abacab

DrLumen
 
Abacab, I have tried some other DAWs over the years and I was thinking about a similar issue. Maybe, perhaps, people like me that are used to the more linear layout DAWs are dinosaurs. When the various website polls are published on the use of the various music software programs show the likes of Ableton or Fruity Loops as the most used, I have to think that maybe my workflow may be outdated. Maybe I'm too much of a control freak and need to re-examine my paradigm. While I have never been one to play or try to compose EDM like stuff, maybe that is my real problem. In essence, PDQ Bach having an iphone instead of pen and paper.

I just grabbed the "sonar50" ($50) special for Overture 5, and I am liking it.  It's a good notation program with VST instrument support, linear track view, mixer, and a MIDI editor.  No audio yet, though ... but it's a great way to channel your "Bach"! 
 
**Message from Don Williams - Overture 5 - Updated**
http://forum.cakewalk.com/FindPost/3699129

Thanks for the info but I'll probably stick with SPlat until one if us dies - either SPlat from a forced OS change or me from old age. :)

I'm pretty sure that incase of audio their is nothing that Cubase can do that Sonar or S1 cant. I'm pretty happy with S1's elegant workflow. So there is nothing more to think about, however when it comes to midi everyone is in favor of Cubase. I do use a lot of midi. And cubase gets the highest recommendation for midi. I understand cubase is feature rich when it comes to midi, but it feels like all these daws do the same when it comes to midi core functions. In what ways do you think cubase is superior for midi purposes.

I do understand cubase does have some handy features that some daws doesnt have.
Like Event editor that S1 doesnt have.
Chord track chord assistant (which most daws dont have)
Step sequencer (available in Logic, Sonar)
Note Expression ( available only in Cubase)
What else? pls educate me.

Pretty sure these features will be soon implemented in S1 and other daws as well.T hese are handy features perhaps but to move on to cubase only for these few extra features seems not worth it as the core midi features are same in most daws. 

Well sonarman1 - The point is that all this stuff is implemented in Cubase now at this very moment.
 
You could argue that it "will undoubtedly implemented in other DAW's", but until now it has not. Should you buy software because somewhere in the future it will maybe, if I am lucky,  have the things that I want to use now? That's "buying on speculation", and not a very smart thing to do to be honest.
 
Bottom line - You must compare DAW's on the specs they have now at this very moment, and not what they "might" have somewhere in the future... Maybe.
 
I personally have chosen Cubase for very strong MIDI implementation. I have simply found no software that does this better. The audio department is far from weak either. You know that Chord tracks also work on audio (granted - on "solo" material primarily, but still handy)? And dragging MIDI loop in a sample track creates an audio loop? For me Cubase Pro has a lot of features that I found very valuable for me.
 
For instance - I love the Control Room. I can have the master output signal routed to my monitors with ARC 2 room correction (on audio 1-2 on my MOTU Trav) while at the same time output to my headphone (on Phones 1-2) with TB Isone monitor simulation, and output the final mix to file without having any of those plugins interfering with the output to file. This is just an example, because the Control Room can do much more, but you get the picture.
 
I do not miss ARA that much, because Cubase Pro has his own version of pitch correction called VariAudio. There you can do pitch and time corection, and it works very well and fast because it's integrated. Granted - Melodyne works better if those corrections must be extreme, but that's not very often. As we got Melodyne for free already with Sonar Platinum, we can use it as VST plugin in these extreme cases, but to be honest - I use it seldom.
 
Granted - Most of the things I am talking about are not present in the Elements version, but that's the case in most "bottom line" versions of DAW software (take for instance Ableton Live Intro that has only an 8x8 matrix, 8 Scenes and only 2 send/return tracks to work with).

sonarman1
I'm pretty sure that incase of audio their is nothing that Cubase can do that Sonar or S1 cant. I'm pretty happy with S1's elegant workflow. So there is nothing more to think about, however when it comes to midi everyone is in favor of Cubase. I do use a lot of midi. And cubase gets the highest recommendation for midi. I understand cubase is feature rich when it comes to midi, but it feels like all these daws do the same when it comes to midi core functions. In what ways do you think cubase is superior for midi purposes.

I do understand cubase does have some handy features that some daws doesnt have.
Like Event editor that S1 doesnt have.
Chord track chord assistant (which most daws dont have)
Step sequencer (available in Logic, Sonar)
Note Expression ( available only in Cubase)
What else? pls educate me.

Pretty sure these features will be soon implemented in S1 and other daws as well.T hese are handy features perhaps but to move on to cubase only for these few extra features seems not worth it as the core midi features are same in most daws. 

I will probably buy Studio One for $125 because it is a solid DAW, and very popular, so it should be around for a while. And that half price crossgrade will probably not be seen again soon!  If Cubase Pro crossgrade pricing was a match, the decision would be harder. 
 
I mostly work with MIDI, but in the box now, so my external MIDI gear is in storage.  I assume that S1 will give me 99% of what I need.
 
And I would still buy Cubase Elements for $99, just for the Chord Track feature alone.  Great for composing in the box.  But that is no rush, since that is the normal price.  That, and improved notation, would have made Sonar the very best DAW available! 

