January 15, 2005

• I have limited experience with Cubase (vst) on a Mac but I was not happy with it- rough on the eyes and some counterintuitive UI aspects. However I should add that I'm not happy with any of the current batch of sequencers None have approached the elegance and ease of use of my favorite, Studio Vision Pro ( I still use it though Opcode is defunct). My brief reviews of other apps: Logic- not logical, ironically but has strong features marred by a truly awful UI. Surprised that Apple would put their name on it. Cubase- see above Cakewalk and Nuendo, I don't know but I've heard mixed reviews. Pro Tools- nice UI, but expensive and relatively poor MIDI implementation though that may change as Opcode's Dave Oppenheim now works for Digidesign. Garageband-some intriguing features but not suitable for Pro work yet. Traktion- getting better- decent UI and free! DP Probably the best overall combination of features and a sensible UI. There are still things I find maddenly illogical and unecessarily convoluted, but I'll probably switch to it once SVP is no longer usable. Incidentally, SVP is available for free. If you are Mac user and don't mind working in System 9 it's a great program- its main limitation is its lack of compliance with the VST 2 standard and hence its inability to directly host softsynths. There are workarounds though. BTW how those pics coming along? We're going back for #2 in march
• Sorry, I thought I sent you some. Will rectify this immediately. Hey, March is not far off now!
• Psst ... are you reading your email at the address you give on your user page? Pics were sent on Tuesday.
• weird, I'm just downloading it.
• I swear by cubase, but I've not used this version yet.
• Says Wiki -- Almost all versions of Cubase use dongles for copy prevention. Holy cow, I had no idea that dongles still existed.
• Hehehe, poor Steinberg.
• My mistake - different version.
• usb midi interface whatsit looks good, but doesn't do anything a basic midi adapter & a patched-in mixer won't do. As for cubase SL that's a longer story I suppose. I wouldn't pay for that little bit of hardware, myself, cos I have stuff that will do all that anyway. With cubase, basically, it's an excellent system but you want nothing else running on the 'puter at all, no internets, no screensavers, no shit in the background at all. Big hunk o ram, big quick HDs, good sound card, above spec CPU.
• Actually, this is just cubase SX by another name with an expensive hardware addon. ProTools is good too, but I would only use hardware ProTools system or what is the point?
• And anyway perhaps music doesn't exist on tape or in digital, but in your soul wooooo
• Holy cow, I had no idea that dongles still existed. it does, and apparently it works, too. at least this one. the best audiowarez crackers out there (that would be H20) have been working on it for several months now, but sx3 still hasn't been cracked.
• Yes it has.
• My only experience with Cubase has been that it's a bitch to get a working cracked copy. And don't Pro Tools cost a fortune?
• Cubase is not that hard to get working, from my experience, although it is a serious program that you have to know the basics of MIDI & related stuff to get the best out of. If you can't set up MIDI on your box you'll never figure out Cubase. If you can get MIDI signals going in & out I really don't see where the problem is, to be honest. In my experience it's the basics of MIDI theory that fuck people up. Cubase itself has a rather graphical UI & extensive tutorials, so I don't get what the problem is. However, you can't enter sound engineering as a newbie & expect it to be easy, it really is a fucking complex thing. I've never had a problem with either cracked versions or the retail versions I've PAID FOR (thankyou, Steinberg) except when windows switched to the new system after '98. That only took a while for them to fix it up. It is a professional-end product & not really for people who are not heavily into the complexities. I personally learned sequencing on the old Notator prog around 1991, then reluctantly switched to the early cubase, but then never looked back. Yes, ProTools costs a fortune. It is really reliant on hardware systems, the software aint much use without the specialised hardware. It does incredible things, but really, a good muso who knows how to use MIDI and has decent equipment does not need it. ProTools is better for your digital editing, which really overwhelms the average muso. It's not really that useful for musical composition, IMHO, rather mixdown, editing, complex digital collage.
• Since you seem up on your music studio tools, Nostril, what's your opinion of Ableton Live (not to derail)? I was thinking of getting something "simple" like Sonar next (not sure I'm ready for Cubase) - a real copy of course (academic pricing).
• I don't really know anything about Ableton Live, sorry. I'm not really sure about 'entry' sequencer stuff.