Musicians! Any of you use Cubase SX?
 

I just installed it. As you may know, I have been a keen musician in my younger days. Played the guitar and the piano. Had several bands and made a lot of recordings. Making my own material and recording it is about the most fulfilling activity I can imagine. I absolutely love writing songs. The quality is of course up to others to judge..

Anyhow, lately, since I moved into my rather over-dimensioned house, I have been toying with the idea of starting to write and record songs again. A good friend of mine, who happened to play a mean key board in one of my previous bands, have presented me with this recording program - Cubase SX.

I have now spent a few hours trying to decipher the manual which seems to cover thousands of pages - but to no avail. I can not make it work.

I am not specifically asking for program guidance, it would probably be too difficult. I am rather looking for any general comments on the programs usefulness, quality, difficulty to use etc - if there are any Pelicans familiar with this product.

If there are easier and better products out there, I´d rather not spend the rest of the night on this fu%&ing couch (The Thing)!

Thanks!

Cubase SX is a very good program. The learning curve is steep, no doubt, especially if this is the first audio sequencer you've ever used. Industry standard is ProTools, but you have to buy their hardware to get the software, so failing that, Cubase SX is probably the next best thing. Lots of pro studios use it.

There are definitely easier products available, with less features, and if you're just messing around in your basement, then it might be a better idea. I use Cool Edit Pro a lot, because it's a fairly simple editor/multitrack sequencer with 90% of the features of the bigger-name software, with a lot less clutter and a very nice clean, simple interface. It got bought out by Adobe a few years back and is now Adobe Audition - IMO they cluttered and bloated it, without really adding any new features except native VST support (and easy workaround in CEP 2.0). You can find, erm, "questionable" copies of CEP all over the internet, though I doubt you'd be able to legally purchase it anywhere.

Cool Edit Pro sounds like the ticket for me. Is this what you'd recommend.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Cool-Edit-Pro-2-0-Music-Editing-Software_W0QQitemZ120238213479QQihZ002QQcategoryZ8 0319QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Well, I'll be damned! There you go, a legal copy. Ask the seller what the registered user's name is for that copy. I'd hate to see someone spend $35 for a copy with an illegal user name/serial # that was just downloaded from some warez site. If he says his name is Peter Quistgard, don't buy it!

BTW, the trial version is available if you just google it - try before you buy!

Thanks, Christien!

I will look into that. The Cubase is like opening a book in ancient Greek to me. I am unfortunately a computer ignorant, so just getting around much of the terminology is a bugger.

haha well, I meant the version of the software, not necessarily that exact copy. I didn't just fall off the turnip truck. You had said the later versions were bulky, just wondered which version was the one you liked.

Oh, ok, sorry! :) Yep, that's the version - 2.0. The previous one (1.4 I think?) was missing a lot of features, IIRC.

IMO, Livi, all of the programs offer very similar feature sets, it's just about your committment level with that user's manual that is most important.

If you got the program for free, try your best to make it work; if you feel at some point you've 'outgrown' it, then look at the other stuff. The things you learn with Cubase will apply to all of the other programs ( in a general manner of speaking.)