Hi. I’ve been using Scaler 2 with Logic and Ableton and have had really good time with it. Steinberg is now celebrating their 40-year anniversary and I’m thinking about giving Cubase a shot since I’ve heard some good things about it. Does anyone have an opinion on it?
Hi @Varret welcome to the forum. Cubase is fantastic IMO. As are Logic and Ableton. I always think of the Dalai Lama’s teaching who says, ‘fine you can learn all you want about Buddhism and implement it in your life, but if you are born Catholic you are a Catholic whom practices Buddhism!’ I guess what I am saying is why swap religion/DAWs?
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I moved from Cubase to Bitwig and never looked back, but for composing, Cubase is probably a good choice.
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@davide , I’m excited to see different ways of doing stuff, I think I tend to learn best from seeing things in different perspectives. I discovered that I can get 70% off Cubase Pro with comeptetive crossgrade and I think it should be worth it for having access to tools that both Hans Zimmer and the creators of VST standard think are good.
And I honestly have no idea what the link between being born into a religion and choosing a DAW is, but if you like hating on western people practicing Eastern spirituality, then Jung was pretty savage:
People will do anything, no matter how absurd, to avoid facing their own souls. They will practice Indian yoga and all its exercises, observe a strict regimen or diet, learn theosophy by heart, or mechanically repeat mystic texts from the literature of the whole world – all because they cannot get on with themselves and have not the slightest faith that anything useful could ever come out of their souls.
HI @Varret
Welcome to the forum.
I think the question I would ask myself is why change to Cubase from Logic?
I have seen some promotional material from Steinberg pushing Cubase as a DAW that used by professional composers, which is true. However, it fails to mention that Logic is also used by many professional composers. I know two professional composers who compose library music, music for corporate events and for tv and film, (one compsed a sting used in a very popular chat show and was able to retire, although he continued to teach at a major music school and compose music for the love of composition) who would not use anything other than Logic. Asl Logic is used in many profeessional studios.
IMHO there is no DAW that is perfect but the best DAW to use for composition and production is the DAW that you know very well and are most comfortable with.
As a final note: I don’t use Logic because I am not on an Apple platform and have Windows as my OS.
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The analogy I was drawing on was why change? Do what you know best.
I rarely find people swapping DAWs and sticking. Most DAWs do the same thing these days and whilst I am bias as a Certified Logic Pro X user I think Logic is a brilliant all rounder and heavily supported by the largest software company in the world. I think @ed66 said it best!:
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Just a further thought: if you are composing with loops then IMHO Ableton Live or Bitwig are probbaly better than other DAWS because of the session view. However Other DAWs are probable better for composing where you are using multi-timbral instruments (e’g’ with Scaler utilising the multi out to split the output across midi channels) because midi routing in Live combines midi channels into channel 1.
To use multiple midi channels in Live you have to purchse a midi routing plugin such as Plugin Guru’s Unify or Blue Cat’s PatchWork.
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Yeah, I’ll definitely keep using Ableton for its Session view. But I also wanna try to do some big band kinda tracks with orchestral elements, so Expression Maps look like a great tool to have. The thing is I’m pretty new in the world of producing music, so I have yet to find “my way” of doing things. I like to have options and the amount of stuff that comes with Cubase will surely keep me busy exploring for dozens of hours.
Ok I understand where you are coming from, but I would suggest you may want to watch the chapter on Tech Obsession in this video (this is somrthing I have been guilty of in the past).
I am guilty of not composing or practising enough because I keep playing withthe tech: in some cases I claim to be designing sounds (
).
I also try to remind myself of a piece of advice from photography: “it is not the camera that takes the picture, it is the photographer”.
I am sure that what Davide said wasn’t an offense
and chatting is not very useful to exchange philosophical ideas
Oooops!
I see that Davide replied already
Well, I leave here my comment anyway
I think (and I see the confirmation) that he meant that one tool is not so much better than another
That said, most DAWs have demos, so anyone should pretty able to realize what is the best tool in their case
P.S: I tested almost all DAWs with a demo, and I dislike almost all them, LOL
After long consideration i purchased it. I have to admit that iam Ableton Suite 12.1 User. I compose Soundtracks and in fact i have purchased it only for VariAudio3. Its very similar to meldodyne. Great thing is with LiveMTC from Ludwig Goeranson the Composer of Oppenheimer, you can send Midi timecode to Cubase and let it follow Ableton in perfect Sync.
Now the con, i seriously cant compose anything seriously with Cubase, its clunky. I constantly miss the freedom of midi signal routing. The fact that Scalar is not working like i want aka using only midi on the instrument track was a bummer for me. You need a additional Midi Channel where you send the midi to the Instrument on a 16 channel basis i mean wow what a joke😅.
I also purchased it on the intension that Cubase will fix their clunky workflow one day and then the upgrade is cheaper 
Besides that James Horner, Ludwig Goeranson and many other star Composers using Ableton for Sound Design and Composition and Cubase as a tool.
Ableton 12.1 has also because ultra fast in the video player and usually the amount of latency has dropped alot. So bottom line its up to you
I only have Ableton Live 12 Standard, so I’m missing out on some instruments that I saw in the tutorials in the Learn Live section on their website(i.e. wavetable synth). I also took advantage of the price drop on Absolute 6, so now I got new instruments to play with as well(so far loading them in Ableton tbh :'D )
I found a guy on youtube that does really in-depth tutorials on Steinberg’s software, maybe someone else will find it useful: https://www.youtube.com/@OneManAndHisSongs/playlists
Another great resource is Club Cubase live streams with Greg Ondo (works for Steinberg).
In my opinion, it is all about workflow if you are making music professionally. If you’re doing music for self-enjoyment try all the DAWs You have plenty to choose from.
Hi Varret
Cubase is a solid DAW with a lot to offer for composing. If you’re getting it at 50% off, it’s worth considering, especially if you’re looking for new features and workflow improvements. Since you’re already enjoying Scaler 2 with other DAWs, trying Cubase could be a great addition to your toolkit.