Free Cubase alternative?

[kevvvvv]

Plogue Bidule will do all midi and audio and a lot more besides.

It is a modular host/studio developed by two guys in Montreal.

Modular means you can put together your own studio, customising it to what you want.

Plogue also have a forum and tutorials available.

And as you can see from KvR's News page, it gets updated too.

I went to their user's mp3 forum and thought the tunes showed Plogue was well capable of producing decent music.

The downside is that like Energy XT:

- you have to work it out

- it's not so pretty as some packages

More details here http://www.plogue.com/index.php?option= ... &Itemid=28

[Bigg John]

The quartz audio freeware is pretty good. only like 4 tracks of audio, but the midi is good. plus they have an online collaboration system.

http://www.digitalsoundplanet.com/Softw ... ware.phtml

[Jafo]

clumsy but effective solution:

* audacity for audio recording, editing, mastering, etc.
* jazz++ for midi sequencing.
* multitrack studio for rendering midis, or adding effects, one friggin' track at a time.

why? they are all great apps, except that:

* mt studio light only gives you three tracks, total -- this includes the final master track. bummer. but i'm definitely gonna buy this one when i have the cash!
* audacity cannot handle midi files, cannot edit in realtime, has a crapulous interface for vsts, and violently suicides when it sees many vsts.
* jazz++ is just a midi sequencer. it claims to do audio as well, but don't believe it.

here's some other ideas:

* vstprocessor (bfom who wrote it) to add many but not all vst fx to audio tracks.
* trackers like buzz or psycle are free, but they do tend to eliminate all human feeling if you aren't careful. you'll still need an audio editor, though.
* timidity++ and a good soundfont to render midis.

but overall, it's probably best to just pick up a few extra hours at work for a few weeks and get n-track or multitrack studio.

cheers.
-- just another f*cking observer

[Bigg John]

Awww damn. no vst support on that Quartz freeware. sorry friend, i forgot about that. their cheapest solution for vst hosting is like $40.

[Kriminal]

The quartz audio freeware is pretty good. only like 4 tracks of audio, but the midi is good. plus they have an online collaboration system.

http://www.digitalsoundplanet.com/Softw ... ware.phtml

Yeah, that was the first sequencer i used on a PC (my mates actually) It was good too.

[xoxos]

is this thread a new policy adherence test or something?

i'll volunteer...

plenty of free hosts in the search engine. there's a version of cubasis called 'inwire' that doesn't save between sessions but is the full package otherwise. my guess is steinberg stopped distributing it recently ??? let me know if you need help finding it.

[goofrider]

Steinberg recently produced a budget version: Cubase SE.

http://steinberg.net/ProductPage_sb.asp ... angue_ID=7

It's only $149 list. You might be able to find it for $99 in stores.

[Sascha Franck]

Haven't tried this myself but Music Studio Independence looks like a Cubase (I think)

This is surely looking almost too good to be free. Not the greatest layout from what I can tell, but it should get the job done. Gonna try it out some time.

[ZooTooK]

CM Muzys is really good and definitively worth $15 or whatever Computer Music magazine cost you, BUT is doesn't have hard disc recording. It uses just the RAM. It's kind of OK if you'v got 512MB or more, but keep it in mind. The MIDI editor is really excellent and it includes a good wave editor, a beatslicer and an excellent synth.

---End of plugg---

Sadly the company has gone underground so you can't upgrade to the full version anymore... A combination with Audacity or Tracktion might be the solution for you.

[mojkarma]

You want so much Cubase. Get Cubase! I mean, Cubase SE is not that much, compared to SX2. There are some other cheap alternatives that are mentioned here, but I'm not sure how many of them are really up to Cubase (or Sonar or Logic, it doesn't matter). Traction, for example is a very nice piece of software, but at this time it still lacks some important midi features that Cubase has for a long time now.

[funkster1]

Actually, I´m also looking for a replacement/alternative of Cubase.
I do own SX 2 and I´m recording friends a lot, since they don´t have the appropriate Hard- and/or Software.

But for my own music´s composition/sketching, it often get´s in the way of creativity & workflow. Not to mention the huge CPU ressources needed, even if you only want to lay down a quick Bassline or Pianopart, or whatever.

So I´m basically looking for a GOOD Midi sequencer with VSTi support. Having NEVER worked with modular environments before, I do find energyXT quite attractive. However, it takes a while to get your head around it. But there are some nice tutorials to get you started with the app.

Regards
Raphael

[TrekStar]

A *free* alternative to Cubase? Is that a joke?

[Klemperer]

I used to use Orion which is not free but rather intuitive for Midi, Vsts, automation and so on. Tracktion is another alternative, I bought it, it's only 80$ as long as there is version 1.x, but I got annoyed by that challenge-response-thing because of my bad PC (I know many users with stable PCs like Tracktion veeery much, but in my case any re-installation (NO hardware-changes at all) make my reg-key for Tracktion useless, and I have payed for that, so I stopped using it). In my opinion with the wonderful tutorials that a user, Nicfit, added, ENERGYXT is indeed the best alternative to Cubase. As said before it costs even less than Tracktion, 39 Euro... I pretty well understand the musicians here that got addicted to it, I'm one of them )).
It's definitely a fine idea too to buy CM magazine and get their synths and Computermuzys for free, and it comes with (besides others) a free plugin which is WONDERFUL, called "Ohmygod" from Ohmforce. (They have another freebie called Frohmage and in my opinion a VSTi that is well worth a look while not being for free, calles Symptohm Melohman. But that one surely isn't an alternative to Cubase, while being a great instrument )
You might wait for the NEXT Computermusic-mag because it will include a kind of "how to do"-tutorial for Energy XT too... Don't know where you live but in GB it will come out at the end of June or so...some 2 weeks later in Germany, for example .
As others said in this thread before, you should give EnergyXT a try. And the rather long and rather famous "to-do-list" of Jorgen Aase has not only the advantage that you always get additions to the program but that you always have time to get into them until the next new feature is there . Rather changed my music-making from long-long studying to reading the tutorials and then really having fun.

[Rellik]

Interesting thread =)

Is there anything that Cubase does that energyXT does not? It seems like it does everything; but nobody ever has any problems with the workflow? I'm sure it's fine for experimental music, where it's really about the technology and the sound, but is it easy enough to make conventional music when everything is so seemingly convoluted? If there are no problems with this, then it's quite possible that energyXT is the best sequencer around, being modular and cool and all. And for only $50.00 USD or so!

[scuzzphut]

I'd be curious about that too.
How well does Energy XT work if you want to do a VERSE CHORUS type song mixing audio and VSTIs?

Maybe it's time I d'led the demo and looked at those tutorials