Cubase 11 - hearsay, gossip or fact?

[v1o]

Not stealing any features from the recent Logic and S1 updates? Looks like Cubase is heading in an entirely different trajectory to other daws. I was hoping for polyphonic pitch editing.

[Funkybot's Evil Twin]

Not stealing any features from the recent Logic and S1 updates? Looks like Cubase is heading in an entirely different trajectory to other daws. I was hoping for polyphonic pitch editing.

is that not already possible via note expression?

[v1o]

Not stealing any features from the recent Logic and S1 updates? Looks like Cubase is heading in an entirely different trajectory to other daws. I was hoping for polyphonic pitch editing.

is that not already possible via note expression?

Sorry I meant to say editing chords in audio with the pitch editor. The MPE/midi2 in Cubase is already pretty solid.

[Funkybot's Evil Twin]

Not stealing any features from the recent Logic and S1 updates? Looks like Cubase is heading in an entirely different trajectory to other daws. I was hoping for polyphonic pitch editing.

is that not already possible via note expression?

Sorry I meant to say editing chords in audio with the pitch editor. The MPE/midi2 in Cubase is already pretty solid.

Gotcha. Yeah. Polyphonic Variaudio. That would be nice. That said, if ARA2 support is improved, I've already got Melodyne.

[andypryce]

As far as I can see no big features but some improvements here and there and they just added a few unnecessary plugins to justify it to be called 11 and charge for it
I was hoping to see more workflow improvements to make things simpler and faster.

[fese]

As far as I can see no big features but some improvements here and there and they just added a few unnecessary plugins to justify it to be called 11 and charge for it
I was hoping to see more workflow improvements to make things simpler and faster.

That is usually the problem with software development - users want new features and are usually unwilling to pay solely for workflow or user interface improvements, although those take a lot of development time, too.
Steinberg should've done a cut long ago and remove all the SX legacy in the user interface, making it consistent with the modern GUI (not that that is the pinnacle of UI design, but at least it is vector based and scalable). But I guess that would've taken a shitload of time and effort and cannot be marketed as "new features" and probably very little people would pay for it (I would), so we're stuck with this inconsistent crap for years now...

[andypryce]

probably very little people would pay for it (I would), so we're stuck with this inconsistent crap for years now...

+1000
I would pay too.

[pixel85]

Squasher sounds like already existing stock plugins merged together - something that Steinberg do for some time (like their MasterRig in Wavelab) - not innovative, basic and always 2, 3 generations behind what 3rd party plugin dev already do.

Frequency 2 - cool but I'm almost 100% sure that dynamic EQ will not have any of the modern features like dyn EQs in FF or iZotope have (SC from other instance's bands, internal band SC etc). Maybe they'll introduce more filters because current list is poor.

Also LFOs in Sampler yaay! They asked about modulation system in one of their survey. I thought that maybe they will bring automation tools, LFOs, envs etc to the internal system but probably only in Sampler. Maybe in C15...

I got the feeling that C11 will be the poorest update ever. I may be wrong but it's the vibe I'm getting from Steinberg

[Reefius]

No gapless playback = no update for me.

As much as I like Cubase (been using it since the early 90's), it's super annoying that the audio gets interrupted every time I add a plugin or setup sidechaining.

[antic604]

No gapless playback = no update for me.

As much as I like Cubase (been using it since the early 90's), it's super annoying that the audio gets interrupted every time I add a plugin or setup sidechaining.

How good is Reaper in this respect? I thought this was the price Cubase pays for superior VST performance / ASIO Guard, and it's also present - to a lesser extent, but still - in Studio One that uses variable buffer length for dropout protection. I never got deep enough into Reaper to check it.

[Skorobagatko]

No gapless playback = no update for me.

As much as I like Cubase (been using it since the early 90's), it's super annoying that the audio gets interrupted every time I add a plugin or setup sidechaining.

How good is Reaper in this respect? I thought this was the price Cubase pays for superior VST performance / ASIO Guard, and it's also present - to a lesser extent, but still - in Studio One that uses variable buffer length for dropout protection. I never got deep enough into Reaper to check it.

All very smooth in Reaper most of the time. A tiny glitch can be present when adding a plugin with latency, for example Sonible Smart EQ with 4096 samples latency, not a big deal though.

[chk071]

No gapless playback = no update for me.

