Why I Use Cubase Over Ableton Live

To put this one to bed for you lot.

[DJLA]

Instead of disliking guys, start a discussion!

[beepst]

Cubase is just beautiful to look at (even the oldschool versions). It makes me want to create music.

[MackBXIII]

Don't forget about expression maps. No other daw allows you to switch orchestral articulations as fast and seemless as Cubase.

[mrgerbeck]

Steinberg is innovative with a focus on professionals. They listen to their customers. The Cubase community is also very helpful. Another huge benefit is that Cubase is very stable.

[viralempire]

I started on Cubase, went to Logic and now am completely sold on Reaper. There's a learning curve and a customisation curve to get things how you want but once you've done that, it's much faster because you can make it work exactly how you want.

[KuttyJoe]

This is one of the best aspects of Cubase, and I think Steinberg's way of doing things. They love customization, whereas a lot of other companies are barely giving you key commands, let alone custom key commands. This level of control is what I always loved about Steinberg products, including in instruments like Halion. I think the difference between Cubase and Ableton Live has a lot to do with what kind of music people are making. Cubase probably lends itself to more traditional music, and music making. Ableton Live may lend itself more to making electronica and experimental forms. Steinberg took notice I think and tried to add some of that experimental stuff to Cubase but Live was probably built to do that from the ground up. It's different strokes for different folks.

[herrbasan]

I was using Cubase back in the Atari ST / MIDI area, i grew old with that piece of software .. so it's mostly comfort for me :)

[PierrePienaar]

I've been on Cubase for years and never even knew about the ratio builds. Hah, thanks for that :)

[JosephWeidinger]

I'm a Cubaser but thinking about switching to Ableton because you can interact with the program with code in meaningful way with Max for Live and that's becoming more important to me than MIDI editing. I talked to a friend and he mentioned that a lot of the features you mention in this video (related to MIDI editing) have been added to Ableton in recent years.

[DoctorJRx]

I think having cubase and Ableton is a good way to go. I like how noisia uses cubase in the studio and Ableton for playing live. Guiseppe ottaviani does the same.

[donniedarkestra]

Cubase is a well rounded program. I've been using it for recording a mixing metal for like 13 years and have only recently gotten into vst stuff. No program is perfect but the hotkeys are awesome and you can work fairly fast. I learned cubase without youtube so despite the learning curve it's pretty intuitive. I would highly recommend dual display monitors if you have the option.

[naedolor]

Finally! I've been watching your videos from time to time for the past two years and probably even more. My reaction always was "What the hell is he doing composing orchestral music in Ableton?" It was very odd for me watching that, especially that you have a very good talent and skill as a composer. Never said anything because to each his own, but now I'm really glad that you chose Cubase. It's got its own kinks, but overall it will not let you down and it will help you become even better at your craft. Didn't let me down for 15 years now.

[johnkuehne]

There really is no overstating what custom key commands adds to workflow. I cannot imagine composing music without them.

[joeyloss]

Great review. I've been with FL for years and have been looking around at other DAW options for the last few weeks. Was leaning cubase and still had a few others on the table. This cleared things up for me. Keep up the content Daniel...it is much appreciated!

[Genshi]

Really helpful video! I've been using Ableton Live since version 1.5, and at one time was considered one of the foremost experts on it having written the masterclass [cd-rom] book on version 4 - and I have scored several short films with Ableton Live - but I just finished scoring my first two feature films for the SyFy channel, and it was an absolute nightmare using Ableton Live to do it! Mostly for the reasons you mentioned (at one point the Director wanted me to change the key of one of the cues; having to change 50 MIDI tracks one by one was just stupid!) Syncing to timecode with tempo changes was also not fun. I'm now just trying to decide between Logic and Cubase...

[BryanDumaguina]

You were one of the few that composed this type of music with Live. Till the end I was crossing my fingers you wouldn't make the switch. :( Alas. Indeed; Live would be challenging to use when you think of these MIDI editing capabilities (but there is MultiClip Editor by Isotonik Studios yes?). Live's Inability to lock video to SMPTE and it's difficulty handling large orchestral templates (I haven't had success yet), lack of surround sound support (yes there are workarounds but hey) are among some of my gripes. But I just love their integration with the plethora of MIDI controllers out there. That workflow, I can't seem to find with other DAWs. It's good to hear though that you still sound design and compose certain genres of music with it. Cheers.

[JMWatts]

I love Cubase. Steinberg would have to royally screw the software up for me to consider switching to something else.

[woodsdenis]

Switched to Cubase a year ago, couldn't be happier.

[fozzee]

Totally agree. I just moved to Cubase from Ableton. Loving it!

[musterionsurly]

exactly, you drive a tractor when you gotta plow a field and you drive a sports car when you want to enjoy a trip to the city. but you would feel so silly bogged out in the field with your MG hitched up to a plough, or later smiling at the ladies as they overtake you in your tractor on the way to the club. i love strats and 335s, i use fender and marshall and boogie etc etc Cubase is awesome so is ableton and so is fl studio, should use whatever you enjoy using, and i enjoy them all, it's not this OR that, it's this AND that. the AND operator is hANDy the OR operator is bORing.