Confessions of an ex Cubase User

jasinski · Post by **jasinski** » Sat Aug 18, 2007 11:58 pm

From 2000 to 2006 I used and mastered Cubase. After discovering Live- I loved the idea and have bought it since v 1.5- but it just didn't have all the features I needed- though I wanted a reason to use it. Last year I upgraded both DAWs; Live maturing to version 6 and Cubase to Studio 4. Cubase's convoluted new preset system and constant window juggling was finally too painful to deal with. I decided to give Live 6 a shot as my main compositional tool. After I got over the learning curve and could be creative without having to think through HOW to do things in Live- I have been 80% happy; still missing some of the obvious features that have been begged for on these forums..

Today I decided to crank up the old Cubase Studio 4 just to see check it out again. Its been almost a year. After an hour or so I realized just how unbelievably efficient Ableton Lives UI and work flow concepts are. Really.

It's night and day.

Granted the things that I wish it had still pop up almost everytime I use it. But the features that Live DOES have are so well put together (like zooming in on tracks/audio clips, key modifiers for editing note velocities, the File Browswer and AU preset system..a stroke of genious, the economical use of screen realstate, etc, etc) that I just felt like I had 2 left hands when going back to use Cubase.. the time saving shortcuts and fewer UI obstacles between me and what I am making are so far superior. I just want to say to Ableton- Thankyou.

I sure hope Live 7 keeps the ease of use and intuitive workflow and adds that 10-20% that will make it the no-brainer choice of DAWs.

condra · Post by **condra** » Sun Aug 19, 2007 1:32 am

Yeah. Its kool innit.

corygilbert · Post by **corygilbert** » Sun Aug 19, 2007 1:38 am

welcome to the tribe.

jasinski · Post by **jasinski** » Sun Aug 19, 2007 2:23 am

corygilbert wrote:welcome to the tribe.

oh, i been tribal for a while now..

Just wanted to say thanks to Ableton (i know they get dumped on sometimes here... so... let's remember how cool it really is)

nate_D · Post by **nate_D** » Sun Aug 19, 2007 5:26 am

awesome post. i'm sending this to a "friend" of mine. he detest live and swears by cubase. thanks for the ammunition

jasinski · Post by **jasinski** » Sun Aug 19, 2007 7:14 am

nate_D wrote:awesome post. i'm sending this to a "friend" of mine. he detest live and swears by cubase. thanks for the ammunition

I used Cubase for 6 or more years. Its a great app. It can do something things Live can't do. But Live is just way easier to use. For my purposes that is much more valualbe.

leedsquietman · Post by **leedsquietman** » Sun Aug 19, 2007 11:07 am

I feel a lot like you having used Cubase since vst 3.5 and haven't upgraded to Cubase 4 from SX3 because it is not yet reliable enough. Live 6 is my first time with Ableton and I love it for so many things, especially productivity speed/composition and just not feeling like an anchor around your neck like starting a cubase project feels. Live has proven a much more versatile and usable program than I expected, I got it for it's superior timewarping and on the fly session view mostly but have been surprised at how well it does a lot of other tasks.

However, there are things Cubase does better, audio editing, detailed MIDI functionality, scoring, automatable timings, better mixing views, more file types for import and export such as broadcast wave and .omf files, better video to music functionality, in Cubase 4 a good range of vst plugins etc, better automation views *3 lanes of automation can be displayed at once, etc as opposed to one in Live*

I use both. Like both for different reasons.

thehuman · Post by **thehuman** » Sun Aug 19, 2007 12:29 pm

I am with you 100%. I too am an ex-Cubase user. As other have said, Cubase has more DAW features, and much more in-depth MIDI and audio editing. The bottom line for me is the streamlined workflow in Live, though. It simply cannot be beat. Plus, Steinberg is a bunch of dicks who don't give half a damn about their customers. When I find the need to start using a heavier DAW, I will probably have to go for Sonar or something, because Steinberg makes me sick, and I will have no part in giving any money to them.

davec1 · Post by **davec1** » Sun Aug 19, 2007 12:38 pm

[rant]

there's been user complaints about how cubase 4 suddenly doesn't support stereo rewire channels for reason anymore ever since it came out.

You'd think they'd have fixed something like that easily, considering how it worked in cubase sx3...

wrong, still not fixed, and AFAIK not a single comment on it either by steinberg.

so if you want to give reason devices individual channels in cubase 4 you end up with two mono channels in cubase for every stereo device in reason...

[/rant]