As much as I like Cubase (been using it since the early 90's), it's super annoying that the audio gets interrupted every time I add a plugin or setup sidechaining.

Yeah, I hated that too. Wouldn't go as far as to say that that's a deal breaker though.

Is it different in other hosts though?

[Obsolete462444]

Steinberg should've done a cut long ago and remove all the SX legacy in the user interface, making it consistent with the modern GUI (not that that is the pinnacle of UI design, but at least it is vector based and scalable). But I guess that would've taken a shitload of time and effort and cannot be marketed as "new features" and probably very little people would pay for it (I would), so we're stuck with this inconsistent crap for years now...

Agreed!

Or they design an entirely new DAW from the ground up, which doesn't have any of those legacy related inconsistencies to begin with. Ooops, that's what Studio One attempts to do (quite successfully so).

As a longterm Cubase user I get jealous of Logic users from time to time, since overall Logic underwent a more fruitful development path in the last decade. Consistently Logic had an advantage regarding UI, UX, bundled sample content and instruments as well as the DSP quality of the bundled effects.

Steinberg needs to hire younger staff, people who are more up to date, understand modern production workflows and paradigms, inluding UI / UX designers. They should close shop in Hamburg and relocate to Berlin to begin with, since Berlin is now the place for creative potential and home to many developer talent these days. Steinberg should try to hire or collaborate with some of the guys doing great stuff in Berlin area to step their DSP game up, guys (for example) like Tokyo Dawn Labs, Surreal Machines, Klanghelm or the talent that left Native Instruments when they reduced some of their development departments.

Eg Groove Agent SE could be such a great instrument, if it didn't have such an outdated UX & UI design. I'm still missing trivial sampler functions in Cubase Sampler Track that are common in other DAWs included "mini sampler" (eg Ableton Simpler, Logic Quick Sampler), such as the ability to slice up an audio sequence and then manipulate & play the individual slices independently or to automatically create a MIDI equivalent from an audio loop.

Cubase might still be perfectly fine for oldschool engineers, who remember the hassle of analog technology and early digital gear, but it won't catch the attention of young people, who are already used to more intuitively and cleverly designed music production tools in 2020.

Cubase remains a very powerful DAW and a primary choice if you want to do audio work, especially within a Windows OS environment. It's superior to alternatives like Cakewalk Bandlab or Reaper. But it's too slow (not in performance, but in the way you have to interact with the interface to get things done) and it's not intuitive or fun to use.

[Funkybot's Evil Twin]

Cubase remains a very powerful DAW and a primary choice if you want to do audio work, especially within a Windows OS environment. It's superior to alternatives like Cakewalk Bandlab or Reaper. But it's too slow (not in performance, but in the way you have to interact with the interface to get things done) and it's not intuitive or fun to use.

I rotate between DAW's: Reaper, Studio One, Cubase, and was a longtime Cakewalk user and I don't think Cubase is superior to any of them. Just different strengths and weaknesses. If you need your 30 year old MIDI gear to interface very deeply with your DAW (sysex, NRPNs), Cubase and Sonar are probably the only way to go. Both have legacy engines that are bloated with huge menus, slow workflows, and tend to be buggy. Cubase's performance isn't amazing either (gapless, track counts). Doesn't make those DAW's bad, but they feel their age, and have different strengths. Glad to see Cubase updating their Remote Control system because that thing felt old compared to something like Studio One's approach.

Reaper is fast, has a steep learning curve, might lack some features, but you can really work quickly in it once you master it, more than many other DAWs. But then tempo mapping kind of sucks unless you use Melodyne, and Area Selection is in the works, comping isn't as slick as other DAWs. Performance is great though. Studio One has a nice blend of workflow and features, but it's a "jack of all trades master of none" kind of deal, and performance sucks (track counts).

[zvenx]

I think some people want Cubase to be another DAW.
Are their room for improvements? Of course. But what I personally love about Cubase is workflow, which is great for how I work but may not be for others.
I have tried Reaper, hated it.
Fruity Loops. Hate it.
Live.. Really hated it.

If I had to switch it would be to Studio One, because I can use it without reading the manual, in a lot of ways, unsurprisingly giving its history, it is a lot like Cubase.

And personally I hope Cubase always maintains its workflow like... Cubase..... Cubase 10 broke quite a few of my workflow and I didn't like it.

If indeed there is a Cubase 11, it adds to my workflow.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steinberg_Cubase

rsp