Cubase 5: Why I switched (headquest)

[susiwong]

Kontakt over Halion, no contest.
And HSO is pretty decent, if you need some string parts for pop arrangements.
Hard to beat for the price imho, plus it's got expression maps and is relatively easy on resources.
Classical composers or film soundtrack folks will get Vienna or similar anyway, in addition to a multi-computer farm to run it.
Ymmv,
susiwong

[plastique]

The problem is that Steinberg often keep outdated Syncrosoft drivers in the installation files and still allow to automatically install them. Pretty stupid IMO, but I learned this over the years.

Usually the safe way to install/upgrade Cubase is:

- unplug dongle
- install Cubase (cancel Syncrosoft drivers, cancel reboot)
- install latest Syncrosoft drivers from website
- reboot
- plug in dongle (OS will possibly detect new drivers)
- open Cubase ...

[Sascha Franck]

Regarding your Syncrosoft key problems, quite often it simply seems to be an issue of the USB port used (especially on Macs, but I also heard about very similar issues with PCs), so maybe you could just try using another USB port.

- Sascha

[grymmjack]

i've had that dcom thing before on sx. exactly the same symptoms. i've not had a problem with dcom and syncrosoft however at all, and i use dongled plugs all the time. so i'd say the problem is cubase and not the dongle. but update your syncro drivers to be entirely certain. glad to hear btw, that you are loving cubase5. i've considered (briefly) trying her out again and am in much the same situ as yourself - vst32/5.x user -> sx1 -> sx2, switch to tracktion then to live, and i'm happy. but cubase5 looks pretty sweet they really are trying to improve things.

how do you like the preset manager? i heard great and bad things about it. some say that it's like beig stuck with a bloated thing since from what i know that c5 doesn't even support fxb/fxp except through that big bulky explorer? is it annoying? or is this misinformation?

[soulata]

btw, I don't find C5 much different to C4. It looks almost the same.

k

oh, pitch correction is a godsend. Steinysend?

[koolkeys]

Some help please...

I just had my first Cubase problem -

* I tried to open the programme and it threw up an error message. Something about DCOM and not connecting successfully to the dongle.
* It ignored further attempts to open Cubase until I did a reboot.
* Then I had same problem again.
* I tried to open the License Control Centre application which also froze.
* After second reboot I went to the licence control centre application first, which after a few moments opened and showed the license is okay.
* Next I opened Cubase, and it launched just fine.

Is this one of those things that can occasionally happen, and if so are there any tips for avoiding it? Or could my dongle have a potential fault, or for that matter the USB port I am using for it?

No panic, but if there are any good tips about this I would appreciate it. Cheers!

Sound like fun.

Sorry, a bit of sarcasm to enunciate that if a just-purchased piece of software gave me that much grief just to install and run I'd bring it back to the dealer so fast that the package would burn upon atmospheric reentry.

But to be fair, all software has issues, and sometimes they are specific to a machine and not common. So I just didn't know what you were getting at because almost no software is without it's share of bugs(except maybe Podium? Though it's much less complex).

Brent

[susiwong]

oh, pitch correction is a godsend. Steinysend?

susiwong

[Ubiety]

@ headquest

The point was not Mac vs. PC. The issue was:

Buying a Mac + Logic sends the message that Music Tech is something rather exclusive for special people who can afford special computers - just not the message I want to give my students.

The exclusivity message. That's the issue. What if you bought an ADK and Sonar? Would that send "the message that Music Tech is something rather exclusive for special people who can afford special computers"? No, it wouldn't. It's a bogus claim.

The only way your students would receive a message of exclusivity ("Music Tech is something rather exclusive for special people who can afford special computers") would be if you sent it yourself.

Affordability is beside the point. Platform, software or hardware, is beside the point. The point is that, you could inform your students of their choices to make music with computers, regardless of what you choose to use. You could recommend your setup or something else, but you don't have to convey the impression to your students that what you use is only for privileged people such as yourself. You could help your students make choices that fit their budgets and needs. You could explain how all platforms are open to everyone, and that choices should be made on personal preferences and workflow considerations.

Making music on a computer -- or on just about any electronic device -- is so widespread and affordable these days, that any notion of exclusivity being tied to hardware and software choices is nothing but a silly notion.

[advaya]

from what i know that c5 doesn't even support fxb/fxp except through that big bulky explorer? is it annoying? or is this misinformation?

If you've got a large collection of fxp/fxb for a given synth, importing either is as easy as clicking the 'import fxp/fxb' icon to the right of the preset menu (which has nothing to do with mediabay). Mediabay is only needed if one wishes to convert their fxp/fxb to the new VST preset format.

