Cubase Le
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Posted on Apr 17, 2013 08:02 pm
Frankieboy
Member Since: Apr 14, 2013
Hello all! First post..
I have been using cubase Le( the 1.01.01 version) for the last five years and have come to understand most of what it has to offer along with its shortcomings etc. I got the cubase le in a bundle with the Tascam US144 which has served me well.
Here are my questions.
With a new RME Babyface on the way, a few recent mic purchases etc, its time to upgrade the Cubase Le. I have looked at Pro Tools among a few other DAW apps, but I just am really not enjoying the thought of going through a MAJOR learning curve.
What would you suggest I upgrade to? Can you still get the Cubase 4 free upload that I apparently missed? With that I think they gave a discount on the new stuff?
What am I missing when using Cubase LE compared to an upgraded model? I know the LE EQing is not easy or intuitive when you look at mixes as a whole. Any ideas?
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Apr 17, 2013 10:05 pm With most applications, the "light" versions, or versions that come bundled with hardware is often track count limits, as well as limited plugins and such. Not sure if that is the case with Cubase or not.
There willbe a learning curve no matter what you switch to, if it's not the full Cubase. I have been using Reaper myself, and found it quite intuitive. Cakewalk also is pretty easy to get up to speed with. Reaper, however, is only $60 for a personal license, and will work for free for life (though you SHOULD buy a license if using it for over a month, like they ask for, cuz it is a great program). I used it for free for about 6 months and loved it, I finally felt guilty and paid up, and am glad I did.
Personally, I found Cubase to be one of the more difficult apps to use, admittedly that was years ago, I am sure it has gotten better since then, but by that time I found Cakewalk Sonar, which was easy as heck to use...years after that moved to Reaper and have found that to be much, much less expensive, but about as feature filled (for the features I use anyway) and as easy to use.
Apr 18, 2013 08:30 am I will look into Reaper as it seams a lot of people swear by it, and the price is certainly right. And it seems for $60 bucks to kick the tires on it won't be too painful of a decision.
Yes, Cubase was difficult to learn with the 511 pg. "War and Peace" sized manual. I really have not been happy with my mixes in Cubase. It just doesn't seem like the tracks sit together well. I have read some very good articles on here regarding mixing that I will consider moving forward.
thanks for your input!
Apr 18, 2013 08:54 am Steinberg is known for massive manuals...
I'll give it this, it is capable of A LOT, Cubase is a powerful tool...the deal, at least for me, is that these massive powerhouse applications always get harder and harder to use, and a lot of the features they have I never even use or need, so there is little point.
I have found Reaper to be a nice balance of functionality and usability.
Apr 18, 2013 09:35 am I am not sure if there is anything like this on this site but maybe would be cool. A users Pros/Cons of their DAW apps compiled in a posting. Either have a concise listing of specific questions or a limit/minimum of 3-5 Pros and Cons of their app.
If users are completely honest about the shortcomings along with the strengths, a comprehensive list could be compiled to help those of us who suffer from what I call "The Paralysis of Analysis".
Apr 18, 2013 12:28 pm I am pretty much tracking the traditional guitars, bass, drum(acoustic and machine) and vocals etc. Is Reaper pretty friendly with this activity?
Apr 18, 2013 04:32 pm That's what I use it for and it works.
J-botByte-MixerMember
Since: Dec 04, 2007
Apr 18, 2013 06:59 pm In some ways, I'd say Reaper is even more flexible than Cubase. It's a little less finicky with setting up tracks, loading plug-ins, etc. The manual/help file is a pretty good size, but it's easy to search through it, and pretty straight forward in the wording.
I was actually looking for skins (Reaper is skinnable, and there are some nice looking user-created looks for it.) and I came across this site that has a review between Cubase 6 and Reaper.
beneficialearstimulation....s-cubase-6.html
As for recording tracks, yeah, Reaper will do what you want, and then some. I've been using it to pull in live recordings from my Tascam MTR (8-channel) but it can also pull all 16 channels from my Onyx mixer via firewire in real-time. I'd wager if your hardware is strong enough you could create however many tracks you need, set your inputs on each track, and record everything at once in real-time.
At the fundamental level (tracking, mixing, and sequencing) most DAWs are pretty much the same in features. The question is about how they let you do things, and how well you jive with the workflow. I find Reaper to be very intuitive (I moved from FL Studio to Reaper, and there was a bit of a learning curve, but Reaper and Cubase are a little more similar so the leap won't be quite as big) it only took me a few days to get the hang of the basic stuff. Automation is still a little different from what I'm used to working with, though.
I have had a couple oddball freebie VST plug-ins crash the DAW on me in the past. I think it was the starplugs stuff. (was using their noise gate plug-in) but now I'm using the built-in ReaGate which is a bit more configurable. I've not had any problems with the more popular free plug-ins (Bootsy's stuff, the old Kjhaerus clasic plugins, various synths, etc.)
One Caveat on the license: It's good for 2 full version updates before you have to renew it. (So if you purchase at 4.33, it will be good up until version 5.99 at which point you have to renew it) However, I think they've been on version 4 for a little more than a year now, and they're only up to 4.33 as of yesterday or today. Version 5.99 won't be here anytime soon. Anyway, it's still better than your typical yearly license renewal. Though, other DAWs are buy once and forget about it. Probably why they're more expensive.
Apr 18, 2013 11:03 pm Everything has a shelf life in this world of DAW, interfaces and my endless lust for more gear. This has successfully replaced my quest for guitar stomp boxes and the perfect tone!
Thanks fellas for all of your great advice. I'm gonna check out Reaper!
Apr 18, 2013 11:55 pm I just downloaded Reaper. Do you use the preset EQ settings for each track or are those ment just for the master? It appears that they are the same presets for all. What do you guys do?
