What is wrong with Cubase?

[Spencer Maddox]

Ftr I have no issue with dongles (and in many cases prefer them), but I do know that for some it is an issue and may be part of why Cubendo isn't as popular as it could be? Just guessing here.
rsp

Yes
That was roughly what I was implying.
It's also very complex and confusing for some.

Sometimes less is more. I think the key to the success of the program ableton live (other then its one screen drag and drop UI) is the fact that is not too complex. It’s dare I say it, kinda basic compared to logic or protools or Reaper. Same
With its Cousin spinoff product in Bitwig that has a big Following especially here on KVR. But where they might lack complex features the make up for in helping keep people more in the creation mode and making music, Having Fun With Max or The Grid and just creating. Rather then browsing menu after menu looking for advanced options and features . UNLESS this is genuinely needed for your profession, Hence why Cubase is so popular in scoring and long complex composition.

To clarify this isint an attack at Cubase. Just an explanation for mabye why it is not a popular in the mainstream as programs that are noticeably less powerful then it is.


Disclaimer I’m talking about Cubase PRO for the record, it’s the one I own. I have no expierence with the other 2 versions but if I recall they don’t require a dongle?

[toddbooster]

I'm going to go with cost. If anything's going to keep Cubase out of the hearts and minds of home studios and bedroom producers, it's the price.

Cubase Pro: $878 CAD (+ dongle $34 CAD) + $912 CAD
Logic Pro X: $279.99 CAD (this of course assumes you own a Mac)

The dongle hate I've never understood, but perhaps it's because I don't use a laptop. I pretty much just stuck it in the back of the PC and forgot about it.

[Jace-BeOS]

I’m not sure if my experience is on par with others who’ve tried it and passed on it. I gave Cubase a try at version 4/4.5. Here’s why I never got into it:

1. Crashed on Mac OS (I remember the media browser crashing Cubase the most).

2. Poor menu layout (cluttered, poorly thought out naming, categories, & locations).

3. Strange workflow for plugin config. The “Virtual Studio” aspect of VST seemed unnecessarily complicated compared to other DAWs using VST plugins. For being the inventor of the most prolific audio plugin standard, their handling of it seemed weirdly primitive (granted, Sonar had a “VST to DX” adapter for ages, and that SUCKED, but the actual usage was less clumsy).

4. Dongle. With the dongle, the huge cost of the product up front, and the overall performance of it, I felt abused by the experience, which leads me to:

5. Steinberg corporate culture: how they marketed, developed, and did customer interaction/support. I can’t describe it well, but I’ve felt it with some other companies before. Currently Korg is giving me the same negative feeling, and everyone’s report on Roland Cloud seems similar (and makes me feel like I can predict the future).

Maybe it was Yamaha’s influence, or German business culture; I don’t know. It felt like they were in a weird kind of self-imposed [by-way-of-arrogance] isolation. A lot of “our way is best, and nothing else matters”. “Not invented here” culture? Various small-but-deeply-established developers have been like this.

I kept Cubase 4.5.x installed for a while, in case they fixed it (never did; version 5 came out while 4.5.x was still a clumsy crashy mess), and for unique sounds (which were ultimately few). I removed it years ago and never bothered to try to sell my license (no one wants an old license for anywhere near the money I wasted on it).

So, I’ve ignored it since.

Cubasis on iPad has gotten a LOT of attention around iPad music forums/blogs, so Steinberg are seemingly doing something better there. I’ve even considered it myself, but I don’t trust the company. They’ve done cutdown versions of their product several times before and abandoned them at some point.

Cubasis seems like a marketing effort to bait people to the main product... which is considerably expensive, unless you’re going for the feature-reduced versions. Even now, an upgrade for me would be $300. Apple’s Logic is a far better deal in every regard.

Hell, Cakewalk by Bandlab is a better deal in every regard, and I’ve not been a fan of Cakewalk since I finally took my leave of them at Sonar 8.5.

[xbitz]

just installed because of you, freestyle displayed wrongly, bluecat patcher displayed wrongly, saved preset, loaded preset crash >> https://www.steinberg.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=102270 no solution (mac high-sierra, latest C10.5)

[xbitz]

thx for downvote, but the problem is real

Blue Cat's response:

Yes it usually does not ignore resize messages (since it works when you change the size of the plug-in once loaded). But it seems that during the load sequence it does, if the GUI is not open. Or maybe they have a cache of the first reported size of the plug-in and ignore subsequent changes? We can provide NFR licenses if they need, but there is not much we can do on our side right now.

and the plugins are displayed correctly in prev. 10.0.20 Cubase(Cubase_10.0.20 is good), just tried :

voilá if somebody has some solution please share it

[dellboy]

The dongle is just a nail to the coffin.

I decided to reinstall windows 10 the other day.

After it booted up I installed Cubase 10 and plugged in the dongle.

Product Licenced !

Whats not to like ?

Did the same for my i-lok stuff and no worries about logging in,remembering passwords,running out of activations etc.

I am sure there are negativesthat others could point out but for the moment I quite like this way of licencing stuff.

[telecode]

I'm going to go with cost. If anything's going to keep Cubase out of the hearts and minds of home studios and bedroom producers, it's the price.

