Am I the only one with the following impression: Cubase is more and more specifically targeted at those who create kinds of electronic music, sound design and related things? A kind of “supersynthesizer” - with shrinking focus on the recording/daw functionality.
I dont mean that as a rant, just an observation of what is added and improved. Yes, there are examples for other “genres” (i.e. Expression maps).
For an upgrade from Cubase 14 there is for sure enough in it to pay the 100 Euro.
Curious what exactly is lacking in the ‘recording’ side of things?
Cubase is a sequencer. It started its life as a pure MIDI sequencer and added the ability to record your audio later on down the line. Its primary focus has always been composition.
Its got all the ‘extra’ tools you need on top of this to record a top notch finished product with it. As far as included tools, its got just about everything in it. A person not working on ‘electronic music’ is likely using real instruments, recorded in an actual studio environment. All the optional tools aren’t even needed. They wont hurt a thing being there unused. Not sure what more you need for ‘real music’ aside from input channels, and the mixing/mastering facilities that are already in there.
It sure beats my old Tascam 424MKII I started with hah.
Thank you for your point, I can see it. Some examples I have in mind: Consistent recording modes for Midi and Audio. Ability to record and audition an audio track at the same time (by automatically using lanes for that purpose for example) without need for manual adaption of setup. Increased number of insert slots. …
Start getting those feature requests in now so they can put them on top of the list before you end up with people whining about something like the GUI colors again that overshadows all the actual important stuff people need haha.
People will undoubtedly get defensive, but I agree with the OP.
Not a criticism of Cubase 15, just an observation on the direction of travel.
If live band and audio recordings are your main focus, (it is mine), Cubase can obviously do it all too, but I do find myself gravitating towards UAD LUNA, which undoubtedly is more focused on classic audio hardware emulation, with less emphasis on electronic music.
Again, not a criticism of Cubase, just my personal opinion.
Kind of agree, that finally there are more tools (that exist in other DAWs more associated with electronic music) coming to Cubase. Which is nice to see.
As someone who records a lot of live instruments, there really isn’t a lot I think Cubase can add to make my life easier (other than make it more performant and have less latency when recording). They pretty much nailed the record audio to the PC / Mac back in the ‘90s. Editing has improved over the last 20 years or so. Effects are now in the box more than out of it. But a lot of what I do is still plug a guitar into something and record it.
Steinberg, need to go with the market, most music nowadays is electronic. Bands are seemingly. on their way out (as far as the charts are concerned, if anyone is into that. See Rick Beato’s video on the number of bands in the top 10 in the ‘80s verses now).
I was actually surprised Cubase 15, didn’t have more AI tools (even though that is not something I want to use). We all know it is coming……
Luna is way too erector-set looking imo and as I remember, I couldn’t get it to transport-slave to my 24trk machines with any of my synchronizers.
I can pretty much get Cubendo to master/slave to anything I own and, other than I’d like the presence of yellow vu meters, I can ignore Cubendo features I don’t use or feel like learning…not to mention seamlessly integrate with all my analog hardware.
You’re not the only one. While I upgraded immediately (even after reading the features, but not yet going through the videos), primarily because I pretty much always want my main DAW to stay current (and that has been Cubase since 10.5), I have to say that, for what I do (a bit on that below), I was pretty underwhelmed on what Cubase 15 brings to the table, and disappointed (but not necessarily surprised) that it didn’t make any additions to the main area I was hoping it might enhance (enhancements to the batch audio export facility – I’ve commented in other threads, both on Cubase 15 wish lists and going way back to after the facility was initially introduced). Honestly, I think my favorite enhancement/change is the option to scroll horizontally in the intuitive way other applications tend to scroll in Windows. The expression map updates may be useful at some point (though I rarely use these anyway – I’m hoping the new capabilities and interface may make me more likely to use them), Writing Room Synths may be a welcome new toy (though I’ve got LOADS of synth options already), and I’m at least curious to experiment with OmniVocal (wondering specifically if it may be useful for adding to my own background vocals). Possibly also the Score Editor improvements, but there was no video to elaborate on the very general note in the feature list.
This question really gets to the what each individual uses Cubase for. I’d be more likely to say “recording production”, and probably also “project management”, than “recording” in the sense that recording is only one small, but important, element of ultimately producing the recording, and I don’t really feel Cubase is limited on the recording front.
FWIW, while I’ve been using MIDI sequencers since way before they added audio capabilities, and the only pure audio tracks on most of my recordings are vocals, with the rest being virtual instruments driven by MIDI, my musical styles tend to be somewhat traditional – pop/rock/country/etc., which tends to mean (virtual) guitars, drums, bass, piano, keys, occasionally strings and/or brass, maybe even some orchestral instruments here and there. But it is extremely rare for me to use Cubase (or any sequencers I’ve used in the past) for composition. My songwriting is generally independent of that, with the songs typically being finished in piano/vocal form before I ever get around to making a full production recording.
With the Cubase 14 update, my main initial excitement was the event volume curve editing, which, once they enhanced it further from the initial release, could be a great timesaver in manually leveling out vocals ahead of compression. That’s not “recording” per se but editing. The volume plugin was also helpful for gain staging between plugins. I’ve honestly never even tried the drum machine and pattern editor, because, with the exception of drums (where I mostly use Toontrack products), and some rhythm guitar instruments (e.g. UJAM Virtual Guitarists, NI Session Guitarists) that do chord detection on what is played and manipulate their audio parts based on those, I am generally playing the instrumental parts on a MIDI controller.
My main hope for Cubase 15 was enhancing the batch export facility to make it much easier to prepare all the audio files I prepare at the end of the project, preferably in a single batch export that would include full mixes, karaoke mixes, instrumental mixes, stems, unmastered mixes, and masters at various bit depths and sample rates.
