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Cubase or Studio One?

Which is the better DAW for composing film music?

  • Cubase 8.5 Pro

    Votes: 68 84.0%
  • Studio One 3 Pro

    Votes: 13 16.0%

  • Total voters
    81
If I do not have the editor open and select multiple tracks, then press F2 I only see one track's info in the editor.

I think you have to lasso/select the midi/audio events/clips of the tracks in question before pressing F2 (That is if I am understanding you correctly).
 
If I do not have the editor open and select multiple tracks, then press F2 I only see one track's info in the editor.

Oh, I see what you mean, not a show stopper for me, but it would nice if that was possible. Maybe this can be offered in their next update/s. You can put it in their feature requests. Actually I will do that.

Thanks,
Muziksculp
 
If you’re goig to go with a Cubase then i wouldn’t bother with 8.5 and go straight to 9. I recently opened a project in 8.5 and can’t quite believe how dark the GUI is for a start. And then there’s mixconsole undo etc. Haven’t tried Studio One so cant comment on that but I love Cubase and used it since SX2.
 
I just read this whole thread, excellent insight, thanks all for piping in. If some are still on the fence, I'm one who's going to ride it out and see if PreSonus gets us the missing biggies for scoring. I think there are some who haven't really used Studio One and understandably pan it and say "just go to Cubase (or whatever DAW)", but there's a reason why we all glom onto S1, the software overall is so blasted easy to work in (and the Mastering module alone is worth the price of admission), plus the number of improvements PreSonus has done since v2 is off the chart such as Notion integration... they DO listen to requests. I think that's why the audio-based ProTools crowd is REALLY embracing Studio One and the number of people switching over is pretty surprising. Groove3 and MacProVideo and others have entire course specifically for ProTools folks going to S1.

But now that I'm starting out in VI composing, I do have concerns about S13's missing stuff like Polyphonic Aftertouch, no real multithreading, no Ripple Delete and auto-save NOT running in a background thread (that one is obvious, duh). But I've got a pretty big hill to climb so hopefully by the time a get halfway up, PreSonus will have taken the MIDI world more seriously. If I were ready to start scoring films, I'd be Cubase all the way on my PC-based system, and I almost pulled the trigger today based on this thread and a crossgrade price of $325, lol. But then I realized I've got so many other things to ingest, S1 is NOT a ball and chain right now. ANYWAY, as I write this, PreSonus just answered a tweet I sent them. I played dumb and tweeted that I heard there were many MIDI improvements planned for v4, and is there any possibility of v4 in 2018. They just replied, in under 5 minutes, with "Keep your eyes peeled!". Good enough for me, I'll stay with them for now. ;)
 
My wild guess is we will see Presonus release S1-4 around July or earlier this year.
That'd be nice.

As a clumsy person, I have to admit I love having a dongle-less environment, especially since I run S1 on 3 different PCs (and the fact you get 5 installs per license). Kontakt U11 and EW just use iLok cloud authentication and PreSonus just has you log in, so I don't need to think about where the USB thingy is that I'd probably send through the wash in my pants pocket anyway.:rofl:
 
I'm kinda late to the party.

I've used hardware samplers and hardware recorders and mixers all my life (I'm now 55). I bought Cubase 9.5 Pro about a year ago. I used Cubase 3.1 for Atari back in the 1990s and the learning curve of Cubase 9.5 has been massive. I also bought my first proper sample library NI Komplete 11 and upgraded it to include NI's Symphonic Series. Armed with a 2013 PC and 92Gb RAM I felt I was equipped enough to give the orchestral mock-ups a shot.

I have been using an RME UFX but wanted hardware control so sold that and bought a 2nd-hand RME Hameerfall card to hook up to an aging Yamaha O2R. This gave me an audio solution but even with my Nektar Panorama P6 and the Cubase template, I found it nigh on impossible to control both the sample library and Cubase. It often required switching templated in the Nektar and inevitable 'hanging'.

I don't like using the mouse much and have tried touchscreens on occasions, but these are not accurate enough even for my small fingers so when Presonus released the Studiolive Series 3 mixers my interest perked up. I couldn't understand why the mixer was only 48kHz with an update being in the pipeline.....but after a demo Studiolive Series 3 24 channel became available at a good price, I jumped on it. That was three weeks ago. I wish it had been the 32 channel version as that comes complete with Studio One 4, the complete version. Mine has only come with the 'Artist' version so is missing certain functions (although I did try the 30 day full but before I had the desk).

