There are more than a few posts on the internet about the frustrations some users have getting started with Cubase. I get it. In the beginning, I felt the same way and I also worked with Pro Tools and Audacity concurrently, and found them no easier.
Cubase won me over, as once I started to learned how to use it, I preferred it, I like the tools it comes with for drums and instruments, and best of all it is cost effective if you choose to upgrade. Being a somewhat tech challenged 69 year old I have had some self-generated-issues with software downloads. Tech support has been very helpful and I would give them a AAA rating. You have to be patient, and polite as some things take time to sort out. Michael Lang I really appreciated your advice.
My goal was to be able to record the songs I write, in the context of a 5 piece rock/country style band comfortably. After an 18 month learning curve, I achieved that and I am moving around Cubase quite freely with the click of a mouse. Best of all my finished projects sound great and the learning process has been very satisfying.
My only recommendation is the beginner online tutorials need to dummy things down. There is nothing more visually intimidating than seeing the tutorial for a simple subject that has 15 brightly coloured tracks on the huge curved monitor and a presenter who thinks in 15 tracks, when most of us starting out are looking for 3 or four instruments with a lead vocal and maybe some harmony.
Andrew Block Vancouver Canada
I am a new user and there really is no true “beginner” information out there. I’ve been messing around for a few hours now and I finally got the program to recoginze when I speak into the mic. I have yet to figure out how to make the sound play through my computer or PA via the mixer. I don’t think I’m going to be able to do this without someone showing me in person. Using the program requires you have experience with these types of programs already.
The first step when starting with a DAW is to set up your audio interface. Cubase only accepts ASIO as the audio interface driver. If you do not have an interface that comes with ASIO drivers (such as on-board audio), the next best thing if you are on a Windows machine is ASIO4All — a generic ASIO driver that can be used with any audio interface. ASIO4All if freeware but is not problem free and performance will always be greater with a dedicated ASIO driver. Such audio interfaces can be had from <$100 from a music store of your choice.
Once you have your ASIO driver installed, search YouTube for something like “cubase setup audio interface” and you should find plenty of videos.
For specific questions, this forum holds a lot of expertise.
I’m using a MAC and a Yamaha mixer. Yamaha said I should use both the MGXU to be both the input and output. But seems to me the mac should be the output since I want to hear and record the sound on the mac. Though in the configuration I have, I don’t get any sound from the MGXU either when connecting through the program. I think the issue I’m having is that this really isn’t a beginner exercise. The “beginner” videos are for someone who has operated at some point another DAW type program.
The way I understand it, is I connect my mic to the mixer, then the mixer to computer, computer can use the program to record and play back audio. I know the computer has an audio driver because I can play music from other sources. It would be nice if there were truly beginner videos out there. Thanks
Ok. I was able to switch the audio system driver to “Built-in Audio” The problem there is that removes the mixer from the computer. Is there no way to have the mixer as the input and the computer as the output? How are you supposed to edit and make additional tracks if you can’t hear what you are actively working on??? Do you really have to change device everytime you want to hear what you just recorded?
I just tried on Garageband and I can select the input as the mixer and output as the computer. I’m not sure what you all do with Cubase, but maybe Garageband is what I should be using since I want to have the mixer as the input and the computer as the output? I mainly want to use the program to record.
On macOS you would create what is called an aggregate device first, then use that in Cubase. I am not a Mac user myself so I advise to use the search function of this forum and google to find out how to create an aggregate device on macOS.