What does Cubase 7.5 have that Nuendo 6 doesn't?

Hi

I’ve been looking high and low for a feature comparison chart between Cubase 7.5 and Nuendo 6, but unless I’m not looking in the right place, I’ve had no joy. I’ve also posted to Cubase pre-sales but not yet had a response.

I’m a long time Logic Pro user looking at moving back to Cubase or Nuendo (I’ve used both in the past), and could do with some advice on which is going to suit my needs best. I write music for TV and film, including some work to picture, but mainly need whichever I choose to have the most comprehensive MIDI, mixing and arrangement capabilities, and be really solid when running a very big template (1,000 tracks plus). I’m also open to using Mac or PC (I’m currently mainly Mac based, but am equally happy around Windows).

Can anybody perhaps give me some pointers?

Many thanks in advance

Jules

Most significantly not included is the NEK http://www.steinberg.net/en/products/nuendo/nuendo_6/nek.html#c167445

Aside from that Nuendo everything Cubase has plus Post tools for things like ADR, loudness management.

I didn’t notice the .x version in the OP. :blush:

Many thanks Steve. So the NEK brings all of Cubase’s music production features into Nuendo.

Does anyone know of the new Cubase 7.5 functionality (I’m thinking specifically about track visibility management) is also available in Nuendo?

Thanks again for your help.

Jules

Sorry - just noticed the subsequent posts. Apologies for the irrelevant follow-up.

Jules

Any feedback on stability/use with large templates would also be greatly appreciated. I know Hans Zimmer and Harry Gregson-Williams are Cubase users who place very high demands on their system in terms of track counts. Do users here see issues when projects get very large - sluggishness or system quirks etc.?

Finally, no intention of starting a platform war as I have no bias towards Mac or PC and use both daily. Is there a perception that Nuendo/Cubase development tends to happen or be best supported by one more than the other, or are they generally considered to be equally robust on both? Do Mac and PC versions support equal numbers of processors/threads on both systems? Logic Pro X currently tops out at 16 threads (8 cores + hyperthreading) ad I’m wondering if Nuendo is capable of say using all cores on a 12 core rig or higher.

Thanks again

Jules

Jules, I can answer one of your questions from a previous answer given on this forum. Nuendo is currently locked to 32 cores, but is designed to use more, when that becomes a reality. I’ve been using a 12 core, 24 thread machine for a while now, and it uses all that I throw at it.

As far as OSX vs Windows, there is no difference in development, although it may be that one platform actually takes more time than the other. As to which is more robust, the best you are going to get is anecdotal evidence, which by the nature of a forum is really unreliable.

DG

Many thanks DG - that’s good news about supported cores, as it implies a) a desire to keep abreast with hardware evolution and b) efficiency benefits form the get-go over other DAWs.

Understood on the OSX/Windows thing. That said, anecdotal evidence and opinion is better than nothing, as I would literally have a blank slate and no platform preference if I were to go this route. I’m currently looking down the barrel of a new (any-day-now) Mac Pro, which I’d be happy to still contemplate as a Nuendo rig, but going Windows opens up certain other options.

Thanks again for your help.

Jules

PS. Good to see a familiar face here.

Hah, nobody has ever been happy to see my face in the past…!

Regarding your new Mac Pro, IMO it is worth starting to make a conscious choice to use software and hardware that is cross-platform, because I think it is risky to put all your apples in one basket. For example there are a fair number of Logic users who are unable to work with their new iMacs, because their hardware is not compatible with the OS. In an emergency you could easily slip into Windows temporarily, particularly as you are conversant with the OS. Similarly if I needed to use OSX for any reason, everything I use would be compatible. Hence the reason I’ve dumped Altiverb. :wink:

DG

Remember that MAC does not have ASIO drivers. (zero latency monitoring)


Fredo

Do you have an exemple of hardware incompatibility with OS 10.9?

Would be hugely grateful if we could avoid platform antagonism here if at all possible.

