Cubase 10.5 is here now....

[telecode]

I have Cubase as well, and find it to be painful to navigate and create.

In which case you should spend more time learning it. I just upgraded to 10.5. £50 is well worth it but I just wish preferences would migrate from the previous version.

Getting my Akai MPK249 to fully talk to 10.5 after upgrading was a pain in the backside. The list of supported midi controller/keyboards in Cubase is rubbish compared to Reason's

Grum.

10.5 works fine with Novation controller. No issues. So is the problem there that the DAW don't support the controller or that the Akai controller doesn't support the DAW?

[Funkybot's Evil Twin]

There's a third party extension that does a chord track and Reaper supports ARA/Melodyne. Reaper is insanely well featured, and crazy customizable, but there's a learning curve and some features are not very polished. On the other hand, it's so customizable that it can also be insanely efficient once mastered.

Reaper is also way uglier that cubase, which isn’t easy...

I’m using a third-party Reaper skin that’s heavily inspired by Logic along with some minor customizations and it looks terrific. Sure there’s some odd windows here abs there that look bad, but Cubase has the exact same problem.

[Ou_Tis]

Finally installed Cubase Pro 10.5 today... so the Halion is some crappy limited version of Halion 6? And it lacks full MPE compatibility, at least for most instruments, because the pitch bend is limited to +24 rather than MPE standard +48?

Huge disappointment so far. Terribly convoluted workflow. Effects, visualizers, and midi composing aids are all worse than my 3rd party software. Instruments are underwhelming.

And live monitoring starts crackling after a few minutes, which I can hopefully fix by changing latency settings....

[currentsound]

I test the Cubase 10.5 update out, find a few issues and give my thoughts. Checkout my full review and testing session. Over an hour of fun and drama! Cubase 10.5 crashes on camera while testing one of the new features lol.
https://youtu.be/E_nkIP2TR_g 

[currentsound]

I summarized the bugs and flaws I discovered on my blog post here. https://currentsound.com/general/cubase ... d-testing/

[telecode]

Finally installed Cubase Pro 10.5 today... so the Halion is some crappy limited version of Halion 6? And it lacks full MPE compatibility, at least for most instruments, because the pitch bend is limited to +24 rather than MPE standard +48?

Huge disappointment so far. Terribly convoluted workflow. Effects, visualizers, and midi composing aids are all worse than my 3rd party software. Instruments are underwhelming.

And live monitoring starts crackling after a few minutes, which I can hopefully fix by changing latency settings....

I have been using it most of today. No issue here and I am on quite an old system. Maybe my projects just aren't as large as everyone elses on here. I did notice a strange slow down in Cubase when I enabled the colors for the mix console and tracks. I turned them off again. I can live without the colors.

[xphen0m]

I've been having a problem where moving a MIDI note (among other things) is causing ASIO meter spikes when the track is record enabled. This was not happening with 10.0.50. Anyone have any idea what I could try to remedy this?

[BONES]

Does it actually affect anything or is it just a spike? If it isn't doing any damage, why worry?

Terribly convoluted workflow.

What? I find it extremely straightforward. In fact I cannot imagine how it could be less convoluted - you add a track, create a clip, add some notes, add effects and you're done. The hardest part of all that is deciding which of the half-a-dozen available ways you want to add your effects. I've surprised myself at how easily I have adapted and how quickly I feel at home in Cubase, given how utterly foreign it all felt the first time I opened it.

Effects, visualizers, and midi composing aids are all worse than my 3rd party software.

I can only imagine you have spent way more than you needed to on 3rd party software because the stuff that comes with Cubase is mostly pretty good. And there is so much of it. (You are using Pro, I assume?)

Instruments are underwhelming.

The only one I've really used is Groove Agent and it's bloody brilliant. As in every bit as good as Battery but with better workflow.

And live monitoring starts crackling after a few minutes, which I can hopefully fix by changing latency settings....

Yeah, I find I have to run it with twice the latency I ran Orion with. To combat this I have ordered a Steinberg USB interface so I can jump up and down and scream at them if I can't get decent latency (512 samples would be enough).

[BONES]

I don't know any DAW with innovating features. What are some innovative features you've checked out recently?

This is the dumbest thing I have read in this entire thread. You can't keep innovating in a mature market. The time comes when every useful feature has been implemented, it's inevitable. Let me ask you - what innovative features do you think we need? I have work to do, I need tools and features to achieve an end. I've had most of them for the last 20 years and for the past 10-12 I've had many times more than that.

What I'd like to see now is someone having the guts to start taking things out. I mentioned earlier that there are so many ways of doing things in Cubase so I'd like to see them trim some of that fat away, even if it meant losing the way I prefer to do things. Less is more and as long as I can get my work done, I'm happy.

Not to everyone, not a single additional feature will I find useful. Padshop 2 , yeah ok its another synth, the multi tap delay, i doubt i'll use it, but ok, so you could argue those things are worth £50 of anyones money. But I don't.

Those are just window dressing. The ability to merge elements from other projects is worth the upgrade cost by itself. It's a huge feature, especially if you do remixes. The EQ comparison is a brilliant idea, too, and retrospective MIDI record seems like some kind of black magic to me.

Getting my Akai MPK249 to fully talk to 10.5 after upgrading was a pain in the backside. The list of supported midi controller/keyboards in Cubase is rubbish compared to Reason's

How is that Cubase's fault? It is pretty much an industry standard so if MIDI controller manufacturers aren't falling over themselves t make their products compatible, it must be costing them a fortune in lost sales. OTOH, Reason is probably so desperate for customers they'll do anything.

