What's a good DAW to switch to from Cakewalk?

[jancivil]

Oh, I have to repudiate one remark, it looks like the MPE content I spoke of has to be licensed, I had a temporary license apparently.

[husker37]

Between studio one 4 and cubase pro 10, what makes cubase have better midi and what has better included instruments and sounds?

Cubase is also far better if you have external hardware. Cubase has a ton of functionality - Studio One doesn't even support instrument definitions.

[3ptguitarist]

Oh, I have to repudiate one remark, it looks like the MPE content I spoke of has to be licensed, I had a temporary license apparently.

Not sure if I'll be using mpe anytime soon as I mainly use a midi keyboard, drum pads, and guitar.

[3ptguitarist]

Between studio one 4 and cubase pro 10, what makes cubase have better midi and what has better included instruments and sounds?

Cubase is also far better if you have external hardware. Cubase has a ton of functionality - Studio One doesn't even support instrument definitions.

I've heard some not like the workflow of cubase compared to studio one. They find it takes a lot of work to work your way around cubase compared to studio one. What do you guys think?

[husker37]

Workflow is a personal preference. I'm a synth and midi guy - when Cakewalk went under, I demo'd both S1 and Cubase. I spent very little time with S1, as its Midi and external hardware support were not what I wanted. Cubase was the clear winner for me, though S1 has quite a good reputation.

[jancivil]

Between studio one 4 and cubase pro 10, what makes cubase have better midi and what has better included instruments and sounds?

Cubase is also far better if you have external hardware. Cubase has a ton of functionality - Studio One doesn't even support instrument definitions.

I've heard some not like the workflow of cubase compared to studio one. They find it takes a lot of work to work your way around cubase compared to studio one. What do you guys think?

I see that a lot. It's kind of strange to me. Personally I wonder about these people. Because I really am kind of an idiot myself, and I seem to be able to work with no issue of that.

I demoed S1 for 30 days. There are things which are more obviously apparent which do nothing for me, in fact it doesn't suit my thinking, and things which I would have to RTFM for. I didn't care for the GUI. I'm set in my ways, I'm old.

I have a really simple workflow. The majority of what I do is compose in the piano roll, called Key Editor here. I have that open all the time, set just below the project window, ie., there is a sliver of space below the lower edge of the latter.
So back and forth clicking on a visible part of that window.
I put all the MIDI tracks in a folder, so it's just a matter of a double click of the folder track to open all the parts.
I do a fair amount of growing things from the middle, ie., 'Insert bars' (or delete) and now I have to glue them, it's the glue tool on the folder track and I go back in.

I have many different controller presets set up for different roles. It's all in the one window. I do MPE now, and it's in the left zone, called with Command/Option L as a toggle. I have things set up a certain way of course, and there are a lot of options.

I render a lot of audio from the MIDI. So I can leave that editor open or not. Window menu, "Windows..." lol, w. a list of open windows. "Activate". "Close" and so forth. Everything past that is a key command. I have certain macros, let's say I want to edit an audio region with a plugin, it's two key command functions tied into a single move. So, key commands I have set up my way, the defaults aren't my ways very much. So I have those preferences copied which I keep, if I have to rebuild prefs. I do have 20-some preferences I have to change from their defaults.

It's the easiest thing in the world to use, and 95% of it I learned without having to read anything.

[machinesworking]

Seems like pro audio manufacturers don't support cakewalk anymore when they tall about daw support. For example, arturia's keylab mk2. So this kinda makes me want to get a new daw.

Since you mention third party support, it's got to be Cubase.
I'm not a Cubase user, but this is a no brainer to me, they're by far the most supported DAW when it comes to audio cards, controller keyboards, new protocols like NI's NKS etc. etc.

Often I wonder why I've used every DAW but Cubase, they had a few bad turns years ago, and I soured on them because of it I think.

[3ptguitarist]

Between studio one 4 and cubase pro 10, what makes cubase have better midi and what has better included instruments and sounds?

Cubase is also far better if you have external hardware. Cubase has a ton of functionality - Studio One doesn't even support instrument definitions.

I've heard some not like the workflow of cubase compared to studio one. They find it takes a lot of work to work your way around cubase compared to studio one. What do you guys think?

I see that a lot. It's kind of strange to me. Personally I wonder about these people. Because I really am kind of an idiot myself, and I seem to be able to work with no issue of that.

I demoed S1 for 30 days. There are things which are more obviously apparent which do nothing for me, in fact it doesn't suit my thinking, and things which I would have to RTFM for. I didn't care for the GUI. I'm set in my ways, I'm old.