I'm still waiting fro the USB key to come in the mail.

Another place that some DAWs lack is with midi sysex messages. Probably not a big deal for most and if you haven't needed them you likely won't need them. I still have some lighting controllers that use sysex midi messages to trigger data transfers. I also still have an external synth that accepts sysex - if I want to get into tweaking effects internals programmatically.
 
Some of those same DAWs may lack in midi effects. I didn't use them much but they were there. I do use CAL for midi to generate some lighting sequences. I've seen that Cubase has some type of batch processing thing but I'm not sure it will do all what I can currently do in CAL.
 
The point being, there is quite a bit that can be done with midi other than just recording a synth performance and few DAWs implement it fully. YMMV

Well sonarman1 - The point is that all this stuff is implemented in Cubase now at this very moment.
 
You could argue that it "will undoubtedly implemented in other DAW's", but until now it has not. Should you buy software because somewhere in the future it will maybe, if I am lucky,  have the things that I want to use now? That's "buying on speculation", and not a very smart thing to do to be honest.
 
Bottom line - You must compare DAW's on the specs they have now at this very moment, and not what they "might" have somewhere in the future... Maybe.
 
I personally have chosen Cubase for very strong MIDI implementation. I have simply found no software that does this better. The audio department is far from weak either. You know that Chord tracks also work on audio (granted - on "solo" material primarily, but still handy)? And dragging MIDI loop in a sample track creates an audio loop? For me Cubase Pro has a lot of features that I found very valuable for me.
 
For instance - I love the Control Room. I can have the master output signal routed to my monitors with ARC 2 room correction (on audio 1-2 on my MOTU Trav) while at the same time output to my headphone (on Phones 1-2) with TB Isone monitor simulation, and output the final mix to file without having any of those plugins interfering with the output to file. This is just an example, because the Control Room can do much more, but you get the picture.
 
I do not miss ARA that much, because Cubase Pro has his own version of pitch correction called VariAudio. There you can do pitch and time corection, and it works very well and fast because it's integrated. Granted - Melodyne works better if those corrections must be extreme, but that's not very often. As we got Melodyne for free already with Sonar Platinum, we can use it as VST plugin in these extreme cases, but to be honest - I use it seldom.
 
Granted - Most of the things I am talking about are not present in the Elements version, but that's the case in most "bottom line" versions of DAW software (take for instance Ableton Live Intro that has only an 8x8 matrix, 8 Scenes and only 2 send/return tracks to work with).

Great. I would like to know more of what cubase can do which other daws don't. Other than the ones listed above. It will help me in trying it out. Thanks for the post. I'm also checking out some youtube videos to get a glimpse of midi workflow in cubase. 

abacab

sonarman1
I'm pretty sure that incase of audio their is nothing that Cubase can do that Sonar or S1 cant. I'm pretty happy with S1's elegant workflow. So there is nothing more to think about, however when it comes to midi everyone is in favor of Cubase. I do use a lot of midi. And cubase gets the highest recommendation for midi. I understand cubase is feature rich when it comes to midi, but it feels like all these daws do the same when it comes to midi core functions. In what ways do you think cubase is superior for midi purposes.

I do understand cubase does have some handy features that some daws doesnt have.
Like Event editor that S1 doesnt have.
Chord track chord assistant (which most daws dont have)
Step sequencer (available in Logic, Sonar)
Note Expression ( available only in Cubase)
What else? pls educate me.

Pretty sure these features will be soon implemented in S1 and other daws as well.T hese are handy features perhaps but to move on to cubase only for these few extra features seems not worth it as the core midi features are same in most daws. 

I will probably buy Studio One for $125 because it is a solid DAW, and very popular, so it should be around for a while. And that half price crossgrade will probably not be seen again soon!  If Cubase Pro crossgrade pricing was a match, the decision would be harder. 
 
I mostly work with MIDI, but in the box now, so my external MIDI gear is in storage.  I assume that S1 will give me 99% of what I need.
 
And I would still buy Cubase Elements for $99, just for the Chord Track feature alone.  Great for composing in the box.  But that is no rush, since that is the normal price.  That, and improved notation, would have made Sonar the very best DAW available! 

I am playing with the Cubase Elements 9.5 demo.  It has features like Chord Track, Chord Pads, Chord Assistant, Chorder, and a very nice integrated notation editor.
 
I downloaded the Elements demo, because I wanted to see if my old computer was up to the task.
 
I find the for the most part performance is pretty good, but the app seems a little quirky.  Little things, like when single clicking loops in the media bay, sometimes they are automatically put into the project.  Other mouse click selection behavior is weird, like chord track editing sometimes requires repeated single clicks or a double click.
 
It's almost like something is intercepting mouse clicks - and this behavior is not the same as when using Reaper, or Mixcraft.
 
I really want to like Cubase, but if I buy Elements or Pro, I don't want to end up having to buy a new computer, just so Cubase behaves properly.
 
If I can't get this resolved, I'll probably go with Mixcraft (for composing) and Reaper.
 
Here I was hung up on Staff View handling of triplets... I guess you don't know what you have until it's too late.  Maybe I should dedicate a PC to Sonar X3 Pro and disconnect it from the internet.  geh...