Steinberg’s been the most consistent out of all of the DAW’s. With many acquisitions going on, Yamaha has done well with them.
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Well if it works for you great! You’re the first one I’ve met who uses it as their primary. I don’t work much in the Hip-Hop space, though. I’ve seen it utilized a decent amount as a songwriting/sketch tool. I’ve always wondered how the workflow is! You must connect to an audio interface? Is that all or do you also run other peripherals like a midi keyboard?
Cubase is fine for Hip Hop. If given the choice, I personally would not use it over Bitwig, Live or Logic, though. FL Studio is pretty dominant in that space, but I don’t like the workflow. Tons of people do, though. It’s as close to an industry standard as you can get in that market segment.
I find those other DAWs have more convenience there. Better step sequencers, better samplers, better audio manipulation functions that allow you to work with audio directly in the arranger instead of resorting to using samplers. Far better controller support (Ableton, Bitwig, Logic). Automation Handling - touch a parameter and its auto selected and you can just start editing the automation instantly, etc.
I find the UX in Live and Bitwig to be better for beat making, with the way devices are integrated into the UI and device chains are presented. It is more similar to Maschine or MPC. The stock FX and MIDI processors are really good, I can rely on them for most things.
Bitwig’s support for Maschine controllers is also unrivaled (except by Maschine 2, naturally). It almost feels 1st-Party. I only need a laptop and my Maschine Mikro; or my MK3 at my workatation. I can do most things i need in the DAW right from the controller - practically the same as using Maschine 2.
Cubase excels in other areas, though, especially for large projects with lots of complicated routing, MIDI co.positiin and working to film. It’s also a far better recording studio DAW and Mixing UX than the others, IMO. And it actually has working ARA2 support on the Apple Silicon Native build. I just don’t think its as productive in the production space, at least not for me.
Beyond that, you can produce any type of music in almost any DAW (exceptions are those that don’t support MIDI, like Pyramix, unless you use all hardware instruments). It’s mostly about workflow preferences and the market segment specific conveniences each has to offer. Cubase has composer conveniences that others lack, etc. Others producer conveniences that it lacks.
I’d still use Cubase (or Logic) for recording, though Cubase is the most flexible, best general purpose DAW on the market. Not everyone needs that flexibility or range. Some people benefit better from a more targeted tool that offers more for their specific market segment.
It’s pretty clear which tier of the market Apple is servicing with this Logic upgrade. The instruments they added are comparable to paid libraries from Steinberg (Electric Bass, HALion Raven/Eagle), so the players are just a bonus. Not sjre if i would use them - fears of duplicative output creating DMCA issues and such. The stem Splitter is still niche, IMO, but it does seem like the highest quality, fastest processing implementation of this feature we have seen thus far.
SpectraLayers Pro 10 is really good, but Logic is clearly better while being SO MUCH faster. I am honestly most impressed by the speed. People will use this a lot because it doesn’t seem to ever keep you waiting. And it’s a useful feature to have for Hip Hop production.
The ChromaGlow plug-in is a winner, IMO.