I really want to love Cubase. In fact, I think pound for pound, Cubase might be the most feature-rich DAW on the market. The sheer number of genuinely useful tools, creative possibilities, MIDI capabilities, and workflow features is incredible. On paper, I think Cubase wins the DAW debate in a lot of areas.
But actually using it is becoming an exercise in frustration.
I’m running Cubase 15 on a Mac M2, and I’m not doing anything particularly demanding. Yet the overall performance and responsiveness leave me scratching my head.
For example, why does playback have to stop completely when I load certain plugins? Why does the entire application sometimes feel like it’s one wrong click away from crashing? Even when it doesn’t crash, there’s this constant sense that the program is struggling to keep up with what I’m asking it to do.
Then there’s the interface and interface lag
Something as basic as coloring tracks feels unnecessarily complicated and inconsistent. The track header, track number column, and events can all behave differently when it comes to colors. Why can’t I just choose a color and have the entire track reflect that choice without jumping through hoops?
And then there’s the responsiveness, which might be my biggest frustration.
There’s a noticeable disconnect between keyboard input and execution. I’ll press a keyboard shortcut, and sometimes there’s a delay of several seconds before Cubase responds. It’s almost like the application needs to think about what I just asked it to do. That completely destroys the flow when you’re editing or recording.
I’ve also experienced some incredibly frustrating behavior with MIDI timing, particularly when using Chord Pads and the melodic pattern features. Trying to record something in time shouldn’t feel like I’m fighting the software to stay intime, and chord output is just a mess of midi notes
The strange thing is that Cubase has some of the most sophisticated workflow tools I’ve ever seen, yet some of the simplest interactions feel clunky.
And that’s what makes this so frustrating.
I’ve spent plenty of time in Pro Tools and Logic, and while neither is perfect, there’s a certain sense of immediacy and predictability not to mention stability, that I expect from a professional DAW. When I click something, I expect it to happen. When I hit a shortcut, I expect an immediate response. When I’m recording, I want to focus on the music, not wonder whether the software is going to cooperate.
Cubase sometimes feels like an incredibly powerful piece of software that’s being held back by its own complexity and clunkyness.
I also find myself wondering whether years of adding features have come at the expense of polishing the fundamental user experience. There are so many brilliant ideas in Cubase, but I’d gladly trade a few new features for a version that feels faster, more consistent, and more tightly integrated.
To be clear, I’m not saying Cubase is crashing constantly, or that everyone is experiencing these issues. I also recognize that some of this could be specific to my system, configuration, or plugins. But the cumulative experience is what bothers me. It’s a hundred little interruptions that add up to a DAW that just doesn’t feel as fluid as it should.
And I genuinely want it to work. I really love it over the others, now I’m 50yrs old, and a Protools guy since before digidesign and Avid days, also an emagic guy before logic was apple, and I have always loved Cubase, with every version I think , this is the one that will be solid and feel good, but that never happens
I keep coming back because every time I explore Cubase, I discover another feature that makes me think, “Why doesn’t every DAW do this?” Then, 20 minutes later, I’m frustrated by something that should be completely routine, and interface bugs and lag that make it unusable sometimes
I’m curious whether other Mac Apple Silicon users are experiencing the same thing.
Does Cubase feel genuinely responsive and stable on your systems? Have you experienced the keyboard lag, playback interruptions, or interface inconsistencies? And if you’ve managed to get Cubase running smoothly, what made the biggest difference?
I don’t want this to turn into another DAW war. I’m not looking to bash Steinberg, and I’m certainly not suggesting the other DAWs are flawless.
I just think Cubase has the potential to be the best DAW out there, and I wish the everyday experience lived up to the incredible feature set.
I want to love Cubase. I just wish it would get out of its own way sometimes.