Heartily Sick Of Cubase

MrBump

I don't record much, but when I do it usually starts with f**king around with Cubase to try to get it working.  Usually I've left it so long that the licensing mechanism has stopped working, so I need to reauthenticate that.  I've just done that this morning, and now my Steinberg profile is showing that I've got no products currently licensed, despite having paid £hundreds over the years in outright software costs, plugins and upgrades.

It's just tiresome and messes with the creative process of a person seriously lacking in creativity.

I used to use Cakewalk, now defunct I think.  I've tried Reaper - cool, but very primative.

Is there anything out there for a hobbyist, something that doesn't eternally piss about with upgrades and license managers, something that will just let me buy the bloody thing and allow me to fire it up once a month or so without all the associated Cubase grief???

monquixote

I would have said Reaper, but Studio One seems like a good option

I love Bitwig, but it's very Electronic oriented and you have to renew every year.

Stuckfast

If you're used to Cubase then Studio One is the obvious way to go as it's operationally very similar (it was created by the same team that originally developed Cubase SX back in the day).

distressed

Reaper is full-fledged DAW, fast, efficient and highly customizable even for professional work. How did you find it primitive?

Winny_Pooh

distressed said:

Reaper is full-fledged DAW, fast, efficient and highly customizable even for professional work. How did you find it primitive?

Same, unless you're using midi features I don't work with it's just as capable as anything else.

distressed

Winny_Pooh said:

distressed said:

Reaper is full-fledged DAW, fast, efficient and highly customizable even for professional work. How did you find it primitive?

Same, unless you're using midi features I don't work with it's just as capable as anything else.

The only downside I'm aware of is that it doesn't come with loads of midi presets and banks like the others, but i'ts tradeoff for being lightweight and capable to run efficiently on any old machine. You can always use 3rd party solutions with it.

IMC1980

You can still get Cakewalk, it is now free: https://www.bandlab.com/products/cakewalk - I use it and it works like to old version except with less bugs.

MrBump

OK - my experience with Reaper was a few years ago, and the UI felt primitive - kinda like an old version of Windows.

octatonic

MrBump said:

I don't record much, but when I do it usually starts with f**king around with Cubase to try to get it working.  Usually I've left it so long that the licensing mechanism has stopped working, so I need to reauthenticate that.  I've just done that this morning, and now my Steinberg profile is showing that I've got no products currently licensed, despite having paid £hundreds over the years in outright software costs, plugins and upgrades.

It's just tiresome and messes with the creative process of a person seriously lacking in creativity.

I used to use Cakewalk, now defunct I think.  I've tried Reaper - cool, but very primative.

Is there anything out there for a hobbyist, something that doesn't eternally piss about with upgrades and license managers, something that will just let me buy the bloody thing and allow me to fire it up once a month or so without all the associated Cubase grief???

I'm on Nuendo, rather than Cubase (they are very similar), but I find it very stable.
Which version are you using and are you using the new licensing system (ie not with the physical dongle)?

distressed

MrBump said:

OK - my experience with Reaper was a few years ago, and the UI felt primitive - kinda like an old version of Windows.

There's a wide user community and practically unlimited number of skins and customizations for it.

https://stash.reaper.fm/tag/Themes

monquixote

distressed said:

Winny_Pooh said:

distressed said:

Reaper is full-fledged DAW, fast, efficient and highly customizable even for professional work. How did you find it primitive?

Same, unless you're using midi features I don't work with it's just as capable as anything else.

The only downside I'm aware of is that it doesn't come with loads of midi presets and banks like the others, but i'ts tradeoff for being lightweight and capable to run efficiently on any old machine. You can always use 3rd party solutions with it.

Indeed, there are plenty of pros who use Reaper. 

It comes bundled with a lot less stuff in terms of Plugins, but if you were going to buy Fabfilter and Pigments anyway it pretty much does everything you need.

MrBump

octatonic said:

MrBump said:

I don't record much, but when I do it usually starts with f**king around with Cubase to try to get it working.  Usually I've left it so long that the licensing mechanism has stopped working, so I need to reauthenticate that.  I've just done that this morning, and now my Steinberg profile is showing that I've got no products currently licensed, despite having paid £hundreds over the years in outright software costs, plugins and upgrades.

It's just tiresome and messes with the creative process of a person seriously lacking in creativity.

I used to use Cakewalk, now defunct I think.  I've tried Reaper - cool, but very primative.