Fredo - thanks for the comment on ASIO drivers. Not critical for me personally as I use ProTools HDX for mixing and recording, but worth knowing nonetheless. This does seem to suggest that PC may have some advantages for Nuendo use.

DG - comments well taken on cross-platform support. As it happens, I ditched Logic when Apple first took over, and worked with Cubase and Nuendo for about a year. Then Steinberg did something that messed up latency compensation (this is many years ago) and I spat the dummy and bought my first Mac. Have to confess I haven’t really looked back … until the last 9 months or so, when Logic seems to have become an i-app rather than a tool which is being developed with professionals in mind. Maybe just my perception, but there’s stuff under the hood which suggests the code base in Logic is still desperately clinging to the now almost decades old Logic Environment architecture, which is hampering it’s evolution in other ways.

Thanks again to all for the feedback. Just applied for a Nuendo trial and still have a v3 license I can dust off to minimize investment if I need to explore further.

Jules

I believe Hans uses Cubase on a PC.

They use both over there. Lots of both.

Chewy

Thanks Chewy, Sunshy.

There are pros and cons of both to me personally.

Main pro of using a Mac is that I have the option to run screaming back to Logic Pro if it all goes wrong (for whatever reason) or if I need to revisit old sessions. The former I’m sure is unlikely, the latter possible, although I can keep an old Mac under dustsheets for a while.

Main PC benefits are hardware orientated. Current (not new) Mac Pros have been awesome - dual CPU’s, up to 128GB Ram, PCIe, plenty of drive bays and expansion etc. The new Mac Pro simply doesn’t (IMHO) serve the pro composer well. Maximum of 64GB Ram (until such time as we see 32GB 1866MHz DIMMs), no PCIe (all my MOTU hardware now redundant, as it also doesn’t work in a chassis), all expansion needs to be external (adds significantly to cost and potentially noise).

As an Apple fan who’s on the cusp of an upgrade, this may swing it for me. The memory thing alone is pretty much a deal-breaker, and looking at the alternatives, I can get a dual 8-core Xeon or beyond with 128GB and room for expansion, plus a bunch of SSD’s, and I suspect cost will be in line with the top end new Mac Pro for an arguably more capable machine. It won’t look as pretty and hand on heart I prefer OSX when I’m making music, but once you’re in Nuendo I suspect OS is a side-issue.

Really appreciate all the help and feedback guys. This is a really huge decision for us, so I really want to make sure I get it right.

Thanks again

Jules

Jules, I wouldn’t worry about the machine looking pretty. Just get a nice rackmount PC, and it will look professional, rather than a doorstop that looks like a dustbin. :wink:

Edit:

I’ve just put in an order for new machines for both studios, so will let you know how that goes. Expecting delivery early next year. If you’re ever in Berkshire, give me a shout and you can come over and have a look/play.

DG

DG, at the risk of hi-jacking my own thread, what spec did you go for for the new rigs? I just dropped a line to my system builder to sound him out on some spec ideas. Always a scary business getting a new system built - I once spec’ed and ordered a £3K machine for ProTools HD, only to find that some of it’s server orientated functions made it completely unsuitable for real-time audio use. Luckily the vendor was super-understanding and took it back, but once bitten …

Thanks for the invite, beware of making offers like that!

All the best

Jules

Jules, PM sent.

DG

Many thanks DG.

Well! OSX doesn’t have native ASIO drivers, that’s true. OSX has CoreAudio.
Some CoreAudio drivers do support Asio Direct Monitoring though! For instance all Steinberg interfaces.

Cubendo talks to the underlying coreaudio through its thin layer called asio2coreaudio engine.

CoreAudio has in its own a bit larger CPU hit compared to native ASIO drivers in Windows.
The difference this makes is smaller and smaller each day.
My current Macbook Pro Retina 15" runs large projects at 32 samples buffer, that my Mac pro couldn’t run at 128 samples buffer!

Pål