I've been trying to get into Cubase as my DAW of choice for a few years now, but for some reason cannot get it to inspire me enough to be dedicated to it. For doing techno and D&B type stuff, I always find myself reverting back to Ableton.

I have tried Studio One back in v2, v3 and v4 and liked it, but felt like it wasn't quite there.

With the release of v5 now, is it time to move from Cubase to Studio One maybe?

Any thoughts?

 

You should have switch from Cubase Pro 10.5 to Studio One 4.

 

Both are not bad .
Got similar prices on sale

Studio one got a no dongle plus point (yeah an addition free usb port )

But Cubase got the better Midi Editor .
(one of the big downsides of Studio one till now ,no real brush tool and simlar stuff )

But I think great music can be done in every DAW as long you can work with it .

 

It is a complete subjective choice. I use 2 DAWs that get no love in this forum but I know them, they fit my workflow so I don't care what anyone else would say. Whether you like Studio One 5 will only cost you less than $20 to find out. https://www.presonus.com/products/PreSonus-Sphere You can even try it free for 3 days which honestly is not enough time to make such a decision. https://splice.com/daws/38892279-studio-one-5-professional-by-presonus

 

From what you said, I don't think the S1 v5 changes are gonna make it better for you than Ableton.

 

s1 4 is very close to v5, so just retry s1 4 and see if it gets you where you want to be

Besides inpiring, there is also the factor workflow and usability

 

Last edited: Jul 15, 2020

for a starter no DAW is ever going to inspire you, maybe a new Vst with some exciting sounds can do more of that.
anyway what i'm trying to say is all Daws are similar and can do the same thing just in a different way so if you are very comfortable with Ableton i say stick with it and whatever daw you work with shortcuts are essentials.
believe it or not back in the day i used to make music with FINALE which is a bitch to work with but i made lots of music back then more than now (all for my enjoyment not a professional) the i switched to cakewalk and now it's been 3 years with studio one. i like it it is fast and few crashes so far but the UI is kinda cluttered and depressing. it lacked notation view but now they fixed that and i can't wait to get this new version
anyway whatever your choice good luck and hope you make lots of music

 

I guess there are a few things i like about S1 like the possibility to drag midi to audio in one step rather than having to freeze it first and drag it then. The possibility to undock the mixer/midi roll and put it on a separate screen.
I guess for techno and drum&bass ableton is just the better choice.. the abilities to introduce randomness are greater in my opinion and Max4Live is great to do all kinds of things so i wouldnt switch to s1 from ableton. I haven't used cubase lately so i dont know about that..

 

If you can't make tracks with either of those 3 I don't think the choice of which DAW to use is the issue.

 

I'm not sure how a DAW should be the thing that inspires you but views are different. The way I see it is that the best DAW is the one that lets you realize your inspiration the fastest and that is usually the tool you know best and not something new. But you can always try and see if it is what you need to get creative.

 

You should only switch from one DAW to the another if it helps you get more ass. Here's the thing though... no DAW helps you get ass.

 

i love studio one, but how would it "help" you get inspired really?

a new daw will only achieve keeping you busy doing all sorts of thing but music. it will distract you with solving problems, reading tutorials, finding your ol regular features etc, all involved learning a new daw, not making music really

to me you need a change of workflow. and that would maybe buying an mpc, something standalone, and to start making your basic ideas that way, and then going back to arrange and finalize in whatever daw you know best.

because see, once you have a good song idea the very last thing you would want is not knowing the daw you are working on, so my guess its not the daw thats messing with you.

 

Last edited: Jul 15, 2020

Still not there. Cubase is still ahead.
But S1 is now a serious competitor. Presonus Sphere is a great deal. Especially compared to Steinberg "deals".

If you revert to ableton from cubase. You probably do the same from s1. Ableton is your daw...

 

So go with Ableton.

 

I personnaly find Ableton Live inspiring, it can help you get "somewhere else" very quickly (the 2 ways to work must be the reason why it is so unique) and importing from your projects is so easy compared to other DAWs. The use of Racks is a real time saver, the Time Warp technology is awesome... what else do you need?
I stopped using Cubase a few years ago for Ableton and I don't feel the need to use any other DAW now.
May be I would, only if I had to work on a film score again, because Cubase is very good for that purpose.

 

Last edited: Jul 15, 2020

why not Reaper or Bitwig then

 

To provide a bit more context, I go with Ableton but absolutely loathe the Ableton mixer and find it entirely demotivating and uninspiring to use. I'm a very visual user, and therefore a workflow that not only clicks with me, but also something that looks good is something that will inspire me to use it more and be more dedicated to it.

 

Hold your speed at 20 miles an hour. First let it appear on AZ, then pick up steam.

 

I personally like Studio One but hate the lack of user interface customization options. I can't work in dark mode, white text on dark pages is bad user interface design, so I can just barely make the lighter themes work for me. I find the mixer very hard on the eyes, less is more on a mixer and S1 needs a more minimalist mixer for sure. I also don't like mixing in Ableton and am considering moving to Bitwig or Logic after trying them out for a bit. I actually like Cubase UI for the most part and with the quick sampler it should be a little better nowadays. Chord pads are also cool. I think if you can handle the Bigwig UI, that might be good for you, it has really leaped past Ableton in so many ways. I can't believe how slow Ableton has been to develop new features in the past 5 years or so. Sad, really.

 

Essentially it is clicking with your mouse on pixels on your screen regardless of what daw you are using. Maybe you need a hardware controller that lets you mix in a more tactile way. I guess if you are planning on paying a few hundred bucks for a new daw maybe you should think about spending that to get something that will transform it completely away from your screen to something you can actually touch and get creative with in new ways. It might be more expensive than a new daw but it sure is a nice way of working and those motorfaders are sexy