Is Cubase the most frustrating DAW ever created?

[eLawnMust]

Only intuitive Cubase I have ever used is Cubase VST24 3.70 from 1999... Pretty damn easy & has plenty to offer on a few MB of space... Step recording, rewire, VSTi-VST-DX usage, REX Files, small channel strips quite potent though, everything in correct place any idiot could use it... Picky on plug scan but plenty that work... Only real issue is setting up vst param automation which is there but not 'easy'...

[Uncle E]

Tried the latest Cubase due to its tempting price tag and the memories of the past. And knew within a day why I stopped worrying about DAWs. I want them to be my helpful secretary, not my stressful boss.

"I need that arrangement on my desk by 5pm Friday or your ass is toast!"

[woodsdenis]

I use Cubase on a M1 Mac and it’s very solid. No issues here. I have Logic 11 installed as well and find it deeply illogical tbh.

[dan_flash]

It's no more frustrating than any other DAW, ever tried learning Renoise?

What was frustrating about learning Renoise?

In my view, it's too different to be considered directly comparable to the likes of Cubase but nonetheless we'll worth putting in an hour or two to learn the basics. Once you've got a handle on how it works, it's incredibly interesting, fun and very powerful.

[kropotkin303]

Been using Cubase 13 Elements and I have had no problems.
The online manual has helped me out such as for plumbing in instruments using multiple midi channels and setting up effects. Always something new to learn which I like.

[AdvancedFollower]

I did encounter a major bug in Cubase the other day which forced me to change my workflow somewhat but other than that it has been the least frustrating of the DAWs I've tried. I think every major DAW I've tried has had one or more major bugs so it's pretty much expected.
Even if some things feel/look a bit outdated, it doesn't get in the way and doesn't force some "innovative" new workflow on me. It's kind of like Excel for music production which I appreciate. A boring DAW is a good DAW.

[eLawnMust]

As to the renoise comments... Many other trackers easier to learn but renoise not bad in that respect it's just way over rated... I did an experiment taking some SFZ custom samples I made myself & using as SF2 in SVArTracker, AKAI in Skale Tracker & XRNI in renoise... ALL sounded the same with a bit better brightness & clarity out of Skale Tracker... Yeah, renoise has good internal FX but with all the free commercial legacy plugs still no advantage...

https://warmplace.ru/forum/viewtopic.php?t=7025

[lfm]

I ran Cubase 2015-2018(9.5). When I started manual was horrible i how it was layed out. I had to make my own by copying text 1-2 pages and add to another 2 pages and similar. It was so spread out.
- manual was not comprehensive enough on each subject, I felt

This improved a lot those years, I felt.

Naming stuff was off in Cubase coming from Sonar.
- so used to that clips was called clips, and something else in Cubase, not sure now what
- midi list in Sonar was just List Editor in Cubase, you see nothing with midi until you read about it
- logical editor was doing operations on midi, which you could not guess

So more intuitive naming helps when you are new to a product.

Transition period from Rack Instruments to Track Instruments took many, many years.
- first Track instruments was not multi out
- a couple of years later that came

Cubase felt very much like a patch work, a little fix here and another there. Halfbaked features.
- there were so much more you could do with like Logical Editor, but untouched for years

And as somebody wrote already, so many bugs regarding projects, Steinberg could not keep it all together.
- saved track templates and when restored it became a mess with multi outs synths etc
- this was never fixed while I ran it
- even had feedback here that not fixed it 10 or 11 either quite.
- some had issues with disable a track and when project load next time a mess

Once the new video engine came in 2018 it was a cpu hog like nothing else, so that was the end of Cubase for me. Been waiting almost 1.5 years for that, and StudioOne and Sonar used a fraction cpu running video. You don't even notice having video too or not.

Now as my license on usb eLicenser will die next year I thought about if to upgrade just to stay in Steinberg periferal echo system, but resisted that temptation.

My almost 9 year Sonar runs fine, and got Samp ProX8 and will see if they come around to have something that is maintained.

Some had issues and found Sonar not for them, so that's how it is. Good there are many to pick from.

[revvy]

Have you tried REAPER?

[elassi]

- there were so much more you could do with like Logical Editor, but untouched for years

That's no news, sadly. The Logical editor has existed since the Atari days and also managed to confuse users since then.

[BONES]

I just recommend watching someone work in it, it makes learning it way faster.

Yes! I found a couple of guys whose videos made it easy to get my head around it. One guy, if I remember, was called Geoff and he had very neat hair.

[TS-12]

Yes the GUI is terrible, and the old code they keep patching keeps showing itself often thru various bugs

[chagzuki]

I'm playing around with Cubase for the first time in 20 years. DAWs have unsurprisingly evolved towards more or less the same design, and I could probably feel at home quite quickly. But then there's always some idiosyncrasies which might be important, in my case I've come to take Logic's Drum Machine Designer for granted whereby I don't have to worry about which plugin I'm using for a kick, which for a hihat etc. Mixing and matching is trouble-free. Is it the case that in Cubase I have to set this sort of thing up manually by routing a midi track to every chosen drum plugin, then filtering the midi notes for each track so that only the desired instruments are triggered by specific notes? Or I suppose I could have separate midi clips for each instrument and edit them as a group, something like that.

[trusampler]

most of us play a performance and use the dissolve midi notes to midi tracks to get separate tracks. That’s how I do it anyways.

[osofaux]

I'm playing around with Cubase for the first time in 20 years. DAWs have unsurprisingly evolved towards more or less the same design, and I could probably feel at home quite quickly. But then there's always some idiosyncrasies which might be important, in my case I've come to take Logic's Drum Machine Designer for granted whereby I don't have to worry about which plugin I'm using for a kick, which for a hihat etc. Mixing and matching is trouble-free. Is it the case that in Cubase I have to set this sort of thing up manually by routing a midi track to every chosen drum plugin, then filtering the midi notes for each track so that only the desired instruments are triggered by specific notes? Or I suppose I could have separate midi clips for each instrument and edit them as a group, something like that.

In Cubase you can assign a drum map to any MIDI track, which allows each note to have its own selectable MIDI output, whether it be MIDI interface or virtual instrument. Not sure if this solves your problem, it's a bit of a different system, but it does allow for single instruments isolated to single notes.