Optimise code to take full advantage of all facilities and conventions available in each OS, only using common code where it does not interfere with this.
Only use code for individual OSs where there is a significant advantage.
Make code and facilities operate as similarly as possible on all OSs.
0voters
Windows has been undergoing some big changes in facilities with recent versions, and 10 will introduce a higher level of hardware platform accommodation.
Yet the Windows versions of Cubase seem to be languishing in the shadow of OSX’s limitations, so we have no acknowledgement of touch at all, and C8 seems to be trying to kluge the Mac UI onto Win.
I wish to start drawing a line to say that us Windows users should not have to be beholden to recalcitrant OSX-favouring managers and programmers in SB who cannot seem to pull their heads out of Apple’s backside, and see that we do not use Windows as if it was a poor relation to OSX.
I am not saying the OSX is not a good OS, and that people should not prefer it, but I think it should not be the reference by which Cubase is limited.
Basic performance is separate from fully utilising the unique facilities of an OS.
I would rather that Cubase be the best it can be on each OS. There is no requirement to be PC (politically correct ) here. Artificial constraints on an OS version should not be defined by the limitations of another OS.
Touch, for one thing. It is still a non-trivial undertaking, and would need to accommodate touch-dead areas so that one can operate without having to suspend one’s arms and hands for hours on end like Stephen Wiltshire is able to do.
Fully utilising the paradigms, conventions and standards of each OS, unless something significantly better, and still maintainable, can be used. Programming to an OS in non-standard ways only makes a program harder to learn, use, and maintain across versions as the OS evolves.
Does it matter? Windows supports it, so why not use it? SB does not have to wait until other DAW makers do it, or OSX for that matter. Otherwise, it is relegating SB to being an imitator and also-ran wanabee.
Also, with Windows 10 finally being the unified OS across all classes of hardware, having Cubase touch-aware, and perhaps modular, would allow distributing its facilities over different devices.
For example, Cubase iC Pro provides touch control of Cubase across iOS and Android devices, but a Win 10 touch version would be able to run on any size touch device. Win8.x devices capable of running such an app are well under $100, but where’s the iC Pro for them?
Right. I got to use Cubase on a Dell touchscreen. It was awesome. I think bye-bye keyboard and mouse = the future.
Obviously, as you say, Cubase will need some tweaking to be fully functional under touch. As soon as they do, I’ll jump in!
I’m sure it’s coming. But, right now, so few people even own a touchscreen, I’m sure it’s not a mega-priority… Yet.
Chicken and egg situation, but making a workable touch version may just turn the tide.
Along with dead touch areas for resting or pivoting with finger/palms/hand-edge, there needs to be a more flexible way to select touch or mouse versions of each of the Cubase blocks, as there are quite different size and spacing arrangements required for each. I would prefer, as I have stated many times before (here we go again ), that we be able to:
a) Save a named configuration of Cubase function blocks – each selected according to our touch or mouse preference – as a window.
b) Save named configurations of windows, including whether a window is local, or on a remote device.
That would allow each OS user to use the function block versions that can be used under their OS.
Like all the interaction paradigms, there are usage scenarios where each is better suited. I see them all as parallel interaction opportunities, to be used as required.
Where there are multiple ways of doing an action, I tend to use the mouse way if I am primarily using the mouse at the time, whereas I use keyboard shortcuts if I am using the keyboard for almost everything else at the time.
If I could, I would like touch on every display, even just for those times when I just want to scroll and zoom.
To be honest - I do not think touch screen in an studio environment will be very common in the forseeable years. I can see there are some backdraws with that…
First (and for me most important), you do not have tactile feedback. Nothing works nicer that moving an slider by hand, while listening (sometimes even with closed eyes) to the minute changes you make. If you use an touch screen you have to rely on hand-eye coordination, what can be uncomfortable and distracting.
Secondly, most people use the monitor at an 90 degree angle (or even tilted forward) on their mix table. It is intensely uncomfortable to use touch in such an evironment. Constantly pointing forward and slightly (in my case) upwards will tire your arm very quickly.
Sure - you can replace you mix table by an flat (or slightly tilted upward) screen, but then you have problems with the first point I mentionned. On top of that, replacing an midi or other harware controler, by an big enough flatscreen is very pricy. Yes, there are mix consoles with build-in touch screen, but the pricing for that hardware is (in my opinion) far out of reach of small studio’s (and I do not even dare to talk about home-enthousiasts).
Al in all, I should say there is in my opinion no pressing reason why Cubase should have an full-touch support in the short term. I think there is more important intercface (GUI) work to do, before submitting resources to develop named full-touch support.
I’ve been using Cubase on both Windows and OSX for many years, and having support for cutting edge (of 5 years ago) tech has been the last thing on my mind. All I want is for increased stability and a lighter footprint.
I don’t want support for phone/tablet integration. I don’t care about touch screen support. I don’t care about a permanently docked menu/title bar. I don’t care about Jason Becker style eye controlled MIDI input. I don’t care about motion sensor camera compatibility to use my PS3 camera for moving faders. I don’t care about telepathic linking between my brain and the Media Bay. etc etc etc
All I would personally want is for Steinberg to be using Pro Tools, Reaper, Sonar, Logic, Digital Performer, Sibelius and then stealing their best workflow features and putting them into Cubase. One at a time.
I will pay $200 per update, per OS version if it meant not being a beta tester until the (paid) x.5 upgrade was released.
I say all this being fully aware nobody held a gun to my head and forced me to upgrade from C7.5, and that C7.5 is still going to work for me just as well as it did before the upgrade, and everything that comes with that.
But I mean, if I were to send a mix to a client at the same level of completion as a new Cubase version, I would lose that client (after the recalls to get to the x.5 version equivalent of the mix).
Programs like Cubase are programmed in a framework, like multi platform plugins are. Unless they would drop one platform, I don’t see any changes in that regard. Touch as a replacement does not make much sense, adjusting small knobs with fat fingers, or constantly zooming in and out is not a workflow enhancement. The windows management in Cubase 8 is much better, but I agree it would have been so much better if it just followed the standard. Let’s not forget it’s early days, and give Steinberg a chance to react to all the feedback we are giving them.
Probably my biggest issue with Cubase is it’s non-OS compliant ‘features’…the Menu bar of 8.0 being first and foremost. I am willing to give Steinberg some leeway though…but I don’t feel the windows management under 8.0 is much better than previous versions.
Regarding ‘touch’, while I agree that the loss of a tactile sensation on the fingertips is a negative, my experience using a 23" multi-touch monitor with a DAW that has fully implemented multi-touch is incredibly powerful for mixing. YMMV of course…but as a cost effective solution this worked very well for me for that particular DAW.
Or, just use a special glove that does the palm-rejection for you, while also making it easier to slide across the display, as well as keeping it clean. Well, that’s the theory, I don’t own these: XP-Pen Drawing Anti-fouling Lycra Graphics Two-Finger Glove.
) here. Artificial constraints on an OS version should not be defined by the limitations of another OS.
), that we be able to: