Presonus Studio One 5.2 vs Cubase 11

[jancivil]

I've been creating music with Cubase since 2005. Cubase is known_for belaying bug fixes until a next, paid .5 or new numbered version.
I didn't make a stink before v11, I get on with things and accept what I can't change. Either some things were botched (for its performance on this hardware, like a graphics card dependence was changed in some way, like that) or exactly at the juncture to a new point version, from 10.5 which performed better than Cubase ever had in my life, I borked my system seriously badly. I tend towards the former because I do certain things on this system which would very much bely such as a RAM problem. I do things with video that could never happen if I had RAM issues, or noticable hardware faults, ie., I would see dropping frames like mad before I ever got into an editor, or instability rendering, or slowness once I did, when in fact the performance is tip-top in every step of that kind of production.

So, normally I could recommend Cubase to people happily. Cubase Pro 11, take out the trial, be sure, I cannot recommend buying it purely on reputation/speculation. One may never encounter the same issues I do. Day before yesterday, 14 crashes. 12 of these were rendering a two-minute song. Two were the same crash I experienced this morning which also does not look to have any other driver or cause (simply hitting playback from left locator at 0:00 after adusting the right locator.) than itself.
i have reason to believe the 12 of those 14 is all Cubase code borking things. I had a number of audio events that relied on musical time; some were in the same track with events in linear time base. I finally had a real thought in the midst of this nightmare: bounce or render all of that and make a clean project. The crash on a full project render ceased. I tend to doubt it's me or my anything.

[rardier]

After playing 3 weeks with studio one, I confirm I like it more for producing than cubase(faster, on my computer more polyphony, the audio engine don t stop, note repeat) but it s really better than cubase in setting a custom cluster of midi controller IF you know how to read/modify/create device xml file even better with javascript and use tool like midiox or bome translator. I hate the generic remote control on cubase to control vst plugins (it s ok-ish to control cubase parameter but disgusting to control vst parameter and instance of plugins) and I hate the fact that there s only 8 quick control. But triggering automation read and write on cubase is more simple and I like it more. Also I can t really explain why but the gui on cubase is to me ...more easy to look at (color, character font, vu meter) more refined . Since the beginning I had in my mind to keep cubase for mixing and I m still thinking so, because there s a bug in s1 (no pdc on track with plugin having latency after sidechain) and I already told that before but cubase tools for mixing suit me more (vu meter, control room, vari audio, sidechain,batch export) . If I had to choose only one and taking in account the price I would say s1 but if money is not a criteria I m better with cubase...having both is a lot of fun

my computer crashed and i have to buy another motherboard and now cubase is just a little more friendly on cpu with virtual instrument than studio one (i did a kind of torture test with a serum patch with osc oversampled x2 and repro 5 patch in hq mode-no multi-core , record unarmed in 48k in two session one with a buffer of 64 (without asio guard and minimal buffer protection for studio one , and one in 4096 asio guarg max and buffer protection max for studio one)

with the patches i choose and the same midi sequence ( a glissando with sustain)
in buffer 64 i could run 6 instances of serum and 1 instance of repro in studio one
in buffer 64 i could run 6 instances of serum and 2 instance of repro in cubase
in 4096 i could run 6 instances of serum and 4 instances of repro in studio one
in 4096 i could run 6 instances of serum and 6 instances of repro 5 in cubase

so we are in the same ballpark

[rardier]

during my test i notice that cubase work better without asio guard with buffer under 512, and better with asio guard on with buffer over 512.

[jens]

Yes,they do sit on top of each other until you click the "lanes" button,and then they are displayed below in just the same manner as Reason does it after double clicking. I am not sure if you have been doing something wrong in Cubase, but it does not behave as you describe it. Both DAWs do an equal job in this regard.

Again: the problem is not comping them and I never said it was - the problem is arranging them - no offense, but what is so hard to understand about this? It seems like you have no understanding of the very real problem at all... we are still going round and round and round in circles, since you insist on replying as if I ever claimed the problem was comping, while I never said it was and kept repeating that the problem was arranging the clips. Dude, seriously!

Again, and for the last time:

the problem is that if you record (say) ten takes, you have ten individual clips SITTING ON TOP OF EACH OTHER while there should only be ONE and there IS only one in every other DAW that I ever tried.

[jancivil]

update: far from certain but I suspect letting the MBP determine which graphics card is in use is a problem. So, I'm turning switching off while Cubase is in use, to use the 'good' card which consumes the battery faster. I had a crash-free day yesterday like that. Correlation should not be confounded with cause, but we're hopeful.

