Just wondering if Cubase has (I have yet to investigate fully possible options) creative timestretch/pitch/time/warp/granular type power
that Ableton Live has ? I saw a video recently with a guy twisting up audio in ways I have never really heard before.
“In the Studio With Tristan” On YT… it was really incredible, creative and yet very controllable, fluid use of Ableton Live to make very peculiar vocal stuttery sound effects. Which I presume could also be used on any audio synths for dramatic effect.
I was wondering if any of this complex manipulation that seems Ableton Live is No. 1 at, is possible in Cubase ? And if not, is the new built in sample track something could include or develop some of these type of deep pitch/time effects use ? I think it could be something worth considering to open up the Ableton Live type of pitch/time/stretch/warp/stutter/granular sonic sculpting.
I work with a few people who use Live and I can say that Cubase is, at this time, not as much that kind of DAW in the way that Live is. You can definitely do some stuff like that but the algorithms for pitch and time manipulation and detection are not as smooth or accurate overall as I’ve seen on Live, and the flexible and deep sample manipulation (using both audio and MIDI) on Live is a lot of what it’s known for and doesn’t exist in the same fast way on Cubase. Every DAW has its strengths, that’s for sure.
Oh, and Sample Track is not nearly at the level as how you can manipulate in Live, it’s a much more basic approach, though you can do some cool things with it.
I would want Steinberg to get Cubase more together and consistent and finished with/fixing existing features and the core engine first before addressing things like this, but of course it would be cool to have.
I have time-manipulated some wave files in Ableton and brought them back into my Cubase project. There is a pretty big quality hit from those manipulations, things go 8-bit very fast in proportion to how radical the transformation is. Even a simple overall time squeeze comes with a price. If you’re doing beats in a wall-of-sound the quality loss may not matter, but if you put those things out front in a sparse piece they can sound bad.
But yes Ableton is quite deft in that area and I wish Cubase would expand in that direction soon. This is an example of how Ableton attracts newbies by offering quick and easy ways to compensate for a lack of music skills, in addition to clever marketing. While Ableton still lacks too much stuff to make it my personal prime choice, its implementations of what it can do are very direct and consistent.
Not really sure about the newbie angle. It seems like a pretty high end DAW to me and with a price tag to match £560.00 for the most comprehensive version (Live Suite) A.K.A. “The version you want.” Clearly the sound design possibilities (or at least creative mangling in a very proficient way) are way above the more typical linear timeline workstations. I think Cubase could learn a trick or 2 there, especially for the sampler trackfuture features.
Sure, for some there are bugs people want patched first, but 9.0.2 great for me and I have not experienced any bugs myself yet specific to what I do myself and stability is the best it has been for me personally.
Clearly the sound design possibilities (or at least creative mangling in a very proficient way) are way above the more typical linear timeline workstations. I think Cubase could learn a trick or 2 there, especially for the sampler trackfuture features.