Cubase 6 to...?

Hello

I have Cubase Artist 6. I love it.

But having installed to a new PC from the original media I’ve found that updates for it are no longer available (sniff! It still feels so new!), so I guess it’s time to catch up.

As it happens I’m able to afford an upgrade to the full Cubase Pro 10.5 but, other than the extra number of tracks that would give me, I don’t really understand exactly what other benefits that would give me. Sure I can look at the comparison chart on the Steinberg site but a lot of the features mean nothing to me.

So help me! Cubase Pro 10.5 or Cubase Artist 10.5?

J

I am an avid Cubase user and have artist 8.5… but…
If you are looking from a music producing perspective involving a lot of midi editing , I am not sure if I personally recommend Cubase at all. FL studio producer edition is superior to it (and cheaper). It has a great Piano roll for editing and comes loaded with some quite handy plugins that aren’t available in other Daws. Cubase stock plugins are pretty basic so just from value perspective alone FL studio stands out on top. You get a 30% discount for buying it on your “birthday” (just have to register an account and set the birthday to whatever).

However, cubase is good and more memory efficient while working with a lot of live 24 bit recordings. i.e no skips or glitches during recording.
I only use Cubase to record live and then bring the recorded tracks back into FL studio for further production.

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I used Cubase way back in the day - I believe they called a version Cubasis? I then went through Cakewalk, Magix Music Studio(!) and now I’m a Logic Pro user. My friend, who I record with has been using Cubase for a decade. He’s on 10.5, and when I take the mouse I can barely figure out how to change the track’s volume. When he’s using it, I’m quite jealous of the built in plugins and the handling of plugins is general is second to none.

Looking through the features, your choice of Artist or Pro is a choice between how many tracks you might end up using, and how many physical inputs you need to put into your songs. So Pro gives you unlimited audio and midi, whereas Artist gives you 64 and 128 respectively. When you go through all the other differences, Pro really does offer a heck of a lot more features in terms of grouping, editing, as well as other things that could be a deal breaker if you’re used to using them.

When I think of my own use of Logic, I think I’m at about 20% of it’s potential. I think my use is best described as treating it like a very capable 4 track machine! I don’t use audio alignment, or any features of midi. I press record, play, and then mix my stuff.

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I did a crossgrade from Cubase 4 to Studio One 1, now I am on version 2 but have bought then next to iterations, just so busy with projects in Studio One that I haven’t moved up.

The only thing I miss - the drum editing in Cubase was very streamlined and I loved that. Don’t miss their snooty customer support at all!

I’d say play around with what’s out there, there are even some free ones that are rather good:

Tracktion, Sonar (by Bandlab) are 100% free.
Reaper is nagware but also free or $60 upgrade to full unless you’re a pro, then $300.

Try some of the options an see what you like. There are quite a few DAWs out there.

If you like ease of use and don’t want to go into heavy editing - Mixcraft is good.

I’ve always had a soft spot for MOTU Digital Performer - best midi editing in all biz IMO.

I think some people on here also use Harrison Console or something like that that is closer to a traditional analog mixer.

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Well, the other week Steinberg were offering 10.5 Pro with 40% off. I couldn’t resist (and I’'m glad, it’s great!)

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