Finding the suitable DAW for us is a painful task. Our needs may change over time, nothing is set in stone.
I’ve tried so far Ableton Live, FL Studio, Studio One, Reason Studios, Tracktion Waveform and most recently Cubase.
And yes, initially the basic operations, UI of Cubase didn’t seem as intuitive, self-explanatory and clear as in Waveform.
Cubase has a steeper learning curve than Waveform (x axis skill, y axes time to learn!).
BUT: Cubase is a major DAW, with up-to-date manual (the Waveform’s is not), videos, articles (permanent column in the Sound On Sound Magazine).
I suggest you don’t give up on Cubase, keep reading of the manual and the time for a qualitative leap will come, when the basic operations will become self-evident here too.
And you can always decide to further develop your basic MIDI production skills.
Cheap.
This response is aimed mostly at Steinberg support people, if they are still monitoring this thread. PLEASE READ CAREFULLY AND RESPOND POINT BY POINT. IAM A RETIRED COMPUTER DESIGNER/SUPORT ENGINEER. I have a lot of info and insight to offer. but I have little evidence that anyone is listening to or thinking about what I say. If I haven’t heard from the design team (not just front line support techs) soon I’ll open a new support case in this Forum and with Yamaha. Thanks to Szaza for the tips, I’ll keep them in mind as this inquiry proceeds.
Understand that I am not just looking for greener pastures. I’ve been a Cubase user since C4 and have strong incentive to stick with Steinberg cause learning curves in the DAW world tend to be long and hard. I am guessing iit could take months/100s of hours to learn another application as well as I know Cubase 12, with no guarantee I’d be more satisfied than I am now.
I’ve had these problems only since Cubase 10. I know intermittent troubles like this can be a nightmare to debug, but originating in C10 is clearly significant. This the third time I’ve raised this problem here.
It has become such an obstacle to getting music done that I have ordered a Mac , (my 1st ever, not yet delivered) because I see indications in this forum that MAC users are much happier than Windows users (Though my overall impression is that Windows is no longer in any way inferior to MAC for mainline users.) On the other hand Cubase on Windows users seem to suffer much more from undefined flakiness (bugs?) than MAC. (Just an impression.) The $1200 cost iof the MAC Mini is a negligible as a cost compared to having to learn another DAW.
Cubase Pro is in recent releases (since 8 or 9) over-featured from my point of view and I don’t use 95% of the new stuff. I only use what I would call core functionality (details on request). My workflow is straightforward.
I have been asked repeatedly to specify 3rd party plugins I’m using . At present I’m down to Kontakt, Toontrack and| Hammond B3X. This is not a list that includes any exotic plugins that only a few people are using. My active, project which has the problem uses only a single Steinberg reverb plug-in. Otherwise it is completely dry. I sent some crash dumps and was told that they pointed to 3rd part plugins. DON’T THEY INDICATE WHICH PLUG-IN?
To recap, my problem with Cubase is that it locks up every few hours and ceases to respond to mouse and keyboard. My CPU activity spikes and goes as high as 40% which I’ve never seen in any other single application. It is stable on Cubase 12 playback at 15-20%. When it locks My CPU fan goes crazy, (rahhh rahh). I SUSPECT THAT CUBASE IS STUCK IN AN INFINITE LOOP (ie this is likely a bug g introduced in C10.)
NOTE that this is happening on a Windows computer that is absolutely stable, has NEVER crashed or had a stability problem. In any other application. The work around is to kill the process (in Windows Task Manager) and start the project over. This is maddening after the 100th time it happens.
So tell me, is anybody from Yamaha/Steinberg listening? Give me some real help, please. I feel like Major Tom. “floating in a tin can, far from the world.” ALSO , “welcome to my nightmare”
Thanks so much for your input. In addition to pursuing this thread I have bought a Mac mini because they aren’t expensive and it’s a lot less work than learning a new DAW.
I also want to emphasize that I am not a Windows partisan. It’s just that in windows 10 and 11 I’ve never had a stability problem, except in Cubase 10-12. Sound fishy, eh?
I have taken your advice and ordered a Mac Mini. It’s cheap and a LOT less work than learning a new DAW.
Thanks so much.
Sorry to hear of your troubles. Windows 10 user here with C13 and extremely happy with performance, but I have a fairly powerful PC.
I am writing orchestral scores, and loading shed loads of really heavy instruments. Performance is great. I didn’t read the whole thread here, but maybe something is up with your system?
Anyhow, good luck with your new Apple system. I hope things will be smooth from now on.
Steinberg support is simply trying to pass the blame onto others by asking for a list of third-party plugins that you use. I use over 200 third-party plugins (and probably closer to 500 if I were to actually count) and not one (not one) of these has caused anything like the problems you are experiencing.
That said, I would wait until you get your M4 Mac Mini to see if this improves the situation. In my experience, Windows is a freaking nightmare when it comes to professional music production. I used a couple of custom-built high-end PCs between 2010 and 2015 and they were nothing but trouble. One giant headache involving endless troubleshooting. They would “hard crash” about every six months forcing me to wipe the systems and spend three or four LONG days (on each computer) performing clean installs. Never again.
I would also recommend upgrading to Cubase 14 Pro and the latest versions of the few plugins that you use. This way you can tell Steinberg support that everything you use is the latest and greatest. Also make sure that you are using the latest drivers for whatever audio interface you use.
At that point it would be highly unlikely that the problems you have been experiencing are the result of incompatible plugins or flakey audio drivers.
Hope this helps.
P.S. What audio interface are you using?
I had a Fireface, high end stuff. It died Now I have $150 Focusrite. And it sounds the same to me. Why pay more.?
That sounds like a potential bottle neck to me…
Geez Louise. IT WORKS perfectly. You don’t always get what you pay for son.
What does? A Focusrite interface? How so?
It’s just fine. All I. Need for my uses is stereo in/out. Say no more
Sorry, I confused it with another thread. I was on my mobile and did not bother to scroll up to the top. My bad, …father. 
@mlib Again, wrong thread.