SX3 more intuitive and user friendly?

[hebex]

Emagic Logic 5.5.1 !!

Once I used Logic Platinum for PC, but Emagic suddenly locked PC users out. Since then I will never touch Logic again.

[klagga]

I guess its how well you use and know the program. I, personally, have no problems with overcrowding in any of my projects, which tend to get quite large.

What´s your secret weapon??

[steffensen]

well, i refuse using any other host, and settle with something just half-good just for the sake of it.
until something thats just as good as _or_ even Better than Logic turns up, i'll stick to it!

[hebex]

well, i refuse using any other host, and settle with something just half-good just for the sake of it.
until something thats just as good as _or_ even Better than Logic turns up, i'll stick to it!

Please do!

Anyway, back to topic. Can anyone give any tips on how to set up efficient workspaces and custom mixers to get an immediate overview of what is going on in Cubase SX without having to open several windows/mixers?

[UltraJv]

It seems odd that people are complaining about SX3 here, use the official forums

http://forum.cubase.net/phpbb2/

No one has these issues there. If you dont like something, dont buy it. Especially dont use the crack version and complain !! Its no good complaining to Steinberg for your mistakes !!

[ahja]

In my opinion sx3 is very user friendly and work flow efficient.

Good to hear there is *someone* out there who has faith in Cubase SX3...

Is there a significant difference in the ease of use between SX3 and SX2 in your opinion?

Setting up workspaces and custom mixers as a default project/templete is a great idea, and learning your key commands so you can quickly navigate to anything you wish to do. Use the inspector... use workspaces... No problems...

Any hints of a site where this is explained? The SX2 manual isn´t too clear about this...

A lot of people do have faith in Cubase... You just rarely see em cause they are actually getting work done. Rather then hanging out on internet forums.

I do feel there there is a signifigant increase in workflow in SX3 compared to SX2. For one, the VSTi channel is now linked to midi, so you can access all synth proporties without switching back and forth between the two. That right there increases my workflow quite a bit.

Workspaces... You may be able to find it under the name Window Layouts in the SX2 documentations. Workspaces are an 'improvement' on window layouts. Maybe why you can't find em.

Anyways, a brief discrition... The way i have it set up is Workspace 1) Project window maximized (keycommand shift + < ), 2) Project window + Mixer split window (keycommmand shift + >), 3) Mixer + FX + VST + CPU/Disk meter (keycommand shift + /). With doing this you can easily and very quickly bring up different layouts in which your workflow excels at best. Keeping important things open on one 'workspace', while being closed on another. It's a really great tool that most modern hosts have, but often overlooked.

Best of luck to ya, and try not to give up that easily.

[ahja]

I guess its how well you use and know the program. I, personally, have no problems with overcrowding in any of my projects, which tend to get quite large.

What´s your secret weapon??

Organization

[original flipper]

HI

I find it weird that a discussion on a host (SX) is seen as complaining - it's all about communicating ones thoughts on a subject, if that stops there is no forum - right?

Flipper.

[hebex]

It seems odd that people are complaining about SX3 here, use the official forums

The headline for this specific forum on KVR is "plug-in hosts discussion". Any problem with that?

No one has these issues there. If you dont like something, dont buy it. Especially dont use the crack version and complain !! Its no good complaining to Steinberg for your mistakes !!

As has become quite clear in this topic, Cubase SX is far from that intuitive that one should hope for, and if someone then asks a question about improving workflow, that should be rather natural. Assuming that a questioner isn´t using a legit copy is therefore also quite impolite.

By the way, thanks for the tip about cubase.net, but when I used to visit that site, there was too many people eager to flame each other. Somehow, your post makes me remember that.

[hebex]

I do feel there there is a signifigant increase in workflow in SX3 compared to SX2. For one, the VSTi channel is now linked to midi, so you can access all synth proporties without switching back and forth between the two. That right there increases my workflow quite a bit.

Workspaces... You may be able to find it under the name Window Layouts in the SX2 documentations. Workspaces are an 'improvement' on window layouts. Maybe why you can't find em.

Anyways, a brief discrition... The way i have it set up is Workspace 1) Project window maximized (keycommand shift + < ), 2) Project window + Mixer split window (keycommmand shift + >), 3) Mixer + FX + VST + CPU/Disk meter (keycommand shift + /). With doing this you can easily and very quickly bring up different layouts in which your workflow excels at best. Keeping important things open on one 'workspace', while being closed on another. It's a really great tool that most modern hosts have, but often overlooked.

Best of luck to ya, and try not to give up that easily.

Thanks for your constructive post, I´ll try to do what you suggest!

[hebex]

I find it weird that a discussion on a host (SX) is seen as complaining - it's all about communicating ones thoughts on a subject, if that stops there is no forum - right?

Right.

[jdg]

as a heavy SX user, i find cubase since version VST really terrible to use.

but i am now used to it. so now i'm fast at it.

logic is just as bad.. terrible terrible... but i'm still pretty fast it.

etc etc etc


IMO all hosts suck till u get used to them.

[original flipper]

HI

I totally agree - I became very comfortable with Logic and although I could still use it I switched to SXV3 for two reasons 1) Logic PC was becoming dated and developers were increasingly unmotivated to support it leaving me with software that would not work 2) I was maxxing out my PC and upgraded to a dual CPU Xeon which SXV3 and Cakewalk Sonor are the only ones that support it (Logic apparently did but was not optimized - I can confirm this as I loaded it up recently and it is NOT using dual cpu's to anywhere near as efficiently as SXV3).

I am a firm believer that given time any host will become 'natural or transparent' to the user but my knee jerk reaction to SXV3 was - I can use this but are there any alternatives?

I think Tracktion in particular T2 will be something that I will use - it is already feeling good, I don't think it will take a lot of effort to master it but I will probably use SXV3 when I expect to do something 'BIG' simply because it utilises my dual CPU DAW.

I am gonna spend some time with it soon on a project and probably get a book (there is a new SXV3 book coming out) to quickly learn the imortant things quickly.

Flipper.

[hebex]

IMO all hosts suck till u get used to them.

It´s just too bad that the intuitive Tracktion is lacking a lot of useful features, and that the feature-packed Cubase is so unintuitive. I guess it´s a lot like life.

[Sascha Franck]

User friendly: Yes, but strongly depending on how you liek to work and what you focus on. Regarding pure MIDI functionality, Logic (even 5.5.1) is still WAY ahead (and I really mean WAY!) in every aspect.
Regarding plugin compatibility, SX is tops - and that's quite some sort of user friendliness too.

Intuitive: By all means, no.
I've been using Cubase from 1.0 to 3.6 (after that I switched to Logic) - and those have been VERY intuitive, I almost never even touched the manual.
Now that I'm partially switching back to Cubase (SX), I can't find it to be intuitive at all - at least not a single bit more intuitive than anything else there is.

Also, I still find anything regarding ergonomics PRETTY bad (popup windows galore, no configurable mixer, no proper dual monitor support, etc etc).
Workspaces are a great thing though, they can defenitely save a LOT of time (was about time they implemented those).

Finally, at least SX has "relative snapping" now, which is a godsend for anybody switching from Logic (and a great thing per se too).