Cube Ace Ate came out today.
You can learn more about it by clicking here. I'm a big fan of the recently introduced chord track and audio tempo detection functions, and the new chord pads and MIDI tempo detection seem very useful.
There were a few things about the core tool set that I feel needed improvement but they were seemingly ignored. Warping, for example, doesn't work very well with the better sounding algorithms, and multi track quantizing, which was introduced in v7.5, needs some improvement to work as anyone who hears the term "multi track quantizing" might hope to expect. 20 years ago, I thought audio quantizing was silly but now I've come to expect it and it surely seems like it's a job that should be done in and by the DAW, without deal killer bugs, so it seems like it is something that should get a lot of focus and commitment, but it didn't.
It seems a bit disappointing to see that make believe bass amps, and extra drum kits have been added as stocking stuffers when core functionality is being left unattended. I don't know any bass players who do not have an amp, and most of the drummers I know want to bring over a drum set.
They added some new multi band effects and a tuner, but seeing how I don't use any of the effects that came with 7.5, I'm left thinking that it's just stuff for people who don't already have a set of favorite tools. The tuner seems cute, but I have learned that I can not stop working with the DAW just because the guitar player needs to tune. I have a handful of tuners to share with guests and my new favorite is the Peterson Strobotune on my iPhone. Using a DAW as a tuner is a waste of a couple billion CPU cycles.
Having said that, the new effects and the tuner seem, to me, like a waste of dev time.
They adding some docking windows, and I prefer floating windows any day of the week, so I'm pretty much disinterested in this. I sure hope the new docking behavior is not as annoying as it is in SONAR X.
I prefer to stay in track view exclusively, as I have worked, and still work on enough mixer consoles to feel that the console paradigm for mixing offline is yesterdays news, so the new Wave Meters and the VCA controls seem like an anachronism. Having said that, being reminded that the company's hardware partners make mix and production controllers that actually work makes me appreciate why they have enhanced the mix console functions further. They seem to be doing a great job for people who are willing to invest in quality controller hardware.
The VST Connect 3 seems like someone, somewhere, will enjoy it. I have humans visit my place so I have no interest in it. It seemed like you couldn't avoid installing it with v7.5. I wonder if I'll have to install the latest version even though I would rather not. I don't like the idea that it is looking for a network connection that my DAW doesn't have.
They say that the audio engine is more efficient. That is something I will definitely appreciate. I like to run hot and not worry about the dilithium crystals.
It is probably worth mentioning that the lanes and comping system is not as powerful as SONAR's. I'm not a fan of comping lanes, so it is just different shades of brown for me, but it would be nice to see them add mute and solo buttons so you had total flexibility with choosing what you want to listen to, just like SONAR does.
My overall take is that we are 20+ years into the digital audio workstation revolution and there is still no single DAW that satisfies my needs for day to day work, while every single one of them is offered as part of a goobered up package overflowing with junk I don't care about.
I am kind of bummed that they didn't improve the warp tool issues, as that is the deal breaker that keeps me from using it as my gen2014+ all arounder.
I have been very impressed with v7.5 and looking forward to v8. I admire the way that this DAW has a lot of core tools built in to it that leverages musical knowledge. The tempo and chromatic tools are examples of the sort of augmentation I imagined all DAWs would have, but in 2014 they still seem pretty unique. The Scoring tools seem to be a great compliment to a DAW that has such powerful tempo tools. The promise of scoring within a DAW relies on tempo management and this DAW seems to have addressed the frustrations of attempting to place a grid upon a free played performance prior to converting the music to a score. It is a very exciting marriage of capability.
I guess I'll have to wait another year to see if the warp tools will get the work they need.
In the mean time it will be interesting to become more familiar with the latest stuff.
edit spelling and grammar
post edited by mike_mccue - 2014/12/10 07:12:40