Cubase 4.5.1 released

[kylie]

well then, cubase fellas...
there it is. any volunteers / guinea pigs?

[braincell]

New Halion sounds cool!

[Neutron]

After there was no more PC logic audio I bought in to ableton Live. unfortunately the timing is absolutely crap for external MIDI sync. after more and more disappointment i decided not to upgrade any more. 7 is even worse than ever. besides i prefer a more traditional type of workflow.(although for a PC/MAC only system with no external gear it is great)

I used Sony/SF acid for a while, its very limited and loses the VSTis all the time, It has very good mixing sound quality but apart from that its pretty crap and has gotten worse since sony. and only 1 sync output on MIDI at once(many other limitations, including cant use virus TI control)

i tried reaper, sonar, some trackers (thats how i originally started on PC music even before atari) varous other things but they dont really suit. they seem unfinished(although i wish reaper the best of luck, it has great timing)

I have tried "ahem...try before buy" cubase (sx3) and it seems to work extremely well sync wise (which is probably the #1 issue for me). actually better than anything since the Atari days. I love the way it can re-sync the external devices on the fly as well even the primitive "future retro revolution" gets stopped and re started on the fly to stay in sync.(with live and acid, had to actually press the stop/start and then make sure to start on a bar)

i am wondering if i should jump in and buy cubase 4? I watched some cubase tutorial videos, it looks like it has a lot of power i might never use, but (like 3d studio max in the 3d world) its nice to know that the features are there.

i wish i had saved all the money i have given to Sonic Foundry/ableton over the ages, i could buy cubase 4 AND XITE-1

anyways enough rambling. any official cubase 4 users, and is it solid?

any "teachers" out there i would love to be a "student" and get the educational price we could play online pool and you could "school" me (or i could school you, but then i would still be a teacher, and qualify) then we wouldn't be telling a lie!

[garyb]

i like the editing features in cubase. the program is far from perfect, but it's still my favorite(that i've used). i was never in love with Steinberg and i'm not in love with Yamaha(although they generally do what they do well), we'll see what happens with it in the future.

they all have various advantages and disadvantages, i suppose it's down to feature sets and what you like...if i was running a traditional studio, i might prefer SAW...

[braincell]

I hated Cubase for years because it would always make my computer crash but recently I like it. The new 4.5 Version added some needed features to the Advanced Arranger (Play Order Track). This sections is for sequencing patterns akin to the Ableton Live way. Arranger Track can now be kept after flattening, so all Arranger Track presets are preserved for further editing. That was a peeve of mine about the previous version so I will give the Arranger another try.

I just figured out that the sounds are 900 megabytes and in 5 parts. At the slow speed I'm getting it will take 15 hours to download all the parts. Probably it's so slow because too many people are downloading it. I'll post here after I get them all. I imagine this will sound much better than the previous sounds.

[braincell]

It looks like the main thing is the Big Fish Audio drum loops. I know they are famous for great samples so I am really looking forward to this. Cubase has been very weak on drums. The official Steinberg site mentions only the loops but I found another website which says there will be loops and single hits which is great. Cubase has always been weak on drums. The piano will come in handy for temporary use until I load my CPU heavy VSTi piano.

New Sounds:

Original Yamaha S90ES Grand for HALion One
The famous Yamaha S90ES Grand is one of the most soughtafter
sampled stage piano sounds around. This outstanding
piano sound is now integrated directly into Cubase with HALion
One! Using the original samples, captured with care and
outstanding precision by the Yamaha Content experts, the
S90ES Grand for HALion One delivers a truly beautiful
expressive timbre, suitable for all styles of piano playing.

250 new and fresh Drum Loops by Big Fish Audio*
Red-hot drum beats and scorching loops – all of them ready to
use and optimized for variety and creative usage with the
excellent beat mangling and manipulation tools in Cubase. And
because they’re all ready for the Cubase MediaBay, finding the
right loop for a song takes only a few seconds.

[Acelera]

There's almost 2Gb of new sounds for HalionOne including, as you say, these drum loops and the S90ES grand but also a heap of pretty useful multisamples from Sonic Reality as well. Stability-wise, 4.5.1 is the first version that's really done it for me since SX3 but I still spend a lot of my time on Logic 8 (Mac = Logic, PC = 3 Scope cards hooked up over ADAT and MIDI).

We really have it so easy these days...

[braincell]

Finally got them. It took me a while to find them in Halion. I had to click on "show location" and then check the boxes next to the new ones.

The drums are all standard, nothing exotic both hits and loops. I like the new electric guitar and electric bass sounds a lot! The piano sounds pretty decent too. They ask you to register the sounds so I guess I will do that.

I should backup my system soon after all those changes.

[Mr Arkadin]

Steinberg have really lost the plot. Their support is awful and their bloatware is getting ridiculously fat. i haven't really liked anything they've done since VST5 and their constant promises of free upgrades that then turn into completely new versions. i for one don't need 2GB of bland samples, just give me a program to feel happy about again. i mean no-one uses all those features anyway.

[braincell]

I think it's great. You can do a complete music with just Cubase alone. The only thing missing is a sampler which can load Akai and wav samples. I'm hoping that they will have the full Halion as support hinted to me. I rarely call support because I know Cubase so well plus nothing seems to go wrong. The one question I had they couldn't help me with but I figured it out. It certainly is easier than it used to be. The Halion samples are alright. Of course they are not going to be as good as 2 gigs dedicated to one instrument. What about the Pulsar 1 samples on the CD? They were *the* worst samples in the history of music! I thought VST5 totally sucked. It didn't start to get good until SX. As far as it being bloated, I would hate to learn it from scratch or teach someone but if you know the program it's fine. When bloat causes crashing that's bad. This program is stable. The MIDI presets are not organized well but if that bothers you, you can make keyboard shortcuts to them which is what I should do. Some other features are buried too such as the all important "device manager" and the also critical "VST connections". That is something I use frequently. It would be better to be able to add and remove the channels directly from the mixer. I love that there are no patch cables in Cubase. God that is a pain in the ass!

[braincell]

The samples are not the only improvement with the upgrade but I like the new guitar sounds and the piano is good for practicing. Like I said before my NI Piano is very CPU intensive, it also takes a while to load. I have used Cubase with Vista so I do not know what you are talking about in that regard.