[xphen0m]

I have ordered a Steinberg USB interface so I can jump up and down and scream at them if I can't get decent latency (512 samples would be enough).

I have a Focusrite Scarlett which is known to have issues, and am also getting a Steinberg interface. Scarlett's ASIO driver is terrible. It was recently causing BSODs (once again), so I updated the driver....and yeah. It's time for another interface.

[Reefius]

I switched from a Focusrite Scarlett 2i4 (first gen) to a Steinberg UR44 last year. The difference is HUGE.
With the Focusrite I always had driver issues and regular BSOD's. The Steinberg just works.

Also with the Focurite I had to switch off my speakers before rebooting my PC, because otherwise there were some very loud pops. The Steinberg just stays silent.

Another reason why I chose the Steinberg UR44 is because it actually has 6 analog inputs as described on the box. Many other brands claim to have like 6 inputs or more, but you need some expensive third party gear to be able to use them, or there are 2 digital inputs via SP/DIF. I don't know/own any synth that has such an output, so these digital inputs are useless to me.
Some brands even count the MIDI in/outs in theirs interfaces number of inputs/outputs, just to make the number look bigger.

[v1o]

I don't know any DAW with innovating features. What are some innovative features you've checked out recently?

This is the dumbest thing I have read in this entire thread. You can't keep innovating in a mature market. The time comes when every useful feature has been implemented, it's inevitable. Let me ask you - what innovative features do you think we need? I have work to do, I need tools and features to achieve an end. I've had most of them for the last 20 years and for the past 10-12 I've had many times more than that.

Bones you're best asking Vertibration. He/she was the one insisting that they should only be paid for updates with innovative features. And features that already exist in other DAWs should be free regardless of how much blood and sweat went into it.

[v1o]

I switched from a Focusrite Scarlett 2i4 (first gen) to a Steinberg UR44 last year. The difference is HUGE.
With the Focusrite I always had driver issues and regular BSOD's. The Steinberg just works.

Also with the Focurite I had to switch off my speakers before rebooting my PC, because otherwise there were some very loud pops. The Steinberg just stays silent.

Another reason why I chose the Steinberg UR44 is because it actually has 6 analog inputs as described on the box. Many other brands claim to have like 6 inputs or more, but you need some expensive third party gear to be able to use them, or there are 2 digital inputs via SP/DIF. I don't know/own any synth that has such an output, so these digital inputs are useless to me.
Some brands even count the MIDI in/outs in theirs interfaces number of inputs/outputs, just to make the number look bigger.

To be fair the first gen Scarlett is now very old. I doubt Focusrite still support legacy products. When buying an audio interface what you want to look for is the amount of analogue inputs and outputs. That information is normally on the spec sheet on the website. On marketing materials they normally just sum the total amount of both digital and analogue inputs/outputs.

[BONES]

Another reason why I chose the Steinberg UR44 is because it actually has 6 analog inputs as described on the box. Many other brands claim to have like 6 inputs or more, but you need some expensive third party gear to be able to use them, or there are 2 digital inputs via SP/DIF. I don't know/own any synth that has such an output, so these digital inputs are useless to me.
Some brands even count the MIDI in/outs in theirs interfaces number of inputs/outputs, just to make the number look bigger.

Yeah, that bugs the hell outta me. I was looking for a bigger mixer earlier in the year and I tried three different ones before I found one that actually had enough usable inputs. The first one used 7/8 for effects return, the next one was supposedly a 10 channel mixer but it used two channels for FX return and two more for PC out. i.e. If you wanted audio via USB, you couldn't use channels 9/10. I eventually just got a cheapo Behringer.

Bones you're best asking Vertibration. He/she was the one insisting that they should only be paid for updates with innovative features. And features that already exist in other DAWs should be free regardless of how much blood and sweat went into it.

Sorry, my bad. It was about 4 nests of quotes deep and it obviously came out wrong when I edited it. Clearly the idiot you were responding to is the culprit, not you.

[zoidkirb]

I switched from a Focusrite Scarlett 2i4 (first gen) to a Steinberg UR44 last year. The difference is HUGE.
With the Focusrite I always had driver issues and regular BSOD's. The Steinberg just works.

Also with the Focurite I had to switch off my speakers before rebooting my PC, because otherwise there were some very loud pops. The Steinberg just stays silent.

Another reason why I chose the Steinberg UR44 is because it actually has 6 analog inputs as described on the box. Many other brands claim to have like 6 inputs or more, but you need some expensive third party gear to be able to use them, or there are 2 digital inputs via SP/DIF. I don't know/own any synth that has such an output, so these digital inputs are useless to me.
Some brands even count the MIDI in/outs in theirs interfaces number of inputs/outputs, just to make the number look bigger.

To be fair the first gen Scarlett is now very old. I doubt Focusrite still support legacy products. When buying an audio interface what you want to look for is the amount of analogue inputs and outputs. That information is normally on the spec sheet on the website. On marketing materials they normally just sum the total amount of both digital and analogue inputs/outputs.

The first gen Scarlett's were known to have unstable drivers, poor latency for many users including myself. Even after the 2nd generation came out they did continue to work on the drivers for the first gen and got them to a decent latency , stable. Currently mine is working flawlessly on win/cubase 10. Still does 'pop' at boot-up
Part of me does wish it it would die so I could get something more modern with improvements all round but it refuses to do so