Is Cubase 6 for me?

A

Arbee

New member
I'm an ex-pro looking at home/semi-pro composing and recording after a long break from music. I've been hopping from foot to foot between Cubase 6 and Pro Tools 9 for a while now. Pro Tools because of Sibelius integration/industry standard/work flow/mixing plug ins blah blah. Cubase because of 64 bit (easier with Vi's), VST over RTAS, MIDI, Expression and a few other features, out-of-the-box plugins, and built-in instruments that seem pretty cool.

These are the only two DAW choices for me although Sonar X1P did have me thinking for a while. I plan to use a lot of big virtual instrument libraries and will need full orchestral scores from time to time. Maybe even a little bit of film/TV if I get lucky. Musical style is a mix of orchestral (experienced orchestrator) and electronic synth rhythm tracks. VE Pro is one way PT users get around the memory issues with Vi's but a workaround nonetheless.

I've looked at online tutorials until my eyes bleed and Cubase 6 and Pro Tools 9 seem really close these days and I could work with either very easily. The most important thing of all is that although I'm very tech savvy I'm also very impatient, so want things to work quickly, easily, no fuss so I can focus on the music. Is there any deal breaker that should make Cubase 6 the obvious choice from your experience? I'm also interested in Wavelab for mastering (and perhaps Nuendo down the track).

Thanks
 
It was my understanding that Cubase's MIDI functionality was a little less..limited...than Pro Tools.

It is also my understanding that once you buy Pro Tools, you aren't done buying, because there will be functions you want that you have to pay extra for, whereas once you've bought Cubase, you've bought Cubase, and that's it, it's all there. This may only be relevant to certain versions PT though.

I may be wrong about all of this, but when I was trying to make a similar decision these points were factored into me not going for Pro Tools.
 
Thanks, good point about PT "extras". It's probably never been harder to choose one DAW over another.
 
I use Cubase 5.5 and love it. I run alot of VSTs and audio I find it very easy to learn and apply. The only comment I can make on PT is that a friend of mine ran it on a PC and hated it, he switched to Cubase. I think its a good idea to run PT on Mac.
 
Not sure why PT is better on a Mac, do you use Cubase notation at all? I hear mixed reports about it.

Thanks
 
feartoxin said:
It was my understanding that Cubase's MIDI functionality was a little less..limited...than Pro Tools.

It is also my understanding that once you buy Pro Tools, you aren't done buying, because there will be functions you want that you have to pay extra for, whereas once you've bought Cubase, you've bought Cubase, and that's it, it's all there. This may only be relevant to certain versions PT though.

I may be wrong about all of this, but when I was trying to make a similar decision these points were factored into me not going for Pro Tools.
Click to expand...

This is not the case with pro tools 9 anymore.
 
I have pro tools m powered 8, and cubase 5.5

I have used pro tools HD 8 as well, I have NOT used pro tools 9 yet (plan to upgrade to 9 eventually, and snag cubase 6 as well):

1. Sibelius is easier to use (IMO of course) than cubase's note editor. However, having witnessed first hand in a few videos, cubase's score editor is very powerful in what it can do in creating notated scores. Do I use either Sibelius or Cubase's note editor on a regular basis? No. Just putting that out. This is opinion.

2. I have never used pro tools on PC, it works great on mac though.

3. Cubase (IMO of course) is a much more powerful midi editor than pro tools. I would much rather use cubase for midi than pro tools. The way that some VST instruments are handled CPU wise (the newer VST 3 ones) is brilliant and pro tools has nothing like it. Basically VST 3 plugins only hit up your CPU for power when they are being played.

4. Pro Tools 9 has finally stepped up the native game with this version. If you asked me what was better cubase 5 or pro tools 8 LE, I would have said cubase 5 without batting an eye. NOW the only downside is even though they finally implemented latency compenstation there is a limit to it. Something to keep in mind, I don't know if it will be an issue running things or not. Like I said, I have only used 8.
 
Arbee said:
Not sure why PT is better on a Mac, do you use Cubase notation at all? I hear mixed reports about it.

Thanks
Click to expand...

From what I've read on this forum and my friends comments, PT on PC has alot of bugs, resource hogging (running instruments)etc. I havent used notation much so I cant comment there.

I'm not saying Cubase is the right DAW for you, unless you have to run on a PC. If your sold on PT, I'd spend the extra money to go Mac and avoid those possible headaches, nothing kills your work flow worse than having to constantly work out tech problems.


Good Luck,
Welcome to HR, let us know how it goes!
 
Thanks guys, I'm not really sold on either - more like sold on both! Perhaps the question I should be asking is "which company is the most progressive, responsive to customers and most likely to keep evolving their product?".
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top