My impression of most of the Cubase 15 new features is that they are oriented toward loop-based music creation and/or sound design. If I didn’t already have a ton of plugins, the new synths and couple of plugins, might have been more of an attraction than they are at this point. I do extremely occasionally experiment with electronic styles that verge on the sound design side of things, but I think I’ve only used the modulators in Cubase 14 once (and for something that an auto-panner could probably have handled). But maybe the virtual vocalist-type tool in Cubase 15 could be helpful for layering with my own vocals in certain contexts (I’d definitely have at least tried it out had it been available in time to use in a recording I made early this year where I was trying to simulate a choir using only my own vocals and various effects).
I’m not really complaining (other than still no improvements to the batch export facility), but I have to say that, after watching all Dom’s videos on the new features, there was extremely little I saw that made me think, “I’ll definitely use that,” and a fair amount that made me think, “I’ll never use that!”
I’m an old school recording engineer 66 years old from the days of tape machines.
For me there is nothing really lacking in the areas that I need for real instrument / band recording. I find the audio editing side of things already covers more than I need.
I really like the way they are moving forward. The virtual singer, the improvements in sample manipulation. The development of VST stuff blah blah. It may not be stuff I need but it’s sure great fun to experiment/play around with. For me it makes for a fun hobby.
Many thanks to all of you who share their thoughts with me in this thread.
I am especially happy that noone misunderstood my posting and thoughts, because I am a dedicated Cubase Fan - using it since Atari-Days and yes, even though some modern Genres are not my thing, I love to experiment with the new features - I am trying to integrate them in a kind of “cross-over-genre” into my personal, more “classical” approach.
I can easily live with the direction the product goes. Especially since in general it has much more than I think anybody “needs”.
Hey, thank you for your respectful and sincere thoughts. I really appreciate it.
Cubase has an incredibly broad user base, probably broader than most other DAWs. It is used by professional film composers, electronic music producers, recording and mix engineers, home studio musicians, veterans who have been with us since 1989, complete beginners who have never touched a DAW before, keyboard wizards, guitarists, and many more.
With every release, our biggest challenge is finding the right balance between all these users and their needs, because there is only so much we can do in a single version. We always try to include something for each user group, but big features require more resources, so there will naturally be a bias toward one group or another from time to time. Still, we do our best to balance things out over the following releases.
What all of these user groups have in common is the need for a streamlined workflow and better usability, and that is our main focus in every release, no matter the target group. I hope that is something you have noticed when looking at the progress we have made over the past six or seven years.
There have been many improvements for “classic” recording, mixing, and audio editing workflows in recent versions. And if Cubase 15 does not have what you were hoping for, I am confident the next version will.
Still, I am curious: What would you like to see next in the recording, mixing and audio editing workflow direction?
Thanks for your post Matthias, it’s good to hear from the Steinberg team. If you have the time to address any of the below that would be appreciated.
A fix for the audio glitches caused by elastique (as reported on this forum for 10 years)
Make the transpose options apply to the tape stretch algorithms as well (ie make tape stretching/non-time-corrected pitch changes much quicker and easier)
Gapless audio playback
Significantly better audio engine performance on Windows, especially with high core count cpus (thanks @gitarul for reminding me about this!)
Point taken, but I think this is a fairly balanced release overall, at least in terms of new features. Everyone gets something. Maybe some get more than others… but in general, there’s a goodie for everyone. Even tiny little things like the horizontal scrolling option (which is buried in the release notes) is a long-awaited quality of life thing I’ve been wanting… and there are many “tiny” things like that.
And Steinberg is also strategically “shoring up” their defenses against DAWs like Bitwig with the modulators and sound design stuff. I’m a big fan of Bitwig, but C15 just made me want to use Bitwig a little less.
Overall, smart release, going from strength to strength, and they keep it at a very reasonable $99 upgrade price. Thumbs up from me.
Thank you, Matthias for your reaction to my thread. I am especially happy that my thoughts were/are just thoughts and not at all a negative comment on what is delivered with Cubase 15.
There is a reason why I am using Cubase and as far as I can see my brother and some of my friends do as well. All creating very different kinds of music and everybody happy with Cubase.
After now 40 years of being in the software development business myself I can easily see the challenges concerning ressource allocation for a complex product like Cubase.
Some of my personal wishes are even adressed in cubase 15 (Workflow things) and you can find some of my little ideas in my reply to the first reactions here.
What am I dreaming about? Well: Maybe a decent room correction plugin or feature would be great. More Cues in control room. Audio and Midi recording modes being the same choices. Recording Audiotracks while at the same time listening to what has been recorded on the track before without much manual handling (lanes could be used in a way for that of course).
There is one feature in cubase 15 that I have not dug into to say whether it does what I would need, namely the choice of Audio_Interface and Outputs in the Hub. Background: I switch audio-interfaces in one and the same project (using my Motif XF and an RME card alternately). I would LOVE to see that chaning the audio-interface automatically establishes a setup for the audio-connections as a preset, thereby allowing to switch the interface and still have at least all outputs, etc. connected in a reasonable way. Up to cubase 14 I have to switch the interface and manually select prepared presets for audio-connections. So bottom line: For me it makes sense to switch audio-interface in a single open/active project as effortless as possible. Alternatively of course the use of multiple asio-drivers at the same time would be welcome. I do understand, tho, that this is not trivial under Windows.
PS.: I am for sure looking forward to experiment with some of the features that come with Cubase 15 and are not so much related to my “Genre” - as I already wrote: It might create creative impulses for a new Crossover style.
