look out for market place deals.

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I agree Cubase4 should still install on Windows10 !

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Suloo wrote:I think Bitwig would be cheaper than an upgrade from Cubase 4, especially if you look out for market place deals.
299 bucks/euros for a half-baked DAW = 299 euros for an upgrade to Cubase 8.5 (both new). Don't know about market place prices, though.

OK, I admit, 299 euros isn't 'cheap', or 'cheaper'. BUT, he gets to keep his old projects.

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You can also get a used studioone2producer license for + or - $50 .. New Reaper or New Tracktion for $60 . Live Lite 9 used for real cheap .

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Just grab a demo of different DAWs and decide yourself what gets your juices flowing.

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I've tried almost every major DAWs in the market but Reason is the one that I felt like home immediately.

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dune_rave wrote:You know Cubase, so why don't you upgrade to a newer Cubase?
Every DAW has some silly things, so you won't find a perfect anyway.
I suggest keep using what you already know.
This option is certainly on the table. Right at the front - It's the go-to answer. I do like Cubase and it's flexibility. It has never made me feel constrained. My only critique has been about bugs, and Steinberg. So yeah, this is most likely where I'll go.

But before I jump to that conclusion, I thought I should at least try out other DAW's, since it's likely a case of being unable to appreciate what I haven't truly experienced. Live and Bitwig, for example, have always turned me off because after being so used to Cubase's methods of accomplishing goals, their methods and layouts don't make sense to me. But clearly it's popular, so it probably means I'm merely misunderstanding it, and in theory I should benefit greatly by coming to understand and flex it. That's my motivation. And I know that Cubase has not significantly altered their workflow paradigm, so I suspect there's solid innovation to be explored. But perhaps the latest Cubase has already cherry-picked some of those. I'll just have to look.

I'm also aware that the tool will not make the artwork - only the craftsman can. But tools alter how a craftsman works, yielding different results.

Anyways, thanks again for the input guys. I'm still on the scout for details on what makes your preferred DAW great.

Also thanks for the book suggestion - it seems to be focused on non-technical elements. That's exactly what I need, as most the reading I come across nowadays is focused on technique and mechanics, and I'm already great on that end of things. So I think I might actually buy that book today.

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Hah! I forgot to try running the C4 install with compatibility mode. What a rookie mistake.
Well then, looks like I haven't lost my last 10 years of work, that's good, eh? =)
Might still change DAW though.

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MOK19 wrote:
dune_rave wrote:You know Cubase, so why don't you upgrade to a newer Cubase?
Every DAW has some silly things, so you won't find a perfect anyway.
I suggest keep using what you already know.
This option is certainly on the table. Right at the front - It's the go-to answer. I do like Cubase and it's flexibility. It has never made me feel constrained. My only critique has been about bugs, and Steinberg. So yeah, this is most likely where I'll go.

But before I jump to that conclusion, I thought I should at least try out other DAW's, since it's likely a case of being unable to appreciate what I haven't truly experienced. Live and Bitwig, for example, have always turned me off because after being so used to Cubase's methods of accomplishing goals, their methods and layouts don't make sense to me. But clearly it's popular, so it probably means I'm merely misunderstanding it, and in theory I should benefit greatly by coming to understand and flex it. That's my motivation. And I know that Cubase has not significantly altered their workflow paradigm, so I suspect there's solid innovation to be explored. But perhaps the latest Cubase has already cherry-picked some of those. I'll just have to look.

I'm also aware that the tool will not make the artwork - only the craftsman can. But tools alter how a craftsman works, yielding different results.

Anyways, thanks again for the input guys. I'm still on the scout for details on what makes your preferred DAW great.

Also thanks for the book suggestion - it seems to be focused on non-technical elements. That's exactly what I need, as most the reading I come across nowadays is focused on technique and mechanics, and I'm already great on that end of things. So I think I might actually buy that book today.
This is probably not your music style but it shows quite well what you can achieve with Live, and probably Bitwig, workflow.
It Is more like an instrument and quite powerful.
Try to watch the whole short video if you can. It did help me to get more into its depth.
And there is more that it's not even touched in the video, but they have more great tutorials.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MBocKzz_XDc
MuLab-Reaper of course :D

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Melodic house & Disco is my tendency, retro Synthpop is my fascination, but techno is my heritage. So the style works out fine. ;)
Though some of his choices made me cringe, hehe.

That vid does help illustrate the logic of the Live paradigm. I kinda got a foot hold on that. The moves he's making are all the same moves I've made in Cubase, and I don't see limitations so far. Seems the big hurdle is just translating the UI - Where is the button that does X, what keyboard shortcuts do Y, what form of control mechanism handles W. I'll probably have to wade through basic tutorials to get that. Guessing it should be easy enough to find, it's just that there's a lot of buttons and keys to learn.

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MOK19 wrote:Melodic house & Disco is my tendency, retro Synthpop is my fascination, but techno is my heritage. So the style works out fine. ;)
Though some of his choices made me cringe, hehe. .
For me it's a totally new music style and I'm having fun exploring it. A Lot!!! :love:
I'm also looking at Robert Lippok . Interesting.
MuLab-Reaper of course :D

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I went through a similar thing recently. I bought a educational version of Cubase 5 many moons ago, and decided last year it was time to upgrade to 8.
When I went to do so the upgrade price of 400$ for a piece of software I had already paid 400$+ for kinda made me feel a little sad.

So sad I decided 'screw Steinberg' and went and bought Bitwig for 300$. To me it was a much easier transition than Cubase->Ableton Live... I had tried this several times previously and found the workflow waaay to different.
Bitwig on the other hand just had many of the same tools and editing in the arrange window actually felt quite similar to cubes...

Now a year later I'm still using both. I love Bitwig but its just-not-quite-there-yet, but I'm pretty sure by the time 2.0 comes out I will leave cubase alone and never open it again.
Hypnagog (Experimental Electronica) |
Terrafractyl (Psytrance) |Kinematic Records (Label)

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I'd love to hear a little more about that last line. What do you think is Bitwig's weak point right now? As it relates to Cubase, or otherwise. And do you think it has an edge on Cubase in certain areas?

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MOK19 wrote:Melodic house & Disco is my tendency, retro Synthpop is my fascination, but techno is my heritage. So the style works out fine. ;)
Though some of his choices made me cringe, hehe.
Out of curiosity, and maybe if this gets too far afield it would be better for a different thread, are you talking about sound choices or production choices?

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Talking about the video? Mostly I didn't like where he put the sounds, how he used them. Colliding parts that didn't really play nice together. I thought the end result's feel could've been accomplished in a cleaner, more controlled way. But music is all subjective, and if people like the sound that comes out, that's all that matters. And me, I'm just internet blowhard #6346589.

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