Hi everyone!
When Cubase 15 was released, there seemed to be a lot of talking about features like Omnivocal, new Modulators, Stem Separation. Omnivocal has along way to go, to be comparable with Synthesizer V. I can do pretty much everything with Modulators from Cubase 14; actually, a chain of LFOs and envelopes is pretty much enough, to mimic the behavior of most of the modulators. I have yet to discover a tool, that beats Logic’s Stem Separation. So I thought, maybe this update isn’t for me.
Nevertheless, I decided to try Cubase 15 out and look for myself, what’s inside. There were people talking about the option of making the UI appearance darker than what was possible with version 14. However, no one talked about the possibility to make everything that does not contain any information completely black. And this is not a workflow or convenience feature for me. It is a way of reducing the strain on the eyes. It is a health enhancing feature.
When I’m not asleep or in a gym, I’m looking at a computer screen. Before Cubase 15 I had to periodically switch to Logic or Ableton, depending on the project, just to reduce the pain in the eyes. Here are my custom themes for Logic and Ableton, for example.
Now I’m able to do the same in Cubase, natively in comparison to both Logic and Ableton.
Now I’m able to work in Cubase without pain in the eyes. Huge thanks to the development team!
Another feature that didn’t impress me, when I was looking at various demos on the web, was Melodic Pattern Sequencer. While people were talking about how one could use a predefined scale or drop a chord from a chord track, not once did anyone mention that it is possible to define custom scales. Combine that with custom tuning one can define in Cubase and a couple of native audio effect plugins and it is possible to create Xenakis style orchestral textures with nothing more than a single Retrologue instance. 50 years ago you had to pay tens of thousands of dollars for an orchestra and have the parts thrown back at you by the musicians saying it is impossible to play. Now everyone can do that with a couple of clicks. And when was the last time you were able to hear an orchestral work of Xenakis live?
“Little“ workflow improvements like the ability to choose an audio interface at the start or the the last touched parameters for automation are actually huge. For someone who has multiple audio interfaces or has to take his laptop to different locations this saves a lot of time. Same if you use a lot of automation. While these are minutes on a daily basis, it saves me at least an hour every week. An hour of life time given back to me every week! The time I can spend on working on a new project, being with loved ones, learning something new. How is this not huge?!
Haven’t used Expression Maps before. Might give it a try with the new design.
Enjoy Cubase 15 with less pain and more work done!
Huge thanks to the developers!