The feel - you can copy any daw's workflow in reaper with custom commands, mouse bindings and scripts. Even the look - but FL looks.. ugly, why would anyone copy the look of it, wow. (I use Cubase-looking skin in Reaper or some Windows98 looking shit just for fun.)
The thing is that Fl's piano roll is NOT the most advanced or the most fast to work with it once you learn it; why are people raving about it so much - it's better than Ableton live and Reason - these 3 are the most popular EDM daws, I think, but is still primitve compared to any other serious DAW...

 

Been producing music for nearly 15 years. I actually started with FL Studio. I have been switching DAWS back and forth since I unfortunately went with Apple computers, and eventually settled with Reaper like 5 years ago. I love Reaper, but it ain't got nothing on FL Studio's piano roll. It isn't about the shortcuts or anything in that nature. That's just about habits. It's about the feeling. It's snappy. Fl Studio's piano roll is HELLA snappy. I theorise it comes down to how FL Studio is handling your mouse. It's speed, how close you are (or aren't) to a note for it to be affected by an action, and probably a lot of other tiny details. Trust me, Reaper can't feel like this.

 

Cubase for advanced MIDI.

 

Is there a way to do key switches effectively in cubase?

In fl studio I use brso articulate which is amazing, I set up the key switch notes.

 

I think noone else can make the choice for you, simply try all and use which suits your need.

 

I would love to try cubase but seems like I need a dongle or something just for the trial

 

Last edited: Oct 1, 2018

I love Cubase personally. I have tried Studio One, Sonar, Reaper, and Pro Tools and all of their midi functionality is vastly inferior to Cubases. I do a lot of transcribing and syncing of midi files and without features like Cubase's logical editor, being able to toggle the time base between musical and linear, and Cubase's wonderful shortcuts and ability to create time saving macros it would take me far longer to complete the same tasks. I am not too fond of Cubase's audio engine or stock plugins though so I still do all of my mixing and mastering in Pro Tools.

 

Feelings, snappy, lmfao...
That's complete nonsense. How hard is to understand that you can copy all of the functionality and behaviour of FL into Reaper - a program that has everything you would need from midi editor and tons of midi stuff on top of it that you will probably never need or learn that it exists at all? If FL is snappy, so is Reaper, because you can replicate everything midi related in Reaper aside from the portamento options that works exclusively with IL's native plugins.

 

I appreciate their work and their community. But no, Reaper does have built-in MIDI limitations*. The UI is very extensible, but the underlying sequencer engine is what it is, and isn't for everyone. Nothing is!

*I have not used Reaper, but I have talked about what it can/can't do on the forum with the users and developers

 

Cubase has something called VST Expressions which you can use to define your own key switches.

Code:

https://www.steinberg.net/en/company/technologies/vst_expression.html
https://www.steinberg.net/en/support/content_and_accessories/expression_maps_for_vst_expression.html

 

There's Elements version that doesn't require a dongle, just scroll to the bottom of the page.
https://www.steinberg.net/en/products/steinberg_trial_versions/cubase.html

 

Artist and Elements are really stripped down versions that take away a lot of the midi functionality that makes the professional version desirable.

 

You are absolutely right, my bad.

 

Pretty much everything I mentioned that I liked about Cubase in my previous post is absent in these two versions. That and you have to bounce all of your tracks one my one as you can't even batch export. They are really only geared towards people mixing audio tracks or doing very minimal midi work.

 

Also, don't discount the possibility of Logic or Numerology. There is so much great mac software that I always keep a hackintosh partition on my main box. I know it's a deal-breaker for some, but I always go for the software of choice first, and then bend the OS to fit it. YMMV Logic is a lot cheaper than Cubase, no dongle, great built-in instruments and effects, and very deep MIDI.

 

You're wrong. Reapers piano roll has much deeper functionality than FL Studios, and is infinitely more customizable. I am sure most knowledgeable folks would agree on that. But FL Studios piano roll just feels different. Look it up. You'll find comments about it on damn nearly every music production related forum that's ever been, and you cannot recreate it in Reaper.

In Reaper, you cannot change the timing of when a note is moved in the piano roll based on the coordinates and speed of the mouse cursor simultaneously. This is important, as there is less distance required to make a note snap to grid in FL's piano roll. To my knowledge, you also cannot change the bounding boxes (invisible clickable area) of notes. For instance, FL Studio's notes have bounding boxes like 3 times the size of Reapers. It is much easier to grab the end of a note when you wanna resize it. It's actually generally easier to click on pretty much everything in FL Studio for some reason. I've been looking a lot into this, and there are a few other obstacles I'll probably come to think of later on.

Obviously, we're talking about details that are not of much importance from a technical point of view. But to a lot of people, they are the icing on the cake, and it's the reason they swear to FL Studios piano roll, no matter how small it's feature-list is in comparison to the competition.

Now, please go ahead and continue where i left off recreating FL's piano roll in Reaper. If you succeed, I'll buy you a copy of FL to enjoy.

 

Most DAWs offer comprehensive midi capabilities although some are still more streamlined than others.
I am using FL Studio for midi most often these days, it's super fast and has loads of functions. I am aware that Cubase is much deeper in it's midi but i still can't understand how to use some of the more advanced features.
Studio One is really good ( or at least improving). It's fairy straightforward and pretty smooth. i have used Ableton but it still lacks some midi features, it's quite basic at the moment. ( which is ok i guess. this is just a quick opinion)..
i have been trying out Bitwig and that seems to be really interesting to me, it seems to have a lot of things Ableton lacks....

 

If your intention is heavy midi composing Cubase has no equal. It's ability to handle huge templates of 1000+ tracks disabled or with VEP is unmatched. You can setup complex control scenarios with tablets and touch screens which is why it's the choice of so many film composers.

Studio One would be my next pick. It's catching up quick and offers macros and toolbars like Reaper but without the headaches though not as customizable yet it's operation is much more fluid. It cannot handle large track counts at all and falls apart past 100 or so instrument tracks with LOOONNNGGG save times disabled tracks or not, something Cubase handles with grace.

Actually OTR for Reaper is FREE now. Still that creation reflects the authors personal way of working and takes away from the extreme custom-ability that Reaper is famous for. Reaper to me is a hot mess, a Frankenstein DAW that while interesting and potentially powerful, feels like a quilt that was sewed together over several generations, nice but incoherent.

 

Out of the box, as it were, Ableton has OK MIDI implementation. Decent enough to interface with a few controllers and outboard racks, but not something you could grow a whole recording studio around like Cubase or Logic. But if you add Max for Live, then you have all the MIDI ever.

Bitwig I have taken to recently as having the most intuitive workflow for audio and modulation, but the MIDI has been pretty basic until recently. Although that's partly because I am using it in Linux and IMO they made some weird choices how to handle that.

FWIW I would not recommend Live or Bitwig for large-scale orchestral scoring.

 

Damn I have narrowed this down to studio one or cubase.

Anyone here knows how often there is a new version? Is it stupid to buy cubase or studio one this month for example?