Hi all, here's another "how long is a piece of string" type question

Been out of the music loop for many years due to family, finances etc and have only recently been in a position to re-take up my hobby again.

I have a Korg M3 with exb-Radias as my only keyboard, purely for use at home. I have a small Peavy usb mixing desk linking both the M3 and my PC to my active monitors.

My PC is fairly high spec, I7, 6GB RAM, 60GB ssd as main hard drive and around 2TB of other internal disk space, Asus D2X sound card, evga gtx465 graphics card,Gigabyte motherboard, dual monitors etc running Windows 7 pro 64bit.

I want to use my PC as the sequencer rather than the M3.

I have discovered things have moved on a good deal since I used pro24 and Cubase on my Atari ST many years ago.

Which is what's leading me to my confusion. It seems that nowadays software packages concentrate mainly on recording audio, whichever s/w I end up choosing, it needs to be able to act like a top class midi sequencer.

I looked at both Reaper and Ableton but there were a lot of negative comments about both their midi capabilities, unless I'm misunderstanding what I read (wouldn't be the first time). It sort of looks like many s/w packages are designed around audio and the midi is an afterthought.

I see that they all seem to have s/w synths nowadays, and that is something I could obviously make good use of to accompany my M3.

There will be no vocals at all (well maybe using the M3 Vocoder just mucking about) and I want the s/w to play back my M3 rather than record the M3 Audio into the s/w.


I'm happy to purchase say the full version of Cubase 6, but as these sorts of s/w cost a lot of money, I obviously want to make the right choice.

Looking at the official Cubase forum, I see a fair bit of complaining about support questions not being answered which worries me a fair bit. I also am not overly keen on some of the things I've read about their copy protection dongle. Not that I mind using one, have used one in the past, just that as they now own the copy protection company, I worry a little that they might be concentrating too much on this aspect at the expense of the actual s/w. I've also read reports of the dongle causing lag as it's constantly checked. I also really really don't like the way I'm expected to pay around £20 for a dongle just to run their trial to see if it does what I want. It appears I might be able to get this refunded when I buy the full version, but what if I don't like it and want to buy something else. All these things together ring a few alarm bells with Cubase. Even more so if I'm paying around £450 for it.

I realise to a large part it's personal preference, but wondered if you guys and girls could suggest a piece of software with decent support, excellent midi capabilities, friendly and helpful forums and maybe s/w synths. Especially those of you that have say used Cubase 6 and it's competitors products.

Many thanks

Joe

Morning Joe and welcome.

We (son and I)a very small players at this game but do have Cubase Elements6 so here is my experience so far FWIW...

The time limited demo of Cubase E6 does NOT require you to buy a dongle. I cannot speak of the full 6 demo but I would have thought it pretty stupid of Steinberg to require that since they have only recently come into the 21st century and started offering demos!

As for Steinberg being difficult to deal with, who isn't? It seems a requirement of many companies that they HAVE to have a highly byzantine and bureaucratic system to "prop up their image" the very idea of having an email address like "helpmeatsteinberg.thing.deda that got you into the system seems far too simple for them (you think Steinies are bad, have a crack at MAGIX!)

The "Little Tin God" syndrome is rife in the internet world.

But Cubase is THE system for MIDI by all accounts.

Dave.

Cubase is the super-evolved representation of its Pro-24/Atari ST ancestry and MIDI is certainly not an afterthought.

As to the Steinberg fora... I think you can read too much into it. Apart from being amazed at how ignorant, rude and aggressive many people can be, no software developer is perfect, and fora tend to give a bad impression - you're not going to find many 'everything's fine here' messages. Take a look at ANY software developer's fora and it will appear as if the sky is falling!

No Steinberg aren't perfect, but in my experience they're no worse than any other. If you're worried about dongle protection then try a few searches for iLok problems and I think you'll find things are no better there.

I think you can spend too much time worrying about what problems may happen, when the reality is that you're more likely be up and running and never look back. Life doesn't come with guarantees, but if you worry about the potential problems you'll talk yourself into a standstill.

In the meantime, give Cockos Reaper a try. It's free to start, you may like it anyway, and it will at least let you know that your PC is up to the task.

--------------------
An Eagle for an Emperor, A Kestrel for a Knave.

Re dongles..Sometimes things just ain't "their" fault.

Recently I found that I could not install the syncrosoft drivers (Ess4). Cut a long short, it turned out that it needs Win .net framework 2008 or later. I had earlier. Ok! Install 2008...NO! Because I had updates on the pc that cannot be removed I could not (well, ME couldn't!)install another instance of .net!

Fortunately the system drive was well in need of a format so that sorted that.

Dave.

Many thanks.

You've put my mind at rest

Will give the Cubase LE trial a go but I suspect this is the way I shall go as I used to get on with the original Cubase very well.

Have tried Reaper, works fine on my PC but there's something about it that doesn't gel with me, maybe if I gave it more time.

Will download the LE version now and give it ago.

Under Cubase 6 LE trial it states,

Quote:

---

To activate the software, you require an activation code which you can request from within MySteinberg. Enter the activation code into the eLicenser Control Software (eLCC) which is automatically installed with Cubase Elements 6 to start your trial period.

---

Under Cubase 6 trial it states

Quote:

---

To activate the software, you require an activation code which you can request from within MySteinberg. Enter the activation code into the eLicenser Control Software (eLCC) which is automatically installed with Cubase Elements 6 to start your trial period.

---

which is pretty much the same thing.

However under Cubase 6 (but not under Cubase LE) it also states

Quote:

---

Please note that you require a USB-eLicenser to activate the license and start Cubase 6 Trial. You may purchase a USB-eLicenser from our online shop or your local dealer (in case you already own a previous version of Cubase or another product with a USB-eLicenser, you may use this one instead).

---

As the initial part was the same for both, and both are on the same web page, I presumed the key was required for both not just Cubase. They should make it clearer.

Anyway, downloading LE right now.

Many thanks for all your advice

EDIT: Just for info, went on Steinbergs site, clicked on the trial version of Cubase and it said I needed the USB key, clicked on the trial for the LE version and I don't

Joe

Edited by Ojustaboo (15/10/11 09:11 AM)

Aye Joe, they are the masters of obfuscation!

For example, when I ran the demo of E6 it prattles on about a usb dongle which of course you don't have or need. This just serves to confuse noobs and old pc'a'phobes like me! If it does not need it, leave it out! (lazy bstds) .
However, if you BUY Elements 6 you do not get a dongle automatically (you did with Essential4 )but you can activate the software with a code. However you would then be locked to just that pc whereas of course with a dongle you can run the software on any suitable machine.

WRT to the full C6, it could be that you do need a dongle as a "fee" for the months' trial? Fair enough I suppose and in anycase, Steinberg and almost all the other DAW vendors will always ensure the greatest possible security for their own purposes no matter how much that incommodes the genuine punter!

Dave.