What I hated about the learning curve of Cubase 9.5 Pro was the fact that I was constantly consulting the manual for the simplest of things....and then having to read loads to find the bit I needed. With the Presonus solution of the desk and the software, I've effectively learned about 50-60% of the system in a couple of weeks, enough that I could probably record a session with foldback mixes. I've already assemble a basic orchestral template and what is beautiful about the system is that with the release of DAW mode for the SL3 desk, I have 25 automated faders that do touch and latch and as many banks as the composition requires (I think). The 25 faders are in three sections, 16 then a master and 8 more. For most of the time these correspond to inputs 1-24 of the mixer, 1-24 of the mixer tracks in Studio One but can perform many more functions. In the orchestral template, this gives me 16 faders for:

FLUTES
OBOES
CLARINETS
BASSOON
VIOLIN 1
VIOLIN 2
VIOLA
CELLOS
BASSES
HORNS
TRUMPETS
TROMBONES
TUBA
TIMPANI
TUNED PERC 1
TUNED PERC 2

Then the MASTER fader, then:

ORCH PERC
ALICIA KEYS
60's ABBEY ROAD
MODERN DRUMMER
RETRO MK2
EVOLVE

This is my first attempt at a template in Studio One so no doubt I'll re-jig things.
The Nektar P6 can now be left on my NI template which gives 8 buttons to select articulations and 8 faders for expression etc. I have had more than a couple of 'hanging' moments so may have to load a midi utility to see if some control data is being generated and feeding back etc. It could also have something to do with the fact that the P6's USB cables (there are two, one for the flying fader and one for the midi data) do not like being fed into a D Link powered hub and then into the PC.....or maybe it's NI's incomplete programming.

What I'm finding refreshing about Studio One is the fact that it isn't armed to the teeth with the 'nth' degree of programming like Cubase. It feels quite simple to operate and keeps me in 'right-brain' mode. Cubase always requires an inordinate amount of sorting out just to get something accomplished.

As I've said, a lot of the more complex 'in-the-box' processes to achieve great sounding orchestral emulations are things which I'm only just starting to learn and discover, but the integration of some DAW control and a tactile surface to work with, means the next year looks like being much easier to navigate than the year just gone.

If anyone else is working in Studio One with either a Faderport or a Studiolive Series 3, I'd welcome your thoughts and ideas.
 
The main problems with Studio One once you start to get bitten by the "Orchestral Template" bug are:

1-It can't handle too many tracks especially a media composers demands for high track big templates. It does have a disabled track feature like Cubase, but save time climb high once past a couple of hundred tracks disabled or not.

2-Even if it could handle loads of tracks, it doesn't have Visibility Agents like Cubase so you can manage all the complexity.

3-Lack of an Articulation manager, means you have to have one track per art, (but that means high track counts), or try to manage keyswitches in the piano roll, a pain.
 
Not to mention that it's a real PITA to load multiple tracks into the piano roll - something very important when writing orchestral music...
 
I'd only respond that I'm not wanting a template with hundreds or even thousands of tracks......a track for each standard instrument /group of instruments is sufficient for what I want to do. I agree a grid showing the name of each instrument's key-switches would be useful, but if you're only using one sample library and a set template you'll probably get used to what they are....and by that time Presonus will probably have introduced a key-switching solution. I don't know if I've got enough life-time left to trawl through numerous libraries to find an exact marcato string....
 
Not to mention that it's a real PITA to load multiple tracks into the piano roll - something very important when writing orchestral music...

Really its easy you just enable the tracks you wish to edit by ticking left hand menu
The ones you dont want can be hidden
Completly or just shadowed out .I gave cubase 95 a whirl and my pet hate was having to laso tracks i wanted to see in edit view before selecting which to edit from dropdown The edit view was also greatly inproved in 4...
 
The main problems with Studio One once you start to get bitten by the "Orchestral Template" bug are:

1-It can't handle too many tracks especially a media composers demands for high track big templates. It does have a disabled track feature like Cubase, but save time climb high once past a couple of hundred tracks disabled or not.

2-Even if it could handle loads of tracks, it doesn't have Visibility Agents like Cubase so you can manage all the complexity.

3-Lack of an Articulation manager, means you have to have one track per art, (but that means high track counts), or try to manage keyswitches in the piano roll, a pain.

Yeah same here, I really like Studio One, they are a great company, and its got some really good features. I moved to Cubase, however, because of expression maps, and I don't find it at all difficult to use (but I did do the Groove 3 video training on it).

I was so disappointed when Studio One v4 came out with no articulation manager. I have heard rumours (here) they will introduce this as a point upgrade in v4. I'll upgrade my v3 like a shot if that happens, but I must admit I am getting more and more attached to Cubase and am likely to stick with it now.
 
Cubase, always Cubase. I don't have much experience with Studio One, but a good friend of mine uses it and I just couldn't gel with it, Cubase seems much more intuitive, especially if you're writing for media.
 
S1 would be a great DAW but, what always killed the enthusiasm was the fact that the CPU performance is not that great for me (custom powerful PC, win10) - definitely the worst of the 3 DAWS are switch between sometimes (Cubase, Reaper, S1).
They slightly improved somewhat flat interface, which you might like first, but I prefer GUI of Cubase - that DAW might have some problems, but it is really packed with useful features
And with increasing track count, etc, it seems the most stable for me
 
Cubase, always Cubase. I don't have much experience with Studio One, but a good friend of mine uses it and I just couldn't gel with it, Cubase seems much more intuitive, especially if you're writing for media.
Some interesting soundtracks you have on your YouTube channel....I'll check more of them out later
 
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