J-botByte-MixerMember
Since: Dec 04, 2007
Apr 19, 2013 12:56 am Do you mean the stock ReaEQ plug-in? If that's the case, then you could use it on the tracks or the master, or both. Presets are just presets. Try them, and if they sound good, or close, just tweak it a bit further to dial in the sound you want.
I think ReaEQ is parametric, so it's pretty flexible, and is a pretty good EQ for being "stock." If you right click on the EQ, you can add more points, and you can left-click a point to select it and adjust the bandwidth (Q) frequency and gain for that point. You can also drag the point where you want it and adjust the bandwitdh using the slider. Dragging a point can be useful for sweeping and zeroing in on problem frequencies.
It's not a half bad EQ plugin really. I think the default 4-band setting is a pretty good starting point...gives you 4 bands, and you can add more if you need them. I don't really use presets, but they can provide a good ballpark setting sometimes, and then you can further dial it in until you get what you want.
I do try to avoid using EQ on the master channel as a rule of thumb, except for rolling off everything under about 30 to 40 Hz.
Edit: to clarify, no plug-ins reaper uses are tied to specific tracks. you can use any plug-in you want wherever you want it. That can be a little overwhelming for some people, but it provides a lot of flexibility. I hope I understood your question and that this helps.
Apr 19, 2013 06:01 am I am much the same way, I EQ tracks to get each instrument to be emphasized in their own sonic space, but not on the master track, the only EQing of the final mix I do is in HarBal to harmonicallly balance it so it sounds as good as it can in any type of listening device...and yeah, I use Reapers built in EQ, works just fine.
Apr 19, 2013 09:42 am Great tips from both of you on EQing. I really have a weak understanding of the art of it as it pertains to each musical instrument, vocals etc. I do have a good set of ears that have been developed over 30 years of searching for the Holy Grail of guitar tones! Ha!
I have been researching this topic extensively in attempt to gain some basic principles and forums like this and guys look you two are a tremendous resource. Thank you!
A tip for you- I happened to stop in the local Best Buy and they are drastically marking down their gear in order to get out of the business. The patching cables were 75% off. I picked up a couple of $17 xlr cables for $4. Their software and recording gear was 25% off as well as their midi keyboards and all of the remaining guitars. Gibson SG's for $520? Might be worth it to stop by one of their stores and look around.
Apr 20, 2013 11:40 am Yes, a bad business model. They are the "try me" section for Amazon who eventually gets the sale.
- my brother stopped by the store in Lincoln Ne, and talked down an Epiphone Texan acoustic to $258. They are typically $400 new. I guess the point is, you can barter prices. There is usually no one there who has a clue about gear but if you could buy a guitar or whatever that just needs some strings and a quick setup, why not?
Quick Reaper question- I got into it last night and was loading some individual tracks that I'd laid down into the Cubase. Is the "nudge" feature the only way to move tracks when they don't line up properly? Also, in cubase there was an "export" feature that I used to send mixes to my desktop for playback in other devices. What's the pathway on Reaper?
Thanks so much!
Apr 20, 2013 11:45 am If you right click on the imported wave track you can get track properties, which lists it's start and end time, length and such...you can adjust it there by increments of milliseconds.
For export Reaper does the same thing, I think (not in front of it) it is in the file menu...and can export to many different file types.
Apr 30, 2013 09:27 am Quick Reaper question. How do you FF and rewind to specific parts of a project. If I am listening to a track and want to back up a little quickly to check a performance, I instinctively click the arrow back button and it brings me back to the start of the project. If I want to check something later on in the project but am not sure where I have to listen to the whole thing to find the spot I was looking for. Is there a quick way to drag the curser forward and back. I was able to move it back a millisecond at a time but there must be a better less frustrating method. I will never get anything completed with my current method.
Apr 30, 2013 09:28 am Just click in the track view where you want the cursor to move to and it'll move and start playing.
Also, you can drag start and stop loop points and play a few measures looping to listen over and over again.
Apr 30, 2013 10:35 am Thanks, I'll give that a whirl. I tried the "punch in" method on a bass track that I wanted a better performance near the end of my project and it sounds like both are now playing or overlapping? The punch in does not replace the old altogether at the point of punch in?
Thanks for everything.
Frank
J-botByte-MixerMember
Since: Dec 04, 2007
Apr 30, 2013 02:54 pm Unfortunately, I don't think Reaper is quite that sophisticated. When you record a new take at a position, it leaves the new take inside the track itself, and creates splits over the punch-in/out position. To segregate it from the rest of the track.
If you look at your track's waveform, the spot where it sounds like it's playing the overdubbed section should have two "takes" showing on the track itself. They'll looked like they are stacked together on the same track.
Click the old take (should be the one on top) so that it is lit up (which sets it as "active") then under the items menu up top, there is a "takes" submenu. With the old take "active" select "delete active take" This will leave a split up looking track, but the new take will be in place, and all you need to do is select all segments so they are all active (shift or ctrl + click) then go back to the takes submenu and select "glue items" to remove the splits.
It's a bit roundabout I know, and there might be an easier way to do it. But as far as I can see, for audio at least, Reaper just creates new takes. For midi, it can either overdub, or overwrite, or a couple other options, but for recording audio, it just creates new takes. AFAIK anyway.
EDIT: Okay, I did some poking around in options, and apparently you can set Reaper to behave as "tape mode" where when you record over an existing track, it will just overwrite the old material. It's in the options menu under the "New Recording that overlaps existing item" submenu. You've got three choices. The default, what it does now, Tape mode, that overwrites, or Layer, where it kicks the new take into its own lane instead of splitting, but keeps it in the same track.
