Why you left Cubase

[jancivil]

For people who've left (or stayed) - I see references to Cubase being 'clunky' but I'm not sure what that means. What are the unnecessary hassles (particularly Mac relevant)?

a lot of people can't be arsed to RTFM or look at key commands. So frustration tolerance is seriously low and we see it acted out here. And here's the convenient narrative 'it's clunky, there are too many windows...' to fall into.
While it can be a very elegant workflow, just means knowing what stuff is and where its instantiation starts, and it's pretty normal architecture for that. also about knowing what you want from it specifically.

I'd leave it at this point, almost, because I don't trust Steinberg to code at this point, they're making all kind of whack decisions and breaking stuff the whole life of v. 11 (Pro), but there are workflow things I would not at all enjoy changing out of.

[hitherepeople]

Not sure I agree. I've never used a host that is 100% perfect. You simply have to demo (not quite so easy currently) and see for yourself. If it's your cup o tea, sweet! Certainly nothing wrong with it.

I left it because Studio One had caught up to for my needs and I like their workflow better. No reason for hyperbole.

[jancivil]

it's not very difficult to take out a trial, you set up a MySteinberg and use it to download, same procedure as downloading and activating the purchased version. You can only take out the one, however. A couple of steps involved, yes.

[jancivil]

For me that (the "clunkiness") represents the impression that it's all cobbled together, barely holding at the seams. Like for instance you have an old bike, where the paint chips here & there, the steering is kinda loose and imprecise, there's oil grease everywhere and you're never sure if brakes will work when you need them. It's all wonky and wobbly.

A lot of it is kinda irrational, resulting from my lack of experience with it and - probably - just my bias, but it's enough to go deeper into Cubase to see those 90's bits of code / workflow / visuals sticking out, which further reinforces that

LOL

Workflow is down to the user. I don't read a lot of "those 90's bits of code / " so it isn't a thing. It looks like pure negativity.

[plopseaw]

So Iam currently wondering to change to Studio One or Cubase. I have a Studio One Pro 4 license already but before upgrading I thought Id give Cubase a go. Not wanting to buy the usb licenser just to trial I got the lowest elements version and thought I would give that a try. I really wanted to like Cubase but my goodness what a terrible journey.

Setup an account and request the license. "please check email now". Now nothing. Do it again and wait and wait and wait. Finally my download link and activation code arrives.

Click and hope to download. No it wants to install an installer to install Cubase. Ok so I really want to check if its better than Studio One so I play along. Download starts but dwindles off to nothing on the download rate, stops, picks up again, stops again, starts again. Finally downloaded.

I click to install Cubase elements. Now it wants permission to install something but doesnt say what it is. I want to give it a proper go so I say yes. Installs and then asks for a usb licenser dongle. Oh I thought that the lowest elements would not need this.

Long story short, its feels really old fashioned, didnt work out for me and was quickly deleted after that. It should be a lot easier to test out. Ill be very happy to upgrade my Studio One and go dongleless.

[hitherepeople]

it's not very difficult to take out a trial, you set up a MySteinberg and use it to download, same procedure as downloading and activating the purchased version. You can only take out the one, however. A couple of steps involved, yes.

Wait, are you saying that you do not require a Steinberg Key for the demo? That's what I was referring to If they still do, it's about 35 here in the US (my GC has one in stock, I just looked)

[jancivil]

No, I'm not. I've never cared about the soft elicenser versions, have no experience with that. What I was describing relies on a dongle. And it's probably only 'easy' for the experienced user, it does mean more than one step, one of which annoys the crap out of me as well, the Download Assistant (which loads very slowly like it's a big honking deal).

"disheartening that Steinberg only adds features - and indeed fixes bugs - once a year only when it's time to pay"
actually during 11 they've been adding features and this has introduced bugs, a sitch that IME has no place in a maintenance update.

Lot of people except it to be something other than it is. I think the conventional wisdom isn't wise (re: the clunky/bloated/90s code, it's actually pretty responsive, and simple if you know it), but steinberg has been losing the plot in too many ways IMO. but the thing about delayed bug fixes til a paid version is not at all new. and some not to the next version whole number (C5 parabola tool in Key Editor; got fixed somewhere but it weren't during the life of 5).

[jancivil]

seems like Sweetwater has the dongle for 29 or 30 USD or like that.

[hitherepeople]

But I can get it TODAY

Yeah, I think about just giving it a whirl again sometimes. But mostly, I'm happy with what I have. I remember the last time I bought it and it was a super easy process as long as you had the dongle. IIRC, places like MF and SW have less expensive "download" versions? Heck, I'm not busy I'll look that up.

Edit, yeah I looked it up and it's about 20 ish bucks difference so unless you are just anti-dongle (which I don't understand) it pretty much just all comes out in the wash. I see that it's still 30 days of FULL demo so, that can't be beaten with a stick

[Daimonicon]

I thought about leaving Cubase back at Studio 4 version and get something else. I never did it. I didn't want to spend time and learn another DAW. And no DAW are better at midi. Another reason I never migrated to someting else. I've been a user since sl 1. 19 years ago. Cheezus how time flies.
And Steinberg holds on to their tradition of releaseing every version full of bugs as usual.

[hitherepeople]

Well, I'd say welcome to the club. Version 5 of Studio One has been, shall we say, a challenge? It's really strange to me because 4.x was really really good (I still have 4.6.2)

But yeah, I seem to remember that .5's and .0 releases were to be avoided pretty much.

[antic604]

For me that (the "clunkiness") represents the impression that it's all cobbled together, barely holding at the seams. Like for instance you have an old bike, where the paint chips here & there, the steering is kinda loose and imprecise, there's oil grease everywhere and you're never sure if brakes will work when you need them. It's all wonky and wobbly.

A lot of it is kinda irrational, resulting from my lack of experience with it and - probably - just my bias, but it's enough to go deeper into Cubase to see those 90's bits of code / workflow / visuals sticking out, which further reinforces that

LOL

Workflow is down to the user. I don't read a lot of "those 90's bits of code / " so it isn't a thing. It looks like pure negativity.

I bought Cubase Pro 3rd time recently because I keep giving it a chance and indeed with every version they improve it and make it more coherent, updating those "90's bits of code" to current standards. It's just f**ing slow, because they don't release any updates between paid versions every Q4. I'll probably keep my license and upgrade maybe for v12 or v13.

[hoxclab]

And no DAW are better at midi.

FL Studio would like a word...

[jancivil]

But I can get it TODAY

Yeah, I think about just giving it a whirl again sometimes. But mostly, I'm happy with what I have. I remember the last time I bought it and it was a super easy process as long as you had the dongle. IIRC, places like MF and SW have less expensive "download" versions? Heck, I'm not busy I'll look that up.

Edit, yeah I looked it up and it's about 20 ish bucks difference so unless you are just anti-dongle (which I don't understand) it pretty much just all comes out in the wash. I see that it's still 30 days of FULL demo so, that can't be beaten with a stick

I saved like ten bucks when I bought Cubase 10 at SW. It's not nothing.

Nuendo has a 60-day full trial BTW.

[EnGee]

I left it but coming back to it (after the 11.0.30 update). It seems stable now, or at least more stable than before the update. I'm still using Bitwig on Linux and Mac (M1) though, but on Windows, it is mostly Cubase now.