Any disadvantages from using Nuendo over Cubase?

Hi!

I am a long time Cubase user and considering the switch to Nuendo (due to the 40% discount). Are there any disadvantages in using Nuendo over Cubase? Most of the time I compose music and/or create sound design for commercials, documentaries, etc…

Thanks,
Matt

At the Steinberg.net shopping part there is a comparison list.
Nuendo has all the things Cubase does plus a few more plugins and a few other features.
I moved from Cubase to Nuendo in 2002 (earlier?) because I wanted to be ready for anything,
and welcomed the decision when I had a chance to score a movie, because there were a few
extra tools, like for example two video tracks capability, instead of only one in Cubase.

All that being sad, if you are strictly composing music and recording audio and MIDI,
you should be OK in Cubase 10.5.

I’ve read the comparison chart and there are some fine features that I would definitely use. But it’s good to hear from a user that there a no drawbacks when using Nuendo instead of Cubase.

If there is a disadvantage it’s the ongoing process of the timing of updates. Sometimes Cubase gets some new features before Nuendo and sometimes it’s the other way around.

This seems to really annoy some people for reasons I don’t understand. It is obviously unavoidable since the products do not update at the same time. Other than that, there is no disadvantage. Only the advantages of the additional features in Nuendo.

I may be too late to help you now, but…I crossgraded from Cubase 8 to Nuendo 10 just before the sale :0(
I did this because I was mid movie and the Producers asked me to do some post production stuff to clean up dialog and add some ADR ‘since I was doing the audio anyway’. I figured I needed a Cubase upgrade anyhow and it would be cross from composing into the post-production world.

My learnings -

  1. The composing features in Nuendo 10 (vs Cubase 8) are painful to relearn. Some simple things are still broken (?) and I can’t get to work (e.g. tempo changing!).
  2. The Post production features in Nuendo are cool and hit the nail dead on. I was sharing files with guys over at Netflix using ProTools and their stuff wasn’t sounding anywhere near as good as what I was doing in Nuendo. I was learning on the job in real time, under pressure and a deadline, but the Cubase background helped me move to Nuendo quickly and get stuff done fast.
  3. The video encoding in C10/N10 is crap. I can’t get any video to work without stuttering no matter what encoders I use. I ahve to export to Adobe premiere pro to mixdown final video cuts, which is a pain.

Bottom line - the Post prod features in Nuendo are great. The composing ‘improvements’ from Cubase 8 are awful, and the Video is a non-starter now unfortunately until I can figure out how to get it to work. I’m 6 weeks in now though and no luck yet. Unless you’re planning on doing lots of Post-prod/Atmos editing then stick with an earlier version of Cubase, else get Nuendo + a real Video syncing product together.

There are no specific composing features in Nuendo; they are exactly the same as in Cubase.
They are in par with the latest version of Cubase. So if you would have followed the Cubase upgrade path, you’d had the same remarks.
(Not that it changes anything fundamental to your complaints) :slight_smile:


It all depends on the codec you are using. And that goes for ANY DAW.
Only ProRez, DnDx and Photo Jpeg guarantee you smooth playback and frame accuracy.

If you were using one of these encoders, then something is wrong with your system.


HTH
Fredo

Thanks Fredo. I’m going to try out those codecs and see if I can get the video solved once and for all. I am completely convinced it’s my lack of codec knowledge that’s at fault here, and not the software. It was so much easier with Cubase 8 using Quicktime, but I can see the flexibility offered now. My painful learning curve from C8 to N10 has been solely in the Cubase features between the versions (the Nuendo features have been bomber), so i would have had to go through this at some point. I’m so glad I didn’t quit and bail over to ProTools! It’s Steinberg for me until my (or their) dieing day!

I am using Cubase at present for music and some sound design, and Davinci Resolve for video editing/grading. I have used the Fairlight sound mixing component of Davinci Resolve very successfully and I do like it because it makes selecting channels from a multichannel file easy and is part of an integrated suite, but, it is lacking in some areas, however, round tripping to Cubase can be a bit frustrating (doesn’t support MXF for example) and channel selection from a multichannel file isn’t straight forward, so I find myself having to work in multiple packages.

So my question is whether Nuendo works nicely with import / export to NLE’s, handles multichannel files with ease and whether it will open / save Cubase projects (or are cubase projects one-way)?

After buying the update, I found one downside:
As soon as you save a project file with Nuendo, it’s only possible to open it with Cubase Pro! Not Artists or Elements.

Yes, that is the case.

Another detail probably relevant for some users only is the missing support of VST Transit. As of now that is not supported in Nuendo (it comes with local networking capabilities, though).

Cheers,
Mike

Cubase comes with the default settings that allow you to change tempo easily…in Nuendo, you have to customize it yourself.
You can change your tempo in many ways, but the easiest is to click on the track “musical mode” icon on each of the tracks you want to associate with the new tempo, and then change the tempo at the transport bar. The tempo changes. Make sure tempo track on the transport bar is activated. This is the same both for midi and audio.

Another way (for audio) is to open the pool window and change the tempo of each track (but make sure in the pool window you also select musical mode for each track), then come back to the transport bar and also change the tempo. It works seamlessly.

Nuendo has some bugs apparently (I presume so) that just mess up tempo when you want to change it, and Cubase rather works better with tempo.

Is this true? I’m a VST Connect user, so may not be fully informed, but the web searching I’ve done suggests that it ought to work with Nuendo.

On the other hand, clearly it’s not in the Nuendo VST Cloud menu, so… I’m absolutely prepared to plead full ignorance here.

Chewy

Yeah, have a look at the comparison page between Nuendo 10 and Cubase 10.5. For the collaboration features VST Transit is marked as beeing supported in Cubase only. I got Nuendo 10.3 installed - VST Connect (SE and full) works, but there is no VST Transit.


Cheers,
Mike