There’s been an onslaught of negative comments, but, in looking it over – the promos, other videos, and so on – I like what I see with Cb10. I’m glad lots of you are saying you like the new version.
I’m dark right now doing some room prep but will be updating soon. Anyway, to balance out some of the negative comments, what features do you like the most about the new version? (Any updating tips? Did your key commands, and presets and workspaces all get transferred?)
It seems the new channel strip will make working with it more like some of the big-brother channel strip plug-ins. I like it. Nice clean look, great setups and artist features. Anyway, let’s hear a few good things.
ARA support (even though we don’t have it yet lol…) - Steinberg deserves kudos for bending to the will of the customers (aka “listening”)… this is a major step in the right direction IMO – the old Steinberg would have just shoved the next VariAudio – whether or not VariAudio is actually good – down our throats. Very happy that they are going to release ARA.
Multi-core CPU improvements – this was much needed for high-count multi-core systems!
Improvements to DOP (parity with Nuendo now) – they still need to work on it, but it was very frustrating in its earlier days.
VariAudio 3
Audio alignment
AAF from Nuendo – finally
Editing to picture from Nuendo - finally
MPE
Various minor but very welcome workflow improvements, including key GUI refinements, drag and drop, better side chaining, etc… lots of thoughtful improvements… some of them perhaps a bit too far (right click context menu without an option to customize for the old workflow people), but otherwise very good work on this release!
The rest of the new features are nice, I’ll take them, but the ones above are the most important to me.
The most important aspect of all of this is that it appears to me that Steinberg is listening to the customers much more than in the past. This is a very welcome development, and I hope the trend continues. It’s turned a highly skeptical critic of Steinberg into a cautiously optimistic realist.
I think it is just five or ten people that are doing all the posting. They seem to just be posting over and over and they seem to hate everything. I have honestly even considered that they are working for the competition. Personally, I am really liking it. I think it looks cleaner and less “cluttered”. The menus are less cluttered. Even the export screen is cleaner and neater and more organized. AND, it is running like a dream. Best yet, but I ditched 32 bit, most of the free junk and stuff like that a while ago so C9 was also running pretty well for me.
I’ve spent a few days with VariAudio 3, and it looks better than Melodyne in terms of some convenience and functionality. And performance and stability have increased markedly.
For me the most attractive features are the upcoming ARA support and audio alignment. VariAudio 3 is a real upgrade to an already great onboard tool, I especially enjoy those triangle handles that allow smooth transition between notes and do also work with any selection of segments (I dare to say this is smoother than the methods I use in my beloved Melodyne 4). AAF was long overdue. What’s also very positive for me is that this .0 version has at least the stability of 9.5, which was/is pretty good in my little world.
Some things are gone/broke/missing. Hope to get them back working and as you asked for the positive side of things: I remember previous versions where most of what has been missed got re-delivered within a few weeks.
The channel strip looks much better now. Potentially I will more often use it (my workflow is ‘older’ than CS and works so well for me…).
KeyCos, preferences, presets came over without pain. Workspaces: no idea, I have a 3 screen setup which is enough of a workspace to me with a fix placement.
Not to mention how much easier it is to micromanage now. The most annoying issue with heavily tuned vocals is always that warbly Lil Wayne sound when something gets straightened too much and you get some “rough edges” between notes. That little marker to exclude certain parts of a note doesn’t seem like much but it allows you to straighten the poopies out of a note while letting the edges of it glide from note to note a little better.
Plus I just like how VariAudio works inside cubase so I never have to worry much about trackversions, comps, etc. causing issues.
I haven’t used melodyne much so idk if that’s a problem but it seems like stuff like different comps and switching between trackversions would trip it up
Otherwise it would have been audio-align but that one works 20% of the time for me as it is now .
Variaudio is a really nice one too . Groove agent as well
By the way , is the pedantry necessary? The complainers you’re complaining about are making valid points , myself included . Some have been a bit too viceral and emotional about it sure. On the other hand one could argue that some of the diehard fanboys come out as naive . But that would be just to make ourselves feel good about ourselves, wouldn’t it?
V10 is a step in a good direction IMO . Cubase is still my favourite daw. I’m really excited for the day when this version will receive a solid fix
I have started with the first Cubase on Atari and moved to Logic 4 and after Logic 9 to Studio one V1. All that time I kept an eye on Cubase. Upgraded to most of the versions but never clicked with me. Especially the GUI which always looked cluttered to me. This is the first version since then that I really liked it again. So I can say the cleaner GUI is my main reason to like it. Plus Drag and Drop since I am so used to it from Studio One.
After the struggle, i really like C10. There is some bugs here and there. But what I noticed is the increased performance. Not much, but project export time and load times have dropped. Overall it feels more “fluid” than C9.5 and I really liked C9.5, i think it was the best version since 7.5.
FX/Instrument Browser + Drag and Dropping: worth the cost of the upgrade to me right there. Seems like a smaller feature on the service, but has been a big workflow booster for me.
New Add Track window: again, relatively small enhancement, but one with big workflow gains.
New GUI: there are some screens or small elements that need some work, but overall, this version feels far more unified and legible.
MPE support: so much easier to setup an MPE instrument in the new version. Again, small change, but one with big workflow improvements.
Easier side-chaining: again, workflow. I’d have rated this even more highly if not for the fact that VST2 sidechain inputs aren’t included. I get Steinberg is pushing VST3, but pretending that VST2 effects can’t have a sidechain input the DAW can recognize is beyond silly.
Mixer Snapshots are nice but really should include automation. I’d grade that one a C. The audio alignment has been spotty at best (another C), and as soon as ARA2 comes along, I’ll probably entirely give up on VariAudio so I’ll probably never experience those improvements. I’m never a fan of DAWs trying to do complicated stuff like replacing Melodyne or VocAlign out of the box when those excellent third-party products already exist and are best-in-class. But again, ARA2 is coming so as long as it works as well as it does in other DAWs, I’ll be happy with that addition.