Is there anything out there for a hobbyist, something that doesn't eternally piss about with upgrades and license managers, something that will just let me buy the bloody thing and allow me to fire it up once a month or so without all the associated Cubase grief???

I'm on Nuendo, rather than Cubase (they are very similar), but I find it very stable.
Which version are you using and are you using the new licensing system (ie not with the physical dongle)?

10.5 - no physical dongle, it's an e-licenser. 

MrBump

monquixote said:

distressed said:

Winny_Pooh said:

distressed said:

Reaper is full-fledged DAW, fast, efficient and highly customizable even for professional work. How did you find it primitive?

Same, unless you're using midi features I don't work with it's just as capable as anything else.

The only downside I'm aware of is that it doesn't come with loads of midi presets and banks like the others, but i'ts tradeoff for being lightweight and capable to run efficiently on any old machine. You can always use 3rd party solutions with it.

Indeed, there are plenty of pros who use Reaper. 

It comes bundled with a lot less stuff in terms of Plugins, but if you were going to buy Fabfilter and Pigments anyway it pretty much does everything you need.

Maybe I'll have another go at Reaper... Doesn't sound like I have much to lose.

blobb

Mixbus

Jalapeno

Thought Studio One was also a bit "licence centric". 

Reaper is fully featured.

There's also a path less travelled too - Tracktion's Waveform.

thermionic

MrBump said:

 Maybe I'll have another go at Reaper... Doesn't sound like I have much to lose.

Don’t Fear The Reaper

Musicwolf

MrBump said:

I don't record much, but when I do it usually starts with f**king around with Cubase to try to get it working.  Usually I've left it so long that the licensing mechanism has stopped working, so I need to reauthenticate that.

That's probably a large part of your problem.  I use Cubase whilst my bandmate uses Logic.  I use my DAW almost every day whereas he's an infrequent user.  I spend many a happy hour, either on the phone or via Zoom, talking him through stuff and it seems that I can quickly get things working on his system, despite me not knowing Logic, whilst he struggles.

It's not technical ability so much as familiarity.

Snap

Get Cakewalk - completely free, updated every month, and pro level specification. You won't need anything else

MrBump

Snap said:

Get Cakewalk - completely free, updated every month, and pro level specification. You won't need anything else

Interesting - I thought Cakewalk was dead and gone.

LastMantra

monquixote said:

distressed said:

Winny_Pooh said:

distressed said:

Reaper is full-fledged DAW, fast, efficient and highly customizable even for professional work. How did you find it primitive?

Same, unless you're using midi features I don't work with it's just as capable as anything else.

The only downside I'm aware of is that it doesn't come with loads of midi presets and banks like the others, but i'ts tradeoff for being lightweight and capable to run efficiently on any old machine. You can always use 3rd party solutions with it.

Indeed, there are plenty of pros who use Reaper. 

It comes bundled with a lot less stuff in terms of Plugins, but if you were going to buy Fabfilter and Pigments anyway it pretty much does everything you need.

Long time since I done any recording but I came to the conclusion that once you get used to the more basic look the plugins were very good and there's all the stuff you should ever need really, unless you are maybe wanting to do something very specific maybe but even then...

I've tried loads of free stuff too and kept a few that IMO are excellent. The only thing I've bought really is EZDrummer. 

monquixote

LastMantra said:

monquixote said:

distressed said:

Winny_Pooh said:

distressed said:

Reaper is full-fledged DAW, fast, efficient and highly customizable even for professional work. How did you find it primitive?

Same, unless you're using midi features I don't work with it's just as capable as anything else.

The only downside I'm aware of is that it doesn't come with loads of midi presets and banks like the others, but i'ts tradeoff for being lightweight and capable to run efficiently on any old machine. You can always use 3rd party solutions with it.

Indeed, there are plenty of pros who use Reaper. 

It comes bundled with a lot less stuff in terms of Plugins, but if you were going to buy Fabfilter and Pigments anyway it pretty much does everything you need.

Long time since I done any recording but I came to the conclusion that once you get used to the more basic look the plugins were very good and there's all the stuff you should ever need really, unless you are maybe wanting to do something very specific maybe but even then...

I've tried loads of free stuff too and kept a few that IMO are excellent. The only thing I've bought really is EZDrummer. 

It's a few years since I've used it, but it was a bit barebones compared to having something like one of the higher end Ableton, Bitwig or FL packages which are plugin central.