I might as well do this right, bring some finality to it, for me. So here are my personal top 5 FR’s for Cubase 7/8… things I would “prefer” that would be attractive to me as a potentially returning customer. These requests are being made directly to Steinberg so, if people chose to discuss or argue or debate the value of them here, I’ll pass on that conversation personally.
I’ll try to be as concise as possible.
1. I would like very much to be able to directly move mixer channels around. If I were to pick the single most annoying thing (for me personally, mmv) that would be it. No real explanation should be required but, drag a channel (or the selected channels) and drop it somewhere else, to a new horizontal position, directly. My preferences for how I want mixer channels arranged at any given moment during mixing change frequently so that would help me personally, lot. Frankly, I avoid (as best I can) mixing in any software that doesn’t allow that because it becomes very irritating, for me personally, mmv as usual.
2. I would like very much for some kind or reasonable improvement to the current “Can/Hide” paradigm for the mixer. It’s obvious, because it’s actually there, that someone during development decided that it would be useful to hide random mixer channels at will … and I agree. Where I don’t agree is with the method. It’s too restrictive to be of any real practical use for me so I never really used it.
3. I would like very much to be able to be able to directly hide tracks in the arrange screen. Obviously, that also requires a way to bring them back, to make them visible again, since they won’t be there to see anymore in arrange. Do that however you want, doesn’t matter to me really, as long as I can hide arrange tracks at will with very little effort and make them visible again with little effort.
Since we’re dealing with groups of things… it should probably also have some kind of preset system to hide / show groups of tracks all once, show all my drums (only), show all my vocals (only), show all the tracks in the project.
4. I would very much like for some kind of general (practical) update to the plugin UI window. It’s not that bad really, it’s just a bit limited. If (when) I’m working in arrange without the mixer or the inspector open I really would like to have the flexibility and access right there on the plugin UI, to reorder plugs, to access any plug, to duplicate plugs to another channel, without ever opening the inspector or the mixer… or traveling to them.
5. I would very much like to put more than one automation envelope on a single track lane. There are envelopes that I may edit together as a group (cut, paste, nudge, whatever, scenes) and having to have 8-10 automation lanes open to do that means having to also unnecessarily manage the larger workspace. So it would be preferable to not have to do that… to optionally put or group automation envelopes where ever you may want them that might be beneficial.
This may need a visible example so here it is, multiple envelopes, not even from the same parent track, all on one track lane subject to basic editing as a group or subject to complex editing individually as normal.
That’s all… for the “top 5”. None of them are major things alone… in isolation.
Anyway, I’ve owned Cubase since Cubase Atari / midi and I’ve (I think anyway) gotten good results with every version right up to version 5.5, where I recently got off of the train … so it does exactly what it’s advertised to do. Thanks, I do appreciate that. The selected FR’s above aren’t really “feature” related so much … Cubase does just about everything under the sun, they’re actually more related to methodology and interface interaction.
See #2 above. Cubase already has the “feature” … to hide mixer channels. It’s the methodology which is (imo) not that great, which makes it (for me) virtually useless. See FR #3. Cubase has this “feature”. You can hide tracks in the upper track list, but it’s clunky and unwieldy, the methodology. So … maybe focus more on methodology, not features. FR #1? Sure, it’s there… you can move mixer channels… by moving arrange tracks, unwieldy methodology, imo.
When things become “equal” generally speaking - and all pro DAW’s are generally equal, you can do great work in any of them - the practical differences become more about methodology and user interaction and (imo) this is where Cubase is currently trailing the larger pack. Those differences only become evident when you use better methods, then it’s very hard to go back.
Will I upgrade to Cubase 7 if some of this is addressed? Very likely. Is some of this the reason why I passed on Cubase 6? Yep. Is there a reason why I even care at all? Sure… because I’ve already invested thousands in it, I own a dongle with soundsets I paid for on it, and I know it blindfolded the dark, and I still actually kinda like it… or at least a lot of the stuff “in it”… if not the methodologies. Cubase didn’t change, my expectations of software interaction did.
Thanks Steiny.
Best of luck to you in the future. My pie hole will permanently shut now…
