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.
I’m a Logic user who has been disappointed by all you mentioned, and here I am trying Cubase on Jun 2025. This is exactly how I feel about Logic and I’ve been using it for over 15 years.
The first WTF moment is when apple introduced the Drummer plugin back in 2014, I was like ok this is crap but there are other Logic users who may find this attractive. It’s 2025 and the Browser cannot play Loops or tag sounds properly.
This is absolutely the case, But.. the unmix algorithm in Logic is amazing, the sound quality, in my limited uses, is better than Spectralayers, and many times faster. And the included VI s like Alchemy and Sculpture and Drummer are unrivaled. Plus the MIDI stuff that was brilliant in 1995, is still under the hood. That said, it feels a little like abandon-ware, and like you said, doesn’t seemed targeted to professional users.
I was starting writing music in Cubase 4.5 and then switched to Logic Pro. It was version 8. Then I was in logic about 8-10 years. And it was amazing for me. Really great DAW. Then I need to switch to Windows and was decide to learn Ableton. I was in Ableton about three years. And then I need to create music for the film. And in Ableton it was a pain. So I was purchased Cubase 11. Since version 11 I am using Cubase. Right now I was back to Mac. I have so many stuff from Steinberg like Absolute 6, Spectralayers and Cubase Pro 14.. Sometimes I am thinking to switch back to Logic..but I need to learn it again. Especially the moment regarding the film scoring.. I know so many things in Cubase right now… Cubase have a lot of bugs… and we need to pay for every big update. In Logic you pay only once… But probably all daws have bugs… So I don’t know.
Despite the price tag nowadays (want to see how much I paid for Logic since buying Logic Platinum 4 back in 2001 up to 11??), Logic does have a price…
One of these days a tiny point update is going to come out and Apple is going to decide that the OS or Mac you are running are no longer compatible, and you will have to go buy a whole new system just to use the new version, and Logic will continue to become ‘Garageband Pro’ even further..
Yes yes yes! Thank you for this comprehensive comparison. I agree with pretty much everything you said.
ESPECIALLY stability, and the context aware key commands found in Logic. The stability part is really the only thing that keeps me using Logic in professional recording sessions (I could never trust Cubase to run the way I expect in the stress of a recording session — but I hope I could one day!).
The only other thing I would add to this is that the comping in Logic (quick swipe comping) is MILES better than Cubase’s extremely clunky Lanes system. It’s also the reason that I mostly use Cubase for MIDI and not recording multiple-take audio. If I do record audio in Cubase, I almost treat it like a tape machine in order to just circumvent the absolutely horrendous Lanes system (in my opinion).
Also agree with you on the whole QuickLink thing. I guess people who have used Cubase for a while appreciate it and for some reason like it to be a separate thing rather than always enabled when you select multiple tracks — but I just don’t get it. If I’m highlight multiple tracks and moving a fader, or clicking a button, I think there is really only one thing I wanna do…
But I do have to admit, having QuickLink always enabled in a similar way to how Logic does it would probably be more problematic in Cubase only because of the unpredictability of Cubase. For instance, I almost always don’t realize that I have multiple events selected, or multiple tracks selected, even after I thought after I clicked on something new that only that new thing would be highlighted. It sometimes works this way, but often doesn’t. Very annoying. I almost never have the problem in Logic where I don’t know what I have selected. It’s all very obvious, very intuitive. Cubase…not so much.
But I love both DAWs, wish I could combine the best features of both into one though.
I think that the same problem with Cubase as well.. so, for example you need to update your system (Mac OS) to use the new version. Or just one way - don’t update Cubase if you on the old machine