I lean to switch to cubase 13. Very powerful and so I wouldn't need any other plugins , stock plugins look great already.

I also loved watching tutorial about workflow, mixer, all seem very well thought.

Anyway, it looked very daunting to me after installing. And the GUI was very congested on my 14' laptop, whereas it's still usable with studio one.

Studio one is damn fast to use, Gui has its quirks but I know them, lot of stuff going on with tiny buttons everywhere, and not very welcoming (a bit ugly simply saying...). but usable and plugins sounds ok despite limited. Also I don't like how it's going on with fender, whereas I find Yamaha has been doing a great job on cubase recently.

I am wondering, is it worth investing time to switch ? Especially on some 2k or 14' laptop.
I'm not using advanced features, basic vst, synth, guitar, some vocal recording, drums sequences and mixing.

I'm on PC.

 

Replying to myself

It's not worth switching to cubase 13 from S1 for songwriting.

Clunky, non movable or resizable windows, crashes, baned plugins ( which worked all fine in S1), more menu deep dive. I was even stuck to output sound from vst synth. even everything seems correct ( no mute, I/o, etc.. configured). I searched and see i'll have to learn ctrl+click e, right click and menu dive on mixer to display vst again.
I gave up there.

I understand cubase powerful midi capabilities and great native plugins and certainly pro editing, even having fixed windows can make sense in some situations,.but definitively not for my simple songwriting use case.

Seem there's only S1 for songwriting on PC. Or reaper for cheap. Some use Ableton for songwriting, probably because it's fast to sketch a song , but I didn't like it, complicated to record audio, and I prefer traditionnal waveform view, probably.

 

I was about to point out exactly what you discovered for yourself. I have used just about every DAW and NOTHING comes even close to S1 in terms of speed and workflow.

Sure, Cubase may have a few extra features, Abletons racks are kinda cool, in the past FL had the fastest piano roll (S1 is superior now), and Reaper may be the lightest on CPU usage. But are those things important next to having a great interface and lightning speed workflow?

In my line of work, and due to the amount of work I need to do, I wouldn't survive using a clunky DAW. If you know S1 and it works for you, you might as well stick with it.

 

I moved the other way a few years ago. No regrets. S1 built-in instruments are a bit uninspiring but the FX are good and I have plenty of VST instruments.

Workflow suits me down to the ground and it's very stable and I usually find what I need without the manual.

 

Cubase/Nuendo are probably the most feature rich DAW's, but sure enough, when you first look at it, it can be daunting. Most can be, you're used to Studio One so you know it, perhaps the next person could be daunted at it too on the first look!
These days, loads of video tutorials available, cubaseindex.com is brilliant as it covers so many user questions and Greg Ondo shows you how to do them.
Use whatever you like, but working on a 14inch screen?!! Regardless of the DAW, it's not much screen estate especially with so many plugins and options available these days.

 

Thanks for all yes 14' Asus Ultrabook. I'm always on the go, I need lightweight. S1 is still usable on it, and easy to switch on/off and resize windows. I don't use a lot more than 20 tracks.

No doubt cubase is great, I know I'll miss vocal chain, Vox comp, nice look and many other features. I don't want to start any DAW flame, we are lucky to have a great choice.
About tutos I've been watching quite a few Dom Siglass so I wanted to give cubase a tey. Could switch later after making a hit and becoming a pro haha

 

I don't know what these other users are doing with their endless crashes and banned plugins, I don't have this experience, must be a skill issue.
It is true, however, Cubase is not friendly to smaller screen sizes. S1 is enough for most people/cases, Cubase can edge out S1 in specific cases, mostly when it comes to mixing functionality, automation, and scoring on account of its more mature feature set when it comes to virtual instrument handling and MIDI editing. It seems with your situation, S1 is probably a better fit, if you were using VEP in a large template, that is a workflow that favors Cubase, other than that, they're both comparable DAWs.

 

I wouldn't migrate to Cubase even if the UI is (relatively) similar to Studio One.
I actually did the opposite some 10 years ago and never looked back.

For what it's worth, S1 was created by some ex Steinberg engineers.

 

StudioOne is exactly what Cubase should be!

 

Cubase is better.
Come back home.

Spoiler

Im joking folks, you should use whatever DAW you're most comfortable with.