Cubase 12 vs Studio One 6

[jamcat]

Most of the times when Cubase is doing something weird it ends up being my fault.

Classic abusive relationship.

[spacepluk]

Most of the times when Cubase is doing something weird it ends up being my fault.

Classic abusive relationship.

[musicproducerdee]

I love the modern UI on Studio One. I wish Cubase did a UI/Graphics refresh. It's about time.

[Crossinger]

I love the modern UI on Studio One. I wish Cubase did a UI/Graphics refresh. It's about time.

While I agree with you on the UI in general, I‘m constantly struggling with the „optimal“ UI color settings. Like a shirt that doesn‘t really fit…

[EnGee]

I found 'Darkest hour' is the best fit for me

[musicproducerdee]

I love the modern UI on Studio One. I wish Cubase did a UI/Graphics refresh. It's about time.

While I agree with you on the UI in general, I‘m constantly struggling with the „optimal“ UI color settings. Like a shirt that doesn‘t really fit…

Well, at least Studio One provides the option to experiment with different colors, thankfully.

I found 'Darkest hour' is the best fit for me

Darkest Hour is one of my favorites, including Relaxed & High Noon

[EnGee]

Cubase also has the options to change colours. Well, at least I changed the editor colour to light grey

[keyman_sam]

Cubase also has the options to change colours. Well, at least I changed the editor colour to light grey

Can you get it to the Cubase 7.5 color and fonts?

[EnGee]

Cubase also has the options to change colours. Well, at least I changed the editor colour to light grey

Can you get it to the Cubase 7.5 color and fonts?

I haven't tried that, as I find everything in v12 to be nice and the contrast is obvious.
You can try playing with colours from Edit/preferences menu I think

[musicproducerdee]

Cubase also has the options to change colours. Well, at least I changed the editor colour to light grey

It does. I change it from time to time for some brain refresh. Although, the UI elements still look old. Let's see if Steinberg decides to do something about that in Cubase 13. They've been updating the GUI elements of other applications, so I'm guessing Cubase will follow as well.

[concealed identity]

Interesting to see this thread, since this was exactly the choice I had to make a few months ago. They ended up being around the same price point, and I've been using Cubase (4!) for forever now, so they were both pretty much neck and neck; the updated version of the software I was familiar with, or the spinoff that tried to update and streamline the workflow.

I demoed both, and I have to say that I loved both of them. Each had things I liked, and things I didn't like. Cubase had gotten way bulkier since 4, but at the same time had a lot of features that made things more efficient. Studio One's streamlined workflow was incredible at times, but other times made things more difficult for me (mostly UI stuff, but also some slightly odd automation and MIDI controller mapping stuff).

BOTH had bugs I ran into that, when I looked them up, had been reported for years without fixes. I ran into more of these with Studio One, but Cubase was not innocent either (I still can't believe it has menu nesting options that haven't worked for years).

So I dunno, I know it sounds obvious, but in the end it really does come down to which one is going to feel better to use for you, and which has more utility. In the end, I chose Cubase; I liked the native plugins more, the bugs I ran into in Studio One were more of an issue, and I was more comfortable with the workflow and interface (although I'm sure I could get used to Studio One's if I had made the switch).

One other point that I think is significant, but also relies on speculation: when you buy one of these DAWs over the other, you're also making a commitment to future versions. Although I'm obviously fine using one version of the software for 10+ years like I had before, ideally I'd want to buy a DAW that is going to be improved in the future and at an affordable upgrade price. Crossgrade discounts are nice, but not THAT big of a discount, so in the long run it's cheaper to stick with one DAW and upgrade when you feel it's necessary. So I looked at the last few versions of Cubase and Studio One, what's been added, what direction they're taking the software, what demographics they're trying to appeal to, etc. And for me, it just felt like a large number of the additions to Cubase had me thinking "oh, that's really helpful!", while many of the additions to Studio One weren't really things I saw myself using. So this also impacted my decision - I felt there was a higher chance I'd want to buy future versions of Cubase compared to Studio One.

[dorism]

I love both actually. Amazing programs. I use Cubase though.

Workflow in SO is so much better than Cubase. You just have to use it for a week to realise how clunky Cubase is. It looks beautiful and the design is really consistent. I found it pretty stable overall and the stock plugins were decent. I stopped using SO when it became clear it didn't support MMC etc... which was really bizarre if you're trying to sync up external hardware.

Cubase has features which SO doesn't and is constantly innovating. Chord Tracks, Spectralayers, tempo extraction, chord detection, variaudio, expression maps, control room etc. I've also found it more stable too especially on larger projects. Midi is much better on Cubase.

I guess, in summary, Cubase is a LOT more feature rich than pretty much every other DAW out there. I know, no matter what situation I find myself in, I can get the job done with Cubase. The others not so much.

[Muziksculp]

Hi,

Studio One Pro 6 is my DAW of choice, mainly due to its amazing fast, and easy to use WORKFLOW, and Sound-Variations when using orchestral libraries. It surely needs some improvements in the CPU efficiency Dept. , and it will be getting ATMOS Surround mixing feature in ver 6.5.

I'm guessing/hoping that Studio One Pro 6.5 will be out pretty soon, maybe a couple weeks away.

Cheers,
Muziksculp

[EnGee]

Well, I have both installed! I have the Artist version of S1 though. My usage is mainly Bitwig nowadays then S1 then Cubase. On Mac it is Bitwig, Logic, Cubase and S1.

I'm seeing myself mostly will stay with Bitwig and S1 (as my second DAW). They are both have fast workflow and excellent design. Also, both have the best CPU usage on both platforms.

[BONES]

I'm seriously contemplating a return to Cubase. I bought a second computer last year, with the intention of using it on stage but keeping my dual-screen laptop for working on things. But there are so many problems with using Studio One on multiple computers that I'm just about fed up with it. I can be working on a song on my laptop and when I try to open it on the stage computer, it can't find half the plugins, even though they are right there, in the same relative location. So I have to re-add them manually. Of course, when you do that you don't have the settings you saved on the other computer, so I have to save patches for everything, every time I make a change, and move those to the other computer as well. It's exhausting!

Worse is that I just got one of them fixed under warranty and they had to reinitialise the drive, so I now have to go and set up a new computer for the 3rd time in a year. As that's the machine I made our new album on, it's likely that none of those songs will load properly after the new set-up, which has the potential to be a huge hassle if something needs tweaking.