The Song Fight Bulletin Board

I'm done. Cubase isn't for me anymore. Maybe editing all day with Vegas (which is built off the Acid engine, my first DAW) has made me realize how silly and cumbersome Cubase can be. Maybe I'm becoming an old man. Maybe it's so fucking unstable that it freezes when I open a project and I have to reboot.

I have one project to finish, then I'm done with it for good. I'm not sure what I'll move on to. I'm sure I'll grab a copy of Sonic Foundry, the direct descendant of Acid, but I don't want to be chained to it. I should really learn the nuts and bolts of ProTools. My buddies like Logic. Then there's Ableton, Audacity, and so on.

Help me out, Songfight. I need a DAW that is compatible with my M-Audio MobilePre USB, and supports both DX and VSTi plugins. I'm running Windows 7 on a laptop. Does ProTools fit this bill? My #1 desire is a good workflow. Cubase is great for capturing, but the editing is tedious as hell. I want a program that's easy and fast no matter what I'm doing.

Thanks!

I don't know anything about the software that you've mentioned... but I switched from Cubase to Reaper a couple years ago... I'm still using Reaper. Bonus: It's cheap!

I like REAPER, too, but it has a few disadvantages compared to the, ah, more heavyweight choices, and I think it's fair to mention them. For example, it has a lot less non-destructive editing capabilities for recorded files. You can't, for example, non-destructively quantize an audio track. Also, while all the most important plugins are there, there's nothing beyond that. You're on your own if you want amp simulations, nice-sounding reverb (there's a convolution reverb plugin included, but no impulse response files) or a usable vocoder (there is one shipped with REAPER, but... well, you can probably guess how powerful it isn't), or a number of other things. It does, however, support VST and DX plugins.

Personally, though, I'd choose REAPER over what I've seen from Cubase any day. Note that its trial version is not crippled in any way, except for perhaps displaying a nag screen when you start it up.

PS. Audacity is little more than a wave editor (though a good one at that). Don't bother.

Logic won't help much on a Windows machine.

Love the Fieldingesque (or perhaps Barthesque) thread title

Wow, I can not believe how much people dislike Cubase. I have tried just about everything, and Cubase has the cleanest, most intuitive workflow for me.

signboy wrote:Wow, I can not believe how much people dislike Cubase. I have tried just about everything, and Cubase has the cleanest, most intuitive workflow for me.

I use Cubase for some things. I would do entire songs on it if it didn't have that variable latency issue on my computer.

signboy wrote:Wow, I can not believe how much people dislike Cubase. I have tried just about everything, and Cubase has the cleanest, most intuitive workflow for me.

I didn't dislike Cubase, it worked fine for me, granted I had the non-crippled LE 1.07 (1.08 and up all took away FX channels and tracks etc...) but it's easier for me to use Reaper now.

Sober wrote:I'm sure I'll grab a copy of Sonic Foundry, the direct descendant of Acid, but I don't want to be chained to it.

FWIW, Sonic Foundry is not a descendent of Acid, it is the manufacturer that originally published Acid (among other programs) before being bought out by Sony.

Why not get the latest Acid Pro? It's still available (for $300), and I always liked Acid's interface. I'm actually glad that recent versions of Logic have made their UI more Acid-like - I mean, I spent a lot of time learning Logic 6/7's cantankerous UI (which still made more sense than Cubase's) but I was more than happy to unlearn it and relearn on 8 when that came out.

yeah, i still use acid also. it has some issues, but i've grown used to them.
-bill

HeuristicsInc wrote:yeah, i still use acid also. it has some issues, but i've grown used to them.
-bill

I keep reading this thread title as "In which Sober forsakes Cheesecake". And I never really had issues with Acid. But I stopped using it after high school. And back then we didn't capitalize it.

i did forsake cheesecake. i never liked it much anyway, and it would give my poor digestive system fits.
-bill

Eric Y. wrote:

Sober wrote:I'm sure I'll grab a copy of Sonic Foundry, the direct descendant of Acid, but I don't want to be chained to it.

FWIW, Sonic Foundry is not a descendent of Acid, it is the manufacturer that originally published Acid (among other programs) before being bought out by Sony.

*disclaimer - I am very drunk.

Really? I thought Sony bought Sonic Foundry's Acid and used the audio engine to build on top of to create Vegas. Sony calls the audio editor they package with Vegas "Sonic Foundry." At any rate, Vegas is basically Acid with video. I fucking love editing with it, my job is easy as shit working with it.

I didn't really dislike cubase, it served me well for.. 4 or 5 years? I've had it since 3X was brand new. The version I have is very unstable, though, and I feel that it's time for me to move on. I'm growing as a music and video producer at nearly the same rate as I was when Blue was crushing my soul on a weekly basis back in '04, so I feel like I need to continue my learning process by becoming an expert in a more marketable editor.

When I separate from the military, I plan on making a living from audio and video production in the civilian sector, even if it's as a freelance news reporter douchebag. I'm working my ass off to be ready for that (I think I have the douche part covered). In my current drunken state, Protools seems to be the obvious choice. Will revisit when I'm less drunk.

Sonic Foundry made Vegas well before the Sony buyout. My understanding is that the existence of Vegas was a huge factor in the acquisition, much moreso than Acid - even if not, Vegas is actually a major product that Sony cares about quite a lot while Acid always struck me as being sort of a low-priority toy curiosity at this point.

So I tried Ableton Live, and I can't believe people use that crap. So awful.

I went ahead and got Acid Pro 7. It fully supports every plugin I have, it's the same interface I edit video on at work, and the resource load is much lower than Cubase. I do like some of the minor workflow stuff better in Cubase, but I think I'll settle right in. I'm already finding some very cool tricks that have come about in the... 6 years since I've used it?

It feels like home.