Look at em go!

So far I’m really enjoying Cubase 8.5. My experience has been totally positive. Here’s a very quick rundown of what I’ve been pleasantly surprised with…

Contents

Rerecord

Yes!

I’m in love with the Re-Record feature. With rerecord turned on like in the photo, simply hitting the record button will undo your recording, reset the cursor position and restart recording.

If there is any feature I’ve liked more in a DAW, I can not think of it. Especially how this is implemented. I really really find this useful.

The manual

One of the main things that I feel a manual should do is make it easy for you to find information about a feature or concept when you have no idea what it’s called.

Cubase’s manual succeeds in this. It’s also very clearly formatted, well-written and thusfar contains nearly every piece of information that I’ve looked for. The manual has made learning Cubase a pleasant experience.

The mixer

I like it so far

Cubase 8.5 gets a lot of flack about the new mixer. I really like it. Adjustable fader/meter sizing, built-in channel strip, clearly labeled and wellsized controls… it’s great.

The various controls for ‘deactivate all mute/solo’ and Q-link among others are very handy. Other DAWs do have these features but they are tucked away. It can be difficult to make use of useful features when they’re tucked away and you are forced to try to make a habit out of using them.

I also really like the integration of input channels in the mixer, and that Cubase makes it easy to write effects when you record. That is a workflow that I enjoy.

Look at the image. I bet you can figure out exactly where everything is that you need. There’s even a secondary mini-transport there.

The meters

The meters in Cubase are smooth and responsive. Thank you. The gifs are only at 10fps, but don’t let that fool you, in the software they are smooth.

Track Archives

Being able to save a track or set of tracks and easily drop then in your project later is great. This isn’t nearly as good as DP’s clippings, but it’s good enough.

VST Connections

If your I/O has the same names on multiple systems, Cubase can automatically hook up tracks even when a new device is used. This is so incredibly useful. Yes another major DAW can do this, but every one needs it. It’s so useful!

Group editing linked to folders

I really like folders having a group-edit link function. I don’t like the granularity of grouping in Cubase so far, but maybe I’ll find something else

Overall

I’m really liking working in Cubase. I get confused now and then, and sometimes frustration cracks through, but the experience has been fluid. There are so many small workflow enhancements here that really make the experience nice.

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