Cubase Pro: $878 CAD (+ dongle $34 CAD) + $912 CAD
Logic Pro X: $279.99 CAD (this of course assumes you own a Mac)

The dongle hate I've never understood, but perhaps it's because I don't use a laptop. I pretty much just stuck it in the back of the PC and forgot about it.

that reg price. they usually do 30% and 40% off that.

my cost to upgrade to cubase pro based on last years cross grade offer was about $250 for Cubase +$40 for dongle. i think it was worth it. i got variaudio which seems like melodyne pro. plus some vsts. and a pro DAW. i use it on OS X. it doesnt crash. i think it depends a lot on what 3rd part VSTs you have.

[Passing Bye]

I’m not sure if my experience is on par with others who’ve tried it and passed on it.

I gave up around that version too, had some guys in the studio and damn thing just kept crashing, we didn't do much that session and I felt quite embarrassed, so took advice and went for Logic, had really stable and pleasant experience from that point.

[VitaminD]

I am a Studio One/Live user but the more I dive in to Cubase (because of media composing needs)the more I am amazed by it's features. As far as I can tell for linear workflow it is more advanced than the most and constantly updated. So what went wrong and this DAW is not more popular than for example Logic which is way limited compared to Cubase and had a last feature update in Jan 2018? You almost never see any one using it on youtube tutorials or famous users etc. Apart from media composers using it, it looks like it does not exist.
Is it Steinberg's failure of brand management, not enough PR? Or having trouble to reach new generation of producers songwriters? Dongle? Price? Workflow?

At first I was wondering how you came to this conclusion?

I'll admit since I stopped using it in 90s and forgetting about it, I thought it was left behind by others but when I started to work with it again I couldn't believe how advanced it is than the most.

Then I read the last part. So, you're assuming the above 3 paragraphs based on your feelings of it in the 1990s and 'forgetting about it.'

What is wrong with the color blue in living rooms? All I see is beige, green, brown, black, white. I guess it went out of style and no one kept making blue furniture or wall paint, because my living room isn't blue after I stopped considering blue 25 years ago for home decoration.

Sounds silly no?

[arkmabat]

My usb interface actually came with some version of Cubase but, when FL Studio covers just about anything I need to do with free updates, I'm not going to waste time with a heavy and feature-limited piece of software.

[fmr]

On the other I feel like it deters producers away because you need to spend 30-40$ on a USB drive and unlike ILOK you dont even have much use for it other then Cubase...

WTF are you talking about? You don't need to spend a dime, It's offered to you when you buy Cubase.

... and it's NOT a USB drive - it's a USB "key".

And you can use it for several things besides Cubase. Currently, I have in there licenses for Steinberg, VSL, Xils-Lab, and I still have some Waldorf licenses (although Waldorf left eLicenser in the latest versions).

[Synthman2000]

Very, very popular and for good reason + many moaning users = people think it is a bad DAW. Something like that. It has not always been the most stable of DAW's but I am very happy how solid it works on my system here. A bit of die hard user. I wish it had timestretch/pitch/manipulation facility like Ableton. Other than that I am very happy and know my way round it nice and quick.

I did not update since a few years cause v9 fulfills my needs and I prefer existing stable happiness than the extra features at the moment. When this PC breaks beyond a repair I will install the latest and greatest.

I have Live on this PC and am ashamed to say I never booted it a second time. Seems like a long slog to learn it.

[chk071]

The bigger the DAW, the bigger the moans.

[antic604]

The dongle is just a nail to the coffin.

I decided to reinstall windows 10 the other day.

After it booted up I installed Cubase 10 and plugged in the dongle.

Product Licenced !

Whats not to like ?

Did the same for my i-lok stuff and no worries about logging in,remembering passwords,running out of activations etc.

I am sure there are negativesthat others could point out but for the moment I quite like this way of licencing stuff.

I don't have a desktop and my laptop goes to a closet when I finish "toying" with music. Having to plug the dongle in & out every time is annoying, especially when it's not needed for any other DAW I use

[andypryce]

I am a Studio One/Live user but the more I dive in to Cubase (because of media composing needs)the more I am amazed by it's features. As far as I can tell for linear workflow it is more advanced than the most and constantly updated. So what went wrong and this DAW is not more popular than for example Logic which is way limited compared to Cubase and had a last feature update in Jan 2018? You almost never see any one using it on youtube tutorials or famous users etc. Apart from media composers using it, it looks like it does not exist.
Is it Steinberg's failure of brand management, not enough PR? Or having trouble to reach new generation of producers songwriters? Dongle? Price? Workflow?

At first I was wondering how you came to this conclusion?

I'll admit since I stopped using it in 90s and forgetting about it, I thought it was left behind by others but when I started to work with it again I couldn't believe how advanced it is than the most.

Then I read the last part. So, you're assuming the above 3 paragraphs based on your feelings of it in the 1990s and 'forgetting about it.'

What is wrong with the color blue in living rooms? All I see is beige, green, brown, black, white. I guess it went out of style and no one kept making blue furniture or wall paint, because my living room isn't blue after I stopped considering blue 25 years ago for home decoration.

Sounds silly no?

Of course not just that. Not one soul around me was/is using it. It is all Logic and/or Live. And whichever studio I go they have Protools and/or Logic.
And for one project I was asked to do a certain style which I had little experience and when I checked for tutorials on youtube, it was all FL or Live.
Anyway I am glad it is still strong and going because I am really liking it. It is one amazing DAW.