Cubase could be much more approachable. New Product "Cubase AI Learn"

[ZeroZero]

This is a featureS request. Cubase could be much simpler to learn, without sacrificing functionality.

Ideas below:

I have been around Cubase since 1993, left it for real music in Cubase 5 (2009), now returning C15. I once knew Cubase 5 really well.
In the Past Cubase has undergone radical rethinks, Cubase for Windows (from Atari) Cubase Score, Cubase VST, Cubase SX, and a lot of ground breaking functions like Expressioin Maps, Audio to MIDI etc. This took courage and it revolutionalised the way we think about music and create it. We need ot do this again.

CUbase is TOOOOOO complex and not very helpful. This stops newcomes reaching ability - wjhich makes users fall away.

The upshot of decades of development is that Cubase is very hard to learn. The manual is now 1700 pages long and the number of functions are so numerous that even the manual can’t keep up.

I am defintely not saying that Cubase should have less features. I am not of the opinion that just because something is powerful and able, it has to be complex and if you like “aloof” accessible only to experts.

I have returned to Cubase in October 25, after a fifteen year break. Even though I had a solid grounding, things have been (rightly) shifted and enhanced. I’s been (and is) a struggle.

To develop habitual muscle memory is key. Also to avoid those Gotcha! moments when it is like you are in a dark room hunting and pecking, or simply do not know that you even need something - the “unknown unknowns”. How many users, for example, have spent hours mystified, because there is simply no sound? Why is there no immediate help, withiin the app to address this. We could have some kind of “London Transport Tube” map, which shows where signals go, where they stop, and on click what to do about the sound stoppage, whetherv it is in MIDI routings, Audio connects, inputs, mutes, solos, channel allocations, channel routings or whatever. Aquiring this knowledge (solving silience issues) is currently a real challenge for users. There is no immediate help within the app.
A parsing of Steinberg’s "usual queries, will revealv other such examples. We need the solutions to these Cubase-functional-queries, to be available immediately, where the problem occurs.

I have decided to deep learn everything. It has taken me 8 hours a day 7 days a week, to develop real understanding of functions and even now I have potholes, such is gthe depth of the potential of Cubsae 15. Only now am I just approaching a pro level - with important Gaps.
Some people may acquire tech knowledge much faster. I am a musician. I try to approach CUbase Musically but.. to use an analogy, I feel like as soon as I walk in the door, Cubase ripps of my stage tuxedo and replaces it with an engineers coat. The actual musical ideas I want ot express get sidelined - over and over again. Full, clickable mastery, is many months, even years of work.
What we need to be able to do is to cruise around, without going into contast diversions, but having materials available if we wish.

It seems to me that we have two giant changes coming. MIDI 2 (with full hardware support soon) and AI. What is going to happen?

Are things going to get even more complicated?

Let’s face it, the Steinberg Manual is obtuse and dry. Reading it from cover to cover (which I have done) numbs the brain. Obviously it is like a dictionary. If you don’t read it you can get lost, if you do read it you can get throroughly confused.
I have found that using simple Google AI is much more effective. For example. I asked GAI " Why use Punch in and Punch Out?". The answer I got (as usual) was comprehensive and well laid out. Try it yourself. Using Google is much more effective like this. I even tried asking Google and “emotional” question and the answer I got back, was right on the money.
Try this question in Google: “I am struggling with Cubase please help!”

Across the web there are huge resources to help learners, but the issues are:

1] Are they available to the new user, do all new users know where they solution is? This can only be solved with the solutions available where the problem is. For example, how dfoes a user looking at 42.3.12.421 know that this means bar 42, third beat, 12th sixteenth note and 421 tics? This information needs to be supplied directly on the Transport Bar, in an intelligent and informed way. “AIQ?” See below.

2] There is simply too much in the way of solutions on the web.. If you go to a restaurant and ask for a menu, you do not want to find 2576944 available dishes with 12345 recommendations.

Cubase needs to “AI think” about which context new knowledge needs to be available.

Things that a newbie might think were simple, become feindishly complex, crucially off-topic to creative musical activity, and can leave you on the floor desperately hunting and pecking.

For example. I just wrote myself an essay on MIDI recording. It is just about setting up a simple loop in Stack Recording. It only covers a quarter of the topics. It’s seven pages of notes so far covering:
Common Record Modes ,
Setting Locators,
Setting independent punch ins and punch outs
Lead ins and outs,
Looping -setting, activation,
Setting up Metronome
Count ins
Control Room
Understanding Cubase musical mode numbers.
Snap Functions
Record enabling,
Common modes,
MIDI modes,
Enabling read and write.
Revealing Lanes
making automation visible in Project Zone,
CCs in Key Editor, Showing Lanes.

This is a lot of learning for a newbie and even when one has accomplished a proper understanding of it, which can take hours, one has not really engaged in any musical activity in terms of end product.

There are similar barriers everywhere, no matter what the task. We all know this. It’s preventing new users climbing aboard, delaying creativity profoundly, and sending minds on engineering missions when they want to be musically expressive

Hypothesis: “Cubase AI Learn”

In Cubase AI, there should be highly integrated help in every window, drop down list or Gui. This would be accible by an icon “AIQ?”

I do realisev that the idea for integrated learning has been tried before in various applications across the internet, but now things can be different with AI.

Let’s say you are in a window, Let’s take a basic example first. Let’s say you don’t really know your way around The Track list…
You see an Icon - “AIQ?” you hit it. A Help window of a different kind opens up. AI driven.

