Cubase Pro 10.5.20 is *no longer* the perfect DAW

[xbitz]

...Only DAW that is (much) worse in usability is Reaper, at least in my use scenarios. I can compose a musical idea and a rough arrangement in Ableton Live in a matter of 20 minutes, while doing the same in Cubase would take me 3x that amount of time, not to mention that Cubase is still missing basic features for pattern / loop based arrangements (not only Ableton, but also Logic and S1 have it!). Cubase afaik only has Arranger Track, which completely sucks. It seems Steinberg focusses on elderly users who have not embraced modern production methods....

yepp, in S1 at least the MIDI events can be converted to pattern ones
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_uNDyHtSbA
so there is a bridge between the two workflows (+sratchpad)

[Sahul]

is that not a global setting but rather a project-specific one?

Yes, you have to define it for each different project, but it can be saved inside a template.

[jens]

Jeezebus! Life's too short!

[chk071]

I really like that Steinberg give the owners of an AI license the possibility to always use the latest version, so you can get a peek into what Cubase is like now. Installed Cubase AI 11 earlier, and was once again sexed by the interface... after such a long time of using Studio One now, I always forget how good looking and usable Cubase's GUI is.

[sprnva]

I really like that Steinberg give the owners of an AI license the possibility to always use the latest version, so you can get a peek into what Cubase is like now. Installed Cubase AI 11 earlier, and was once again sexed by the interface... after such a long time of using Studio One now, I always forget how good looking and usable Cubase's GUI is.

Oh I didn't know that. I've only had LE licences and upgraded one to Elements. I might have to see if I can find an AI licence sometime.

[chk071]

If you have a Steinberg audio interface, you have an AI license.

[jens]

Installed Cubase AI 11 earlier, and was once again sexed by the interface...

ewwww.... for me that's about the equivalent of saying you were sexed by my mother....

after such a long time of using Studio One now, I always forget how good looking and usable Cubase's GUI is.

"Good looking" is a matter of taste - useability however is not - Cubase's interface is deeply rooted in at least the 2000's, if not even the 1990's, while Studio One's interface is very modern - it pisses all over that of Cubase in every functional regard.

[jens]

ah, yes, now I remember that somehow I did not manage to tweak the velocity of individual notes that shared the same time... that might have been me, but Reason's behaviour in that regard appeared totally absurd to me.

At first I thought you were talking about editing the velocity of overlapping midi notes (overlapping in both timing and pitch)? But seems you're actually talking about tweaking the velocity of different notes played at the same time like for example a chord. That's quick to do once you familiarise with the program, by using the menu bar in the midi editor.

Sorry, I guess I worded that badly - what I meant is that you can't select a note (or a few of them) in the piano-roll editor and then edit only its velocity at the lower dedicated velocity editor when it starts at the same time as another note, as is the case in other hosts. I have no clue why that wouldn't work - tbh it seems like an actual bug to me.
Btw.: why do I have to manually first select the pencil tool anyway to edit the velocity that way. That's a major nuisance. The pencil tool should appear automatically as soon as I hover over that area of the GUI. Very bad and stupid in a mostly very well-thought out application.

It was simply my lack of knowledge...

One has to press shift in order to edit only the velocity of the selected notes.

It's debatabel whethger this is very reasonable (pun unintended), however it is absolutely and by far not the kind of drawback it seemed to be.

Moral of the story: RTFM folks - RTFM all the way.

[Googly Smythe]

Cubase has the disadvantage of having an army of geriatrc, long-time users who are averse to major changes in the interface - over the years, they've developed muscle-memory.
Yes, people like me.

10.5.20 still should have had an update to fix the display bugs.

[chk071]

Installed Cubase AI 11 earlier, and was once again sexed by the interface...

ewwww.... for me that's about the equivalent of saying you were sexed by my mother....

Hey... some people seem to like that.

As you say, it's subjective, of course. But, Cubase's GUI somehow invites me, while Studio One says "Oh well... here's a GUI. Come work with it, it's the best we could do." (it's usable, but, it lacks definition, and finesse).

As for the bloat, you're right, there is some in Cubase. But, it seems like they want to get rid of that. E.g., they reworked that VST connection dialog (or whatever it's called in English), or the Media/Instrument selector. Getting rid of dead wood takes time, especially when you need to create features for the next paid version, so that people keep buying. Bit of a catch-22.

Cubase has the disadvantage of having an army of geriatrc, long-time users who are averse to major changes in the interface - over the years, they've developed muscle-memory.
Yes, people like me.

And rightly so. It's also something which is true for about every software. Change it too much, and people will also complain about it.

[pixel85]

Cubase has the disadvantage of having an army of geriatrc, long-time users who are averse to major changes in the interface - over the years, they've developed muscle-memory.
Yes, people like me.

10.5.20 still should have had an update to fix the display bugs.

Same here. 15 years ago I could switch DAWs on the fly. Now I can't anymore. Studio One may have a faster interface but I still work faster in Cubase. Too lazy to spend year or two to gain muscle memory of new DAW

[pixel85]

Jeezebus! Life's too short!

You see, for me, it's an advantage that I/O and some other settings are per project and not global. I work with stereo music and ambisonics sound design, switching between both sometimes few times per day. It would drive me crazy if I had to change settings every single time I'm swapping between projects.

[xbitz]

Installed Cubase AI 11 earlier, and was once again sexed by the interface...

ewwww.... for me that's about the equivalent of saying you were sexed by my mother....

Hey... some people seem to like that.

As you say, it's subjective, of course. But, Cubase's GUI somehow invites me, while Studio One says "Oh well... here's a GUI. Come work with it, it's the best we could do." (it's usable, but, it lacks definition, and finesse).

As for the bloat, you're right, there is some in Cubase. But, it seems like they want to get rid of that. E.g., they reworked that VST connection dialog (or whatever it's called in English), or the Media/Instrument selector. Getting rid of dead wood takes time, especially when you need to create features for the next paid version, so that people keep buying. Bit of a catch-22.

Cubase has the disadvantage of having an army of geriatrc, long-time users who are averse to major changes in the interface - over the years, they've developed muscle-memory.
Yes, people like me.

And rightly so. It's also something which is true for about every software. Change it too much, and people will also complain about it.

^^^ S1 has to be used this way



the motorized faders can compensate for the not so nice l but totally usable more functional UI (at least don't have to be watched constantly )

[chk071]

The problem here is that my desk is way too small for such a setup. Even though I really should get one of those monitor podests one day. I contemplated those quite a few times now. Would also be great to quickly slid my computer's keyboard under it, when I put my MIDI keyboard on the desk, so that I have more space.

[jens]

Cubase has the disadvantage of having an army of geriatrc, long-time users who are averse to major changes in the interface - over the years, they've developed muscle-memory.
Yes, people like me.

10.5.20 still should have had an update to fix the display bugs.

Same here. 15 years ago I could switch DAWs on the fly. Now I can't anymore. Studio One may have a faster interface but I still work faster in Cubase. Too lazy to spend year or two to gain muscle memory of new DAW

They could offer that and still start the application up with a standard setup when then coud ne (re-)configured by the power-user. Nothing is stopping then from doing that.
Having to first set up an "input bus" - an obscure concept most DAWs (if any) do not know - in a apparently unrelated window that is accessed/opened via a apprently unrelated top-menu entry on a per-project basis in order to be practically able to record a mono source is beyond absurd if you think about it for a moment, I would say.