The choice has been made.
Cubase Pro 8 seems to be a bit far from what Cubase used to be in version 5. Perhaps, too many things going on already… That is why for some, like me, it is considered too crowded, clustered, with too many options that are in your way, and you don’t want to see. Options people will not use but they have to pay anyway, so many musicians that are currently working with Cubase, work with older versions, and most probably, as it is happening to me, they will search for a different app when migrating to 64 bits systems.
Cubase used to be THE choice, the most popular DAW in the world, and it probably still is, but it is losing a lot of ground pretty quickly.
This clustered problem is also one of my argument to not get it in its version 8, and the second one is it’s price, it very expensive compared with other extremely good solutions that has nothing to envy Cubase today.
In my investigation, reading, trying out and comparing, I found out that many new DAW apps are amazing! There are today “many” very good ones, they are all different but not necessarily worse from each other, I would say they are rather different meals for different tastes, but with the same food quality behind. Reaper for instance, so cheap, very light, pretty good honestly, simple too, but for some reason it is not appealing to me. PreSonus Studio One, wow…, I was almost trapped for it, it was my DAW choice for a couple of weeks, but later I discovered something I like much more. Cakewalk, even if it is not for me either, I found out it works in a very stable way, it is well thought in general and a robust option. Ableton live, mmm, not at all for me, but very cool too and fast, light to move around. There are many other new ones like MuTools Mulab, Bitwig Studio (kind of a second Ableton Live), Mixcraft Pro Studio, Reason (not new anyway, but considered very good, not appealing to me for some “reason”), Pro Tools (quite old already, what a unnecessarily complicated app, the little bit I know about it it is enough for me to stay away, you have to do more clicks for the same things everywhere. The latest version have been very much criticized by the user base, they say the best version is the V11) FL Studio the former Fruity Lops (cool, but not at all for me).
If I would have been able to use Cubase 5 with 64 bits plugins without problems, I would have not changed DAW ever, but the processing itself being 32 bits it is also a waist if you have a 64bit system, so take a deep breath and let’s move on…
Said that, I really am ready to let Cubase behind… not without saying THANK YOU FOR ALL THE JOY!!! I miss it very much because I passed a few years learning it quite a bit, I could work with Cubase 5 closed eyes, and well, yes, learning again a new software is what I would have like to avoid. I will be challenged to get into it fast next year, when works starts again, and I know every DAW has its own learning curve, my problem is TIME, above all, not the least the wish to learn.
Many people argue in many forums, etc., about the differences or not of DAW final output sound. Mathematically, it is said they should all sound the same, but they do not. If you get me to the sampling arguments and binary code and all that, it is understandable and you could, theoretically, accept it, but there are many more elements to take into account: the way the software handles plugins, the codification of the engine, the in-out conversion of the sound, etc. The point is that I CAN HEAR A DIFFERENCE BETWEEN DIFFERENT DAW, and this is what leads my final statement and decision, of course. You can drink purified water and prove mathematically that it is purer than, let say, the water coming from a natural source water in the countryside, but who can deny his own sense of taste? If you taste that this purified water has a soil taste to it, well, you would not care about the papers, you will pay attention to your senses instate.
Just before starting this New Year 2016, I announce my friends, my new DAW of choice, and the winner is… Samplitude Pro X2.
It came to be my last trial becoming the winner. I played around with Samplitude for a few days, I have never before paid any serious attention to it, even if I have read for years that it was very good DAW. Boy, how true this is! I am more than satisfied, it is THE BEST of THE BEST I have ever tried, in every single way. It also sounds amazing. What it is? The converters, the drivers? I cannot explain why it sounds better, but it sounds pristine, crystal clear, VERY detailed.
Where have I been all these years without this super DAW? It is AMAZING, really, really superior in every sense to everything else, including Cubase. I realize now that the most of us come to use a particular program by imitation and marketing noise, famous people testimonials, amount of people using it, tradition, etc., but Samplitude deserves an open minded serious look. If you are planning changing your DAW, it is a must to try this one. The problem is that all these apps are so huge, that nobody sits and tries them all in depth, it is impossible, who would have such an amount of time. Fortunately for me, this change took place just in holidays, so I downloaded a trial version of Samplitude Pro X2. You can download the trial version here:
http://www.magix-audio.com/us/samplitude/
There is no coming back for me… I am thrilled. I have a 30 days trial and if you are interested, they give you the option to ask for more trial days. The customer service it is said to be top notch too. There are lots of videos and tutorials out there to learn the program step by step.
Now, I have to say, it is immense… you can do everything with it without getting out of the app, a whole production in every aspect, except the graphical one. The learning curve here, is rather steep, but it is worth the effort. Anyway, in my case, I will use it as a DAW, so it all depends on how much, to which extent you are going to use it.
The GUI is magnificent, very clear, the meters are perfectly precise and responsive, the plugins, WOW!!! The plugins that comes with it are truly superior, the instruments are very good too. The help system is comprehensive, fast, and detailed, you can get a help assistant in every moment and there is even a search engine included at hand, just in front of you. Several interfaces are available to adapt your workflow. At the beginning, you can reach for so many tools that you get a little dizzy and it is somehow, overwhelming, but you can thanks to the constant help at your disposal, use exactly what you need, fast, without trying or reading like crazy to solve a simple problem. I think every person will find this DAW as a multidaw app, I mean, as a DAW that allows everyone to customize Samplitude to their exact needs, this is why I think the learning curve should not that bad either. It is VERY fast and CPU efficient too. Contrary to Cubase, that sometimes forces you to work in a particular way, Samplitude is very soft in this respect, letting you do what you want, the way you want it.
You should definitely go for it, Samplitude Pro X2 is the way.
