Just watched a video titled “Ian Kirkpatrick on Producing with the Slide Function”.
In this spotlight series he talks about how much he loves Cubase, and that it’s all he uses for songs (with his midi keyboard),
but I couldn’t help but notice he was using Battery for drums. If Cubase was truly the ‘complete’ program that he said it was,
there’d be no need for a 3rd party drum sequencer/editor. Ian Kirkpatrick on Producing with the Slide Function | Steinberg Spotlights - YouTube
I’ve been saying for years on this board how much the drum editor/sequencer just isn’t
up to date for modern music production. PLEASE Steinberg, fix this!
Complete in the sense that it has a comprehensive set of tools capable of producing finished work in a variety of styles. But that shouldn’t imply that “complete” means every sound and tool you can ever imagine or want. Could be as simple as he likes a specific kick sound in Battery. That doesn’t mean GA is missing good Kicks - it’s just an aesthetic choice.
Short answer: Ask him
Long Answer: I wouldn’t ask “what”, I would ask “how”.
You could get equal results with with 2 different things, and have a horrible time with one and not the other.
I could make an album in Adobe Audition; would it be a great experience? Probably not.
There’s no 2 ways around it, Cubase needs an updated, modern drum sequencer, and every producer I know and have seen use Cubase professionally
use a 3rd party plug-ins for drums because of it.
For me the only difference is that battery has a cleaner interface. They both do the same things unless I’m missing something. It’s just the UI. And admittedly a UI that you don’t gel with is certainly going to have an affect on whether you enjoy using it or get faster results or not. GA is a bit cluttered, loads of menus and options, and really small text and headers, which means it takes a lot of using in order to come up to speed with muscle memory etc. It’s a victim of it’s own depth and complexity, but it’s definitely powerful, arguably moreso than battery (which I also like).
Beat designer was my goto until it wasn’t updated and no longer behaved properly in Windows as the GUI killed workflow.
Because of that I initially went to Battery and liked it but wanted a classic drum pad controller so when I went the Maschine studio route and haven’t looked back.
Beat designer functions properly again but I’ve already gotten too spoiled with what Maschine offers.
That said, I did like battery alot. It was easy to navigate but having that controller that integrated with the SW was key.
I’m in the exact same boat. I started with beat designer, which has been neglected for years, and jumped over to Maschine.
I’d love to have everything under one roof, so to speak, but until then, I’ll continue to use 3rd party plug-ins for drums.
YMMV, but for me Groove Agent is superior to Battery. People who use Battery most likely do so because they’re used to it. Tbh B4 is not even that great to begin with, it doesn’t even let you see the waveform when adjusting amp envelope. B3 was better but that’s a different story.
Fix what exactly? Battery has some minor things that GA doesn’t have. But the reverse is also true. I’m not aware of any DAW that has a drum editor that can rival the drum editor in Cubase.
Battery v GA: It isn’t a case that one is better than the other. They’re different, they both work really well and in some situations one provides the desired sound that the other doesn’t.
I was more specifically speaking about the whole process of creating a pattern to editing that pattern in Cubase.
Battery has nothing to do with it. I know people that use fl studio for drums. Akai or Maschine, but almost never Cubase, solely.
(I’ll never get used to the diamond on line grid style, personally) and that’s obviously for a reason.
If this this whole process doesn’t seem cumbersome to you, great!
But for a lot of people, it is. So an update of any kind (to beat designer, dragging and dropping drum sounds to lower zone, etc)
would be welcome.
Sorry, I still don’t understand what you’re asking for. That video is the drum editor, not the pattern editor like you’re talking about. There’s a difference. Beat Designer could be improved of course. I would recommend you post suggestions for it in the suggestions forum.
Groove Agent is indeed very very great, all my own samples are loaded into it. So easy to keep organized and access things, drag and drop functionality, full integration in Cubase, many different ways to layer things.
Definitely not what I’m talking about. Did you watch the video, or just read the youtube title?
That’s kind of why I wrote:
“I was more specifically speaking about the whole process of creating a pattern to editing that pattern in Cubase.
Battery has nothing to do with it.”
You also said “If Cubase was truly the ‘complete’ program that he said it was, there’d be no need for a 3rd party drum sequencer/editor”.
I’m not sure ‘what’ is missing from Cubase that Battery brings, it’s just artistic choice as far as I’m concerned. If you can’t make beats cause there’s diamonds on screen (as has been used for decades globally for drum scores), and beat designer don’t cut it for you then you’re probably craving a different DAW that has specific functions.
I watched the entire video. It demonstrates the drum editor in cubase, something that is entirely different than what you mentioned: FL, Maschine, or MPC. The tools that correspond to those in Cubase are not the drum editor.
Maybe if you just came out and said specifically what you’d like added to Cubase, it would help everyone understand you. There are like a dozen replies to you in this thread and nobody can figure out what you’re talking about .
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