[jancivil]

Steinberg has made numerous infuriating decisions, been at it a while now.
Somewhere in the life of v9, a new "feature" was introduced, a button to record enable Key Editor. Before this, K.E. was already the f**k enabled per se. So should one want to change focus, almost at all (there is fluke-y behavior, ie., sometimes this doesn't even happen) we get the audio engine stoppage. Absolutely maddening, never an issue, they made an issue by stupid coder culture. People who clearly never used it never will, don't care. Make disruptive changes in ergonomics purely to have something to do. I'm not being hyperbolic, this is idiocy.
Had to pander to FLS people and make double-click delete notes, making getting to Note Expression strictly-from-menu in right click or go up and locate it in menu. And they're sure their policies are correct.

[jancivil]

but whatever has been wrong here, it is not shown by CPU usage, I'm quite a ways from maxing it out, & using like 1/3rd of my RAM in a problem project. Multicore support enabled or not, ASIO Guard medium or high when it is, crashes unchanged. ASIO Guard on high has not been useful in any way here.
So I've been suspecting they coded it to use a higher quality GPU. Maybe they signaled this somewhere official and I'm ignorant.

[jamcat]

Cubase lost its way 10+ years ago, when its development team left Steinberg to develop a new DAW for Presonus, called Studio One.

[gentleclockdivider]

Cubase lost its way 10+ years ago, when its development team left Steinberg to develop a new DAW for Presonus, called Studio One.

That's a bit far stretched , isn't it ?
People come and go all the time , and only two people left steinberg , Matthias Juwan ( who did kristal audio engine , forerunner of studio one ) , and Wolfgang Kundrus , one of which has left presonus already .
That's not the whole development team

[jancivil]

The thing on my system, and systems clearly vary wildly, is the performance isn't bad really. It's not about a lot of audio breakup or any, except when the system is pushed, like incessant playback or not letting tails die out a few times in a row (which can result in one type of crash/not all crashes are equal). It's not about needing to be raising buffers, to 512 even. It's just been insanely unstable throughout the life of 11.

[jamcat]

Cubase lost its way 10+ years ago, when its development team left Steinberg to develop a new DAW for Presonus, called Studio One.

That's a bit far stretched , isn't it ?
People come and go all the time , and only two people left steinberg , Matthias Juwan ( who did kristal audio engine , forerunner of studio one ) , and Wolfgang Kundrus , one of which has left presonus already .
That's not the whole development team

Yes, Steinberg got a new development team, but they clearly did not have the creative vision of Matthias and Wolfgang. Don't downplay Matthias and Wolfgang's significance. They literally developed Nuendo (which is what Cubase is post-2001) and VST3.

After they left to start Presonus's software division, Steinberg shifted Cubase's focus and target market, which it has never fully recovered from. I think this is what directly led to Steinberg being passed around from corporate parent to corporate parent over the years that followed.

[jancivil]

Well, I am sensing a kind of culture that is corrupted by certain factors, one of which is marketing is calling shots, features are there to attract users of other DAWs very specifically, it was producahsplained to me well enough, double click-delete note in piano roll. no accident. I've lost notes I didn't know I'd clicked on twice, it doesn't have to be that fast double click at all, set very slow.
In apparently a mad rush to introduce things from feature requests (bezier curve in Key Editor, lovely feature but sometimes show-stopping bugs are revealed) and botching features. It has trouble remembering what happened, it's losing track of window layouts all the time. Its recall that I want global track in Key Editor, which is 100% of the time, is extremely low %.
The global track in KE, pretty much works but if a project started in 10 or 10.5, only the tempo track shows, marker track missing. Half-assed or botched.

Sorry I need to bitch, the proper place for it is their forum but people get real upset and go on attack.

[dellboy]

Again: the problem is not comping them and I never said it was - the problem is arranging them -

Ok, no probs, crossed wires, I thought you were talking about comping.

[THE INTRANCER]

I prefer the thin clean cut lines of Studio One, Cubase looks like you are looking through a decorative picture frame and gives an impression of a busier / more cluttered interface. Curved corners... arg...

[digitalboytn]

Studio One provides a full course meal but in the case of Cubase, it's more like something that leaves you bloated after eating several burgers. It's slow moving to digest and there's going to be a lot of left-overs for the seagulls to eat than what you'll find with Studio One.