Exporting either fxp/fxb is a no-go tho... can be frustrating if you're wanting to share a bunch of presets you've made. You'll need either a vsti that allows it's own internal preset import/export, or a different vst host. (tobybear minihost maybe?)

[headquest]

Sorry, a bit of sarcasm to enunciate that if a just-purchased piece of software gave me that much grief just to install and run I'd bring it back to the dealer so fast that the package would burn upon atmospheric reentry.

Wow - in that case I am glad I am not so impulsive!! This was a brief problem which basically solved itself with a couple of reboots in under five minutes.

I could easily not have even mentioned it here, but I'm glad I did - the helpful advice others have given should prevent any future recurrence hopefully. So thanks everyone!

Full first impressions later, but for now I'm glad to say that Cubase 5 feels so much more solid and reliable than other stuff I have tried in my search (Reaper, Sonar, Tracktion)... this reallys seems very stable, especially for a v.0.0 initial release - so kudos to Steinberg for really getting it together

Also my biggest suprise - the workflow is just great. Amazing that such a complex programme is so easy to learn and use

[headquest]

The exclusivity message. That's the issue.

I think you probably over-reacted to a poor choice of words on my part, is all:

By exclusivity my intended meaning is that the students might feel excluded (the word I should have used) because they have PC's, so could not use Logic at home (the context I was writing about), as it is exclusively a Mac programme.

I hope that clears it up for you, because I have nothing to add .

[Ubiety]

The exclusivity message. That's the issue.

I think you probably over-reacted to a poor choice of words on my part, is all:

By exclusivity my intended meaning is that the students would feel excluded (and that's the word I should have used) because they have PC's, so could not access the Logic software for use at home (the context I was writing about), as it is exclusively a Mac programme.

I hope that clears it up for you, because I have nothing to add .

That makes better sense, but still doesn't explain the "special people who can afford special computers" comment.

Anyway, hope you're happy with Cubase 5, and that you inspire some of your students to make music.

[headquest]

That makes better sense, but still doesn't explain the "special people who can afford special computers" comment.

A lot of kids and their parents START with that perception. I just don't want to reinforce the misconception if possible. It's great to see how far even younger teens can go when they just start learning how to properly use tools already available to them

Anyway, hope you're happy with Cubase 5, and that you inspire some of your students to make music.

Many thanks for your good wishes.

[headquest]

how do you like the preset manager? i heard great and bad things about it.

Hi there - thanks for the post. From what I have seen so far I do like Media Bay - it seems like a full-on way to manage all your loops, instrument presets, files, etc. I've only started to use it with the bundled content though. I think that if I wanted to import and tag third-party content I would probably use Live as a scratchpad first, then specifically import any loops I had selected by that point, and tag them.

I can see why people might not like Media Bay - it's big and its kinda proprietary. There's no need to ever use it though unless you want to. In the early stages of using Cubase 5 I did not know it was there, and successfully just dragged loops straight out of the windows explorer and onto a track lane in Cubase. So if all your samples are neatly organised as you want them already that may be the easiest option, without tagging them in Media Bay.

[Sascha Franck]

Just a word about the Mac vs. PC portion of this thread (hopefully without starting any further flamewars):
I can perfectly understand headquests decision, to go for a Windows (or better: x-platform) host.
I have been doing quite some sequencing teaching as well, and I was even configuring the Medialab of the local music university over here. It's basically all PC-based, just recently a handful of Macs were added.
Now, I even had already made the platform switch myself when I teached there, yet I simply knew that people already had some (partially even powerful) Windows boxes at home. As a result, I really wanted them to see what's possible on even a more or less mediocre business PC, I had absolutely no interest in making them buy dedicated audio workstations in the first place, let alone Macs, which would even mean they'd had to learn a new platform, couldn't use some of the tools they already were familiar with anymore, and so on.

Now, of course I also fired up my Macbook parallely, showing them the differences between Cubase and Logic, also pointing out certain shortcomings (and advances) of either platform. These days, some of them are even using Macs, and during the workshops, some already showed some interest in Logic, but it was still completely obvious that as a teaching platform, I'd use what defenitely had to be considered the most common thing.

Meanwhile, I also did some Logic teaching, but in case I had to do some beginners workshops again, I'd defenitely use something Windows-based again, simply because it's still what almost all possible students are using already (ok, the amount of Mac users is increasing a little, but not all that much).

Fortunately, I'm in a position to be pretty much familiar with either platform, so I can always advice them regarding whatever choices in some private talk.

- Sascha