The Trouble with Cubase, is that it is Amazing!

Steinberg Lounge
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I have been with Cubase, since 1993 - Cubase Score. The last time I learnt it throughly, before this occasion, was Cubase 5. Basically I have been away playing music - the real stuff - keys.
Since October, I have been spending full time hours re-learning what I need to tackly a big project. I don’t think I have finished.
Cubase is totally amazing. I have never ever thought of Logic, or anything, but hey things are getting real complicated because of these new capabilities.
Cubase is so versatile but with versitility comes complexity and I think this is a HUGE barrier to new customers. We need new customers.
So, my view is we need to create far better help. AI is with us. Already, if I simply use Google’s AI, I get decent answers to my queries. These are questions that the manual cannot reach.
Why not AI help in Cubase, further, im every major window or menu, why not a video of gthe topic? Maybe an AI created Video with clear “do this, do this next” and an explanation by a human of what the thing is" For example What are Link Groups or what are Slices? No hunting and pecking just the information you needed for this particular quest.
Example: I just spent 3 days hunting down the instruction “Expand Selections Exclusively”. You can’t search for this because you might not know that this phrase exists. Do you know what this means? It’s in the Mixer and it can really help. Can you find it?
We are not all gurus, even I with 40 years on the product, struggle with minutae. Why can’t we have a virtual Charlie explaining it all.?
THe biggest barrier to sales of Cubase is it’s complexity. The biggest reason why people flakec away from using it, is they get swamped in buttons and terms. Cubase 16 will bring yet more buttons, more features, more terms, but sometimes we need to stop and take stock.
In the past Steinberg has broken down walls and taken courageous steps - not least was VST.
The engineers are fabulously skilled they can do this of course.

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If something is important to anyone to learn it should be important enough to do what you have to in order to achieve. Read the manual, ask questions of experienced users, experiment on your own. If anyone shows a real interest in learning people will be more than glad to lend a hand…but the lazy looking to be spoonfed will starve :slight_smile:

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I am with you - Cubase is amazing! It comes with an incredible and vast set of possibilities and so many brilliant(ly) hidden features.

Of course, this kind of complexity requires time to get to know Cubase and even after years of working with Cubase you’ll probably find features you’ve never heard of.
I am not so sure about the AI approach since AI generated answers are more often than not not correct as we’ve seen time and time again here in this forum.
However, Steinberg should put more focus on all channels of documentation and help, I totally agree. Not just for the sake of new users but also for experienced users who might struggle to find a function buried in a menu.
They could start with comprehensive and updated manuals and release notes. Throwing in some nice overviews, more graphics etc wouldn’t hurt, too :wink:

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I reject the idea that it has to be challenging. As for AI, I recommend you all try it. I have been using it, although it does not cover everything, it’s very good, even unusual questions get a decent reply. I find it is right about 19 out of twenty times.
There are ways of constructing AI help, perhaps an image of Cubase, with motion steps to support your query.
One thing that AI does already at Google, is it often mentions relevent asides which increase my learning.

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Cookie_Jarvis

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"If something is important to anyone to learn it should be important enough to do what you have to in order to achieve. Read the manual, ask questions of experienced users, experiment on your own. If anyone shows a real interest in learning people will be more than glad to lend a hand…but the lazy looking to be spoonfed will starve :slight_smile: "

When I first started, I read the whole manual. It really confused me. Too much jargon in one go, and I did not know which direction I was heading. I remember trying to find the difference between tracks, lanes and busses, took a while. The problem with Cubase is you can spend too much time chasing ferrets with not much productivity. This was not immediately clear. So many stumbling blocks.
Just because something is important to learn does not mean it has to be complicated or hard to learn. Plenty of scope in my view for simplification without any loss of function.
Personally I can see an AI future where things get much easier and there is nothing wrong with that IMO. Imagine being able to talk to cubase and ask “can you put a tiny bit of your best compression in the strings?” and it says " How about this much of your Lexicon, would you like me to play back A and B comparison"? Or, something like this…an intelligent dialogue.

At random, I give this example from Google: The Query was “How to set up an orchestra template in Cubase”. The instructions are a pretty decent start in my view. I could have asked how to compress for heavy metal in Cubase, using stock apps" or anything really. Having AI in Cubase means that Cubase could actually offer up a bespoke template or an example of heavy metal compression, not just talk about it.

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And some use cases, examples of how to use a feature, or even why you’d want to use it.

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Things are hard to learn if it requires a new skill set. Not everyone is the same, some struggle with learning and some don’t. What’s hard for one person is easy for someone else. It’s the way of life, we aren’t all robots :slight_smile:

That’s what every manual should include…now that you’ve learned what and where everything is examples would really speed up the learning process for some :slight_smile:

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A lot of excellent overviews and tutorials ( something you’d like to see in a manual) are also buried in the depths of this forum. Unfortunately, discourse’s search engine (discourse runs this platform) doesn’t work very well. However, this is another helpful resource. …if you know about it and also know what you are looking for…

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Yes, and I would argue that this is not a problem at all – as two people will not use the program for the same thing. A very good thing about Cubendo is that it is very customisable. With the key commands, macros and Project Logical Editor, you can bend and mold the program into being exactly what you want it to be, to make the workflow that fits you. There are areas of the program which I will never use and never bother to learn because it is not relevant to me or the way I work. Modulators – I’m sure it’s a cool feature, but it simply does not interest me, nor is it compatible with the way I create music. Other stuff, like Nuendo’s Cue Sheet Export, I’m sure lots of people will never have a use for, but it is essential to me when finishing a project.

It’s been a long time since I’ve read the manual thoroughly, but I would guess that a chapter about track lanes would be pretty straightforward to search for. As for the difference between tracks and busses, these are terms that don’t even belong to Cubase – more within general knowledge about music production, whatever system you are using (analogue or digital).

This would be a “problem” with every DAW. They are advanced pieces of software where you have to spend time learning them. One day at a time – there really is no quick fix, because there really is no right or wrong answer to what is right for your creativity.

I’m against this whole idea because there should never be one answer to any of these questions.

One person’s orchestral template is unlike the next person’s. As it should be. No two composers are the same. They will prefer different types of sounds, workflows, folder structure and setups, and want completely different things. So an AI really can’t help with this. Unless the goal is less diversity and more “sameness” – which I think AI is contributing enough to already.

If you want to use AI to get help, that’s fine – I tested it for some troubleshooting in Nuendo, but I found that it gives me as many wrong or misleading answers as correct ones. When it doesn’t know the answer, it simply invents one. That is hardly helpful.

As for Steinberg’s team spending valuable development resources making Cubendo some sort of music production AI “wizard”? I hope they never go in that direction, but if they do, I’ll move to another DAW in a heartbeat. :disguised_face: