One Pro Tools Man's Journey In To Cubase Pro 2020

Keeping the backstory short. I started with Cubase on Atari ST - since then I moved on to using Logic and Pro Tools heavily, and then Ableton more than Logic since around 2012 - and still an everyday Pro Tools user.

So far generally I am really liking Cubase Pro on Mac, and as you guys already know it is extremely deep and I am sure for years to come I will still be discovering things. It has been a pleasant surprise how quickly I have become pretty fast with understanding the UI and using all kinds of key commands to navigate and edit my way around.

So why switch, in one word MIDI. Also in the hope that I can use one application for audio, mixing and MIDI.

Some things I like

  • Software instruments are great. Loving Groove Agent, and also getting in to Retrologue, Padshop etc
  • Customisable key commands
  • Nice GUI
  • Powerful and slick MIDI editing
  • MIDI plugins, Arpache etc
  • The stock Cubase processing and effects plugins I have tried are really good
  • The colourful and powerful mixer. I love how easy it is to copy channel settings etc. ‘Copy First Selected Channels Settings’ yeh!
  • Side panel inspector
  • The range of editing tools

Some things I don’t like (it’s possible I don’t understand fully)

  • Some key commands are laborious. For example ‘Show Automation’ and you need a separate key command for ‘Hide Automation’ - Pro Tools has a single key to toggle automation on and off

  • Volume automation is shown on a lane below the main clip, as opposed to over the clip? I know you can have the waveform displayed in the lane, but this I am not digging as yet.

  • No way of rendering in place group or folder tracks?

  • A bit clunky switching between projects

  • Graphically, waveform display not quite as slick as Pro Tools

  • No tempo display in the top bar???!!!


    Things I really miss from Pro Tools Ultimate (course I might be naive to their existence)

  • Trim fader mode ?

  • Realtime clip FX

  • Export clip direct from edit window

  • The price (only joking)

Welcome to the world of Cubase. For me what is the absolutely best in Cubase is the mixer, it is just the best of any DAW’s IMO.

Every DAW has its + and - for sure :slight_smile:

I agree with you about the switching projects, might as well throw in the way the structure of the projects is saved as well. Just take a look at Luna, from what the video tutorials are showing regarding sending projects to others and the automatic saving all the time etc it should be food for thought for Steinberg and others I hope.

The render in place hasn’t been in Cubase that long in its current form, I am sure it will continue to be better. I don’t use it a lot, but take a look in the manual page 1038. I think I have seen options to render in place multiple sources, not sure if this is exactly what you are looking for.

The tempo display recently got moved to the bottom of the screen in the transport section, I don’t show it by default anymore as I was used to the top too. I just hit F2 to bring up the floating transport bar when I need it.

Good luck with the switch!

the reason the volume automation is below the clip is that there’s a separate (gain) pre volume automation possible ON the clip just use the alt key and pencil and you can draw gain automation on there.

It’s possible that if you right click on the top bar you’ll see that there are a lot of things you can have on there and the tempo might be one, just right click and you’ll be able to customise what you want to have on that menu. IIRC all the transport controls could be on there if you want , but you can customise to show as much or as little as you want.

the waveform display can be tweaked in the preferences, I Like how it is so leave as default but there’s a few different options, have a play around to see if you can fine something you like better.

I tend to use export for my ‘rendering’ you can export pretty much anything you want singly, separately, mono, stereo, between locators, between markers, stems all faster than real time :slight_smile: again check out what’s possible.

M

Thank you for the welcome, and the very helpful comments. Sometimes it’s good to just get an acknowledgment of these things from a more experienced Cubaser, if only so I know I’ve not missed something and being a donut.

Very good point about the structure of projects, and saving. I was actually very surprised about this. I have to specify where the file will be saved, and create a folder before this to then save the project file in to once open? This could be easier for sure.

Thanks for the tip in the manual, I will for sure get my head around Render In place better. I have since found using Audio Mixdown is actually pretty cool when exporting different tracks. What does confuse me when exporting is the difference between Audio Mixdown and Selected tracks - the latter seems possibly unnecessary with the features of the former?

Also, is there no way to export a Clip directly from the Project Window? Say if I have more than one clip on a track for example?

I hear you on the tempo, I just assumed it would be on the main top bar. No biggy I guess…

Thanks again for the good wishes, I’m enjoying Cubase a lot.

I don’t think that is reason enough to have a separate lane below the clip. Pro Tools has a graphic Clip Gain and automation directly over the clip, works very well. Ah thanks for the pointer on automating the clip gain, this could actually be useful - but still, most volume automation is needed after processing.

Yeh sadly no Tempo in the top bar.

Thanks, I will check out the preferences for the Wavefrom display.

I hope there is a way to export Clips direct from the main project window.

I’d also like it if there was a Trim mode similar to https://youtu.be/ihqEt--prq8

Hello, I have a newbie question. Is the “render in place” functionality essentially the same thing as “printing a mix”? Is there any benefit to printing the mix in the old way?