I have just updated to Cubase Pro 13 and my question is:
Is it worth going for Absolute 6 given what is included in Cubase 13 Pro, particularly given the current sale @ 70% off to Dorico Pro users
Any advice appreciated!!
It would be nice if Steinberg would include a non-sexy text list comparing the two!!
Thanks in Advance
Off the top of my head, they both have Padshop and Retrologue and that’s it I think. Cubase has Halion Sonic a cut down player version of Halion 7 (although I think it might be free to anyone), also a cut down Groove Agent.
You can activate a 30 day trial of Halion 7, Groove Agent & backbone to try them for yourself. That will give a good idea.
To be honest, there’s no comparison to be had. Cubase features Retrologue 2 and Padshop 2, ok, these are the real deal. It also includes Groove Agent SE.
But. Absolute has Halion 7. Halion 7 comes with a big selection of instruments. You have a dedicated organ, 2 pianos, a dedicated electric bass, studio strings, mellotron, Rhodes, FM Lab, world instruments, tales and verve which are lush guitar/piano pad hybrids, you keep iconica sketch from Cubase but you also get HALion symphonic orchestra in Absolute, as well as the basic, micro Olympus choir. There’s the b-box, trium, voltage, triebwerk, lots of instruments. And of course, you get HALion 7 as a “workstation”, the engines of which are fully capable of building instruments such as these, if you want to.
In general, I feel that Halion 7 is the centerpiece of Absolute. However:
In Absolute there are also extra preset packs for Padshop and Retrologue.
Full groove agent has more content, and the ability to use up to 4 agents simultaneously, when the regular SE is just one at a time, output channels and other techincalities aside.
Backbone is very very useful for generating, designing, mangling and mixing percussion sounds.
If you’re still not sure about Absolute, please do download the trial of HALion. It’s not very polite, but I’ll still say it: Trying to extropolate the value of the full versions from the SE content included in Cubase (be it Halion Sonic, Groove Agent SE, Spectralayers One) is a BIG mistake, and one that I’ve made.
Run the trials. See the big guns in action, then decide.
Thank you!!
I have both Cubase 13 Pro (upgraded over time from Cubase 4, so I probably have a lot of odd bits floating around) and Dorico 5 Pro Installed, and it looks like I have HALion 6 and HALion Sonic 7.
So it looks like I have the 35GB of included HALion sounds, which I say because the HALion Symphony Orchestra is there at 6 GB, courtesy of Dorico, but not the ability to manipulate the samples. So, I guess I have to decide if I need that + the extra 100GB of sounds in Absolute.
BTW: Interesting how Tech Radar says of HALion 7 ‘Really, what you’re getting for the price is pretty extraordinary. It’s like an entire Kontakt library under one roof with exceptional sound design features. And all that for €350 seems like a bargain’
Thank you for the contributions above. Most Helpful!!
I have to agree, I just bought the upgrade to Absolute 6. Steinberg really offers an incredible deal here. Congrats !