I have a really simple workflow. The majority of what I do is compose in the piano roll, called Key Editor here. I have that open all the time, set just below the project window, ie., there is a sliver of space below the lower edge of the latter.
So back and forth clicking on a visible part of that window.
I put all the MIDI tracks in a folder, so it's just a matter of a double click of the folder track to open all the parts.
I do a fair amount of growing things from the middle, ie., 'Insert bars' (or delete) and now I have to glue them, it's the glue tool on the folder track and I go back in.

I have many different controller presets set up for different roles. It's all in the one window. I do MPE now, and it's in the left zone, called with Command/Option L as a toggle. I have things set up a certain way of course, and there are a lot of options.

I render a lot of audio from the MIDI. So I can leave that editor open or not. Window menu, "Windows..." lol, w. a list of open windows. "Activate". "Close" and so forth. Everything past that is a key command. I have certain macros, let's say I want to edit an audio region with a plugin, it's two key command functions tied into a single move. So, key commands I have set up my way, the defaults aren't my ways very much. So I have those preferences copied which I keep, if I have to rebuild prefs. I do have 20-some preferences I have to change from their defaults.

It's the easiest thing in the world to use, and 95% of it I learned without having to read anything.

How easy is it to setup controls for a midi keyboard in cubase? I'm trying out the studio one 4 pro demo and I'm having a hard time assigning the arturia keylab 61 mk2 the pads to the impact xt drum vst. I feel like it should be really easy, but it seems be difficult for me. I can't right click a pad and assign it to the keylab pad. I don't know what to do.

[dellboy]

Between studio one 4 and cubase pro 10, what makes cubase have better midi and what has better included instruments and sounds?

Cubase is also far better if you have external hardware. Cubase has a ton of functionality - Studio One doesn't even support instrument definitions.

I also own Studio One and can agree that it is not very good with hardware. But I had a job getting Cubase to work with my Roland XV, in the end I gave up looking for instrument definitions and went back to Sonar which does a superb job with hardware.

[jancivil]

How easy is it to setup controls for a midi keyboard in cubase? I'm trying out the studio one 4 pro demo and I'm having a hard time assigning the arturia keylab 61 mk2 the pads to the impact xt drum vst. I feel like it should be really easy, but it seems be difficult for me. I can't right click a pad and assign it to the keylab pad. I don't know what to do.

I used to use the Arturia Beatstep as a controller, with occasional use of it for note-ons. The pads you set up in the Arturia software editor there, and save particular scenes or whatever it's called.

It seems like this you would do at the instrument, after setting your pads/note numbers up. I've never right-clicked for an assignment, I don't really know why you would.

When I get specific with drums mapping, I create a drum map using Cubase Drum Maps, giving the note numbers the name of drums. That can get to be very crucial but takes setting up if you exceed General MIDI as I do.

[jancivil]

So, literally the only time I've ever wondered about the correspondence of a note-on, controller or no to an instrument has been with drum mapping.

for a visual
Once mapped, it looks like this in Key Editor:

note-on assigned.png

OTOH, right-click on that note (the drum notes are the tiny ones) depicted gets you this menu:

[chk071]

Between studio one 4 and cubase pro 10, what makes cubase have better midi and what has better included instruments and sounds?

Cubase is also far better if you have external hardware. Cubase has a ton of functionality - Studio One doesn't even support instrument definitions.

Whenever i read something like this, i keep wondering what stuff like "instrument definitions" actually are, or whether i'd ever miss those, if i don't even know what they're doing.

In general, i think such features are an addition, something which makes life easier, not essentials which make it impossible to work without them. Sure, all in the eye of the beholder, but, as long as you're not missing something really critical, i guess it really also depends on whether you want to adapt to another workflow or not.

Are "instrument definitions" even of any relevance if you don't use hardware synths?

[jancivil]

I think it must be part of the setup for external instruments. I've never seen the term and I've used Cubase for 15 yrs.
I'm blissfully ignorant of so much.

[jancivil]

Oh, this is a different visual of the same bit, here Drum Editor.

Drum Map.png

(I do it in Key Editor for reasons, first that I have all of the parts in the one editor moving from one to the next in Solo Edit mode. But this shows the extent of my map, which I altered today for this project with some changes from the last.)

[chk071]

I think it must be part of the setup for external instruments. I've never seen the term and I've used Cubase for 15 yrs.
I'm blissfully ignorant of so much.

That's what i mean. Anyone's "Important" is very, very subjective.