It offers a basic overview of the track List, ways of customisation, what the buttons are for. It provides an introductory video of it’s use in action. It provides access to utube queries and videos. It offers help with engaging with the Track List - for example - an actual step by step creation of a track - visually displayed, with strategic questions - verbally heard - “what color would you like the track to be”, then a video clipv of finding the color swatches and selecting. A “dress rehearsal” kind of idea. You get visual guided help, you get text help, you get common queries, you get text help, you get access to AI intelligent answers
AI can answer questions ofv emotional content. I am stuck ARGHH!. It can offer constructive comment and even counselling

I think the reader catches my drift. Sometimes I think more in Gaming terms about this. It is like the User is a protaganist and aquires tools, swords and magic wands, (skills) as they proceed. Cubase and music creation tools in general could learn a lot from encompassing Gaming design theory.
Imagine a protaganist call “Proto”. Proto begins life as a kind of faceless morphic human android. His adventure world is a virtual Studio called Cubase AI.
This last example might seem a little far fetched, i am sure, but what I am suggesting is more blue sky thinking about the help system in general. Making it so that the user is not in the position of being sidetracked into various non musical paraphenalia without on topic, relevent help immeditately in hand.
It could be possible (with permission granted in Cubase Prefs), for Cubase to send back activity data, which demonstrated where users struggle and or stop. If AI had access to real world experience within the app, it could offer ways for Cubase to improve and become more usuable

Z

[mkok]

It’s never been simple. When I bought Cubase for the Atari I had to take a week off work and spend all the days learning it properly. I don’t know all what Cubase can do for me these days but the simple jobs like recording mixing and routing are still easy enough. As are instruments and effects. You take it as far as you want but you don’t have to know all the ins and outs to be able to use successfully.

Saying that, anything that can help is a good thing. The online manual is not that great either. The best resource are the videos

[ZeroZero]

The manual used to be much slimmer and although it was nevr simple, it could be comprehended in a month or so.

[ZeroZero]

Here is a Maestro on this subject, he wrote Cubase with Charlie: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=npZ66cK_X6Y

[felis]

Interesting stuff, and he’s directly involved in doing the types of things in this article: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/12/magazine/ai-coding-programming-jobs-claude-chatgpt.html

If you disregard the sci-fi aura around AI, it can be used for very useful things. At this stage, it still needs direction and guidance from someone who knows the right questions to ask. I can see where it would be very useful in helping to learn Cubase.

[Realist]

I don’t think AI is the answer here.
I’ve been working with Cubase for about 30 years and have tried out other DAWs from time to time.
I also remember exactly how I connected my keyboard with a mate and at first there was no sound, and after a few hours of fiddling around we finally got Cubase up and running. It was the classic MIDI Thru error in conjunction with Local Control, caused by the user.
There was no internet back then. The printed manuals were a bit more detailed back then and there were more pictures.
Over time, you’d buy the odd book on Cubase to pick up tips or question your workflow.
Reading today’s Cubase manuals makes less sense than it did a few years ago. As you wrote, it’s too complex.

Which brings me to the following tips.
Forget YouTube and the countless ‘free’ tutorials. They usually don’t contain a ‘proper workflow’.
There are “structured” tutorials for the basic functions in Cubase. That’s more than enough to get you started.

https://www.steinberg.net/cubase/learn/

Buy some books or video tutorials on Cubase.
In Germany, for example, there’s still a printed manual available. I bought a book like that from Holger back when I was just starting out. He’s a real veteran when it comes to Cubase. Unfortunately, it’s only in German, but I think there are similar tutors in the English-speaking world.

Cubase Complete - Das Praxis-Buch | 2. Auflage

Over all these years of using the internet, I’ve realised something.
‘Structured’ knowledge doesn’t come for free.
This applies to all areas or genres you might want to produce.

It’s extremely important that you develop a workflow over time.
Everyone works differently, has different equipment, and everyone’s requirements are different too. That’s why it’s difficult to offer advice on this point.

For example, I enjoy making film music, but also rock or synth pop.
In some projects, I still like to work with hardware. Other projects I realise entirely ‘in the box’.

I now like to use MIDI remotes and controllers where I can access all the commands that are important to me. Unfortunately, the MIDI remote is still very buggy and the time saved is rather minimal. The concept is brilliant for the workflow, at least, when it actually works.

But here too, you can only find out for yourself which shortcuts help you get ahead.
It’s still the same as it always was: just “try it out”.
That’s still the best way to learn, even today.

[Realist]

For Wolfgang, it’s essential to get to grips with AI anyway, as East West seems to be jumping on the AI bandwagon.

East West Partners with ACE Studio | A new Revolution In AI Music Creation

[Realist]

And Vibe Coding is cool in itself, but you still need to understand what the AI is doing in order to limit it if necessary. It’s not for beginners, even though this is often suggested.

[JBuck]

I’d like to see an ‘Advanced Tool Tips’ option in preferences. Where hovering over an UI element or right clicking it provides a link to all relevant documentation. And maybe even a link to a video tutorial if it exists.

[ZeroZero]

I started with Cubase around the same time. Next time you’re stuck down some strange rabbit hole with Cubase try Google AI - you will be suprised how useful even a generic AI can be.

[Realist]

I’ve been testing AIs like Gemini for some time now. Only the free version. Gemini accesses websites and scans them for keywords from your query/prompt.

The summaries often get to the heart of the problem very well, but not all the tips provided actually solve the issue at hand. Often, the information is out of date or refers to the wrong version of a program.

During lengthy ‘conversations’ with the AI, they sometimes start to ‘hallucinate’ because the AI’s ‘memory’ is limited. This apparently still applies even to the paid models, which have more memory and processing power available.

That’s why, whenever you want to solve a problem using AI, I would always recommend doing your own research to check whether everything really adds up.

[ZeroZero]

If you ask Google AI how to solve a Cubase issue it’s mostly on the money and has extra suggestions. I would say 9 out of ten times. Proof is it works in cubase