Dear Steinberg
I have been a long-time Cubase user since version SX3, and I have followed through all the upgrades. I love Cubase and I want it to be great. I want to be able to offer bold counterarguments (other than VariAudio) to so many of my colleagues who are all on Ableton. Which is why I am going to be a bit harsh.
In my opinion Cubase 12 was the best version so far, and many of the additions over time have been great, such as the sampler in the bottom window etc. etc.
However, I must say, first of all, that Cubase 13 simply does not look beautiful, it looks worse than the previous versions.
The fact that the left column has been split in 2 does not really serve me and looks terrible. The placeholders for insert/send effects are TINY and you can barely read the names of the effects as they are almost all truncated. Come on, Steinberg.
I do not like the fact, that the number of placeholder only increases when you add more effects. Why? Because when you want to quickly add more insert effects above the topmost effect, you need to move the whole effect chain down, one by one. It was much better before with the many empty slots in the previous versions, giving you the freedom to place insert effects anywhere.
The fonts look overall tiny, bold and just terrible. Same with symbols. Before, there were nice “Cubase-modern” buttons, now they’re just terrible looking rounded rectangles. And the dull colors of the audio-channels… I immediately started looking for ways to change them as I opened Cubase 13 for the first time. Overall it’s not entirely bad, but it’s just not great either.
Ableton looked bad for a long time and I felt proud being a Cubase user, but now with their version 12, compared to Cubase version 13, I am sorry to say, but Ableton looks better now.
As an electronic musician, none of the additions really impressed me. I’m going back to version 12. This was not a convincing upgrade.
It would be fantastic to see following additions.
Audio Effect Racks.
Please, Steinberg, tell me when you are going to add them.
Ableton does it so well, allowing you to instantly create parallel effect chains by right clicking on an insert effect, selecting “Group”, and then being able to create endless new parallel audio chains within that rack.
FL Studio does a good job as well regarding parallel processing with their “Patcher”. But no such option is available in Cubase, which is why you need to create extra Group or FX channels where you route your signal to, and then create another Group channel to combine all these separate channels. It’s not as elegant and it is time consuming. I am using Snap-Heap from Kilohearts to create parallel chains within one audio channel, but it then limits me to using exclusively Kilohearts plugins.
Folder tracks that are Group tracks at the same time.
It would be great to have the option, where when you drag an audio channel into a folder, they are all routed to the same group. Like Ableton does it.
Would be great to see it.
Scrolling in the browser on the right feels rusty and slow.
Please refer to the FL Studio browser, where the browsing is much speedier and more intelligent when you turn the mouse-wheel.
Midi-note playback lag.
When you insert or delete a midi note, there is a certain time lag before it is taken into consideration. Which is really annoying when you want to quickly make changes in your piano roll while playing a midi clip in a loop. I would say it is a minor issue but it has still been bothering me for the past 18 years. Neither Ableton nor FL Studio have that issue.
Better Midi effects
An intuitive Arpeggiator, like Ableton does, with possibility to manually adjust the step size (Arpache SX does have that option, but it is extremely unprecise). Strum options inside the piano roll.
Freely assignable LFOs
To be found under “Modulators” in Ableton 12. It would be so nice to see an option where you can add Modulators that can be mapped to any parameter of an effect or instrument.
More creative time-stretching algorithms
As Ableton does. Complex mode, Texture mode etc… Not just in the sampler but directly applicable to audio clips. This would greatly enhance sonic possibilities and creativity.
And please also add a great modern hybrid wavetable synthesizer, if you can, that would be only available to Cubase users. Something like Serum, Vital, Pigments, Phase Plant, or Ableton’s Wavetable.
So, please Cubase, do not lose against Ableton. I implore you.
