All that explains why I've never seen it, I never upgraded to 12. Loved the way it handled audio clips and whatnot, but I just couldn't take the arranger anymore and went back to Cubase and Logic Pro (if you wanna talk about stupid convoluted time stretching, there's your winner right there).

 

Last edited: Feb 8, 2025

Studio one pro 7 and FL are a good combo

 

I manly use Ableton (+ Reaper) and I find that it is quite the opposite (and I hope I'm wrong..)
- Ableton: 'scales' velocity, so if you have notes at 80 and accents at 100 and drag the notes up by 20, accents will be like 125.

- Cubase: either 'scales' (middle handle) or 'moves' (anywhere under the bar). If scaled the result is like in Ableton, if moved, everything moves by same amount.

I understand why velocity get 'scaled', but would like to see an option in Ableton that allows to 'move' and/or even 'compress' eg. recorded MIDI velocities in the editor (without using velocity tool). I mean, when dealing with audio, people mostly compress it..

This is something that bothers me w Ableton for a long time. I think there's hope now with Transformation Tools. There are all sorts of shapers, randomizers etc.. but I haven't found sort of simple velocity manager. Any ideas welcome..

 

Gotta say, Studio One improved a lot in terms of MIDI and it's more impressive than I thought. It has a lot of built-in macros for all kinds of transformations. And given that you can combine it with extensions like Harmony Wizard gives really nice results to me personally. And it's so much easier to work with than Cubase.
Cubase GUI is just unbearable, so much menu diving

 

I think each DAW seems to have what is native to the way it is structured. On one hand I do not find Cubase clumsy because I have been using it for so long and find Ableton exactly as you find Cubase.

I do not think Ableton's MIDI is bad. The fact it can have multiple time signatures stacked upon each other per track is a good feature. Ableton was originally designed as a performing DAW and is still very much structured that way which makes it different from most DAW's. It is definitely a great DAW for live bands who want to have a DAW while they are performing live to trigger, or as a sequence to play to or even as purely an FX unit. This is where I believe Ableton outshines many of the DAW's in live MIDI - i.e. lightweight live performance.

I do not do much live performing anymore but if I did, as much as I love Cubase, I'd be using Ableton.

 

LOL I came back to Cubase at 11 right before 12 came out, and man, the whole 'in this corner it does this when you drag, in this corner it does this when you drag' still gets me sometimes.

 

The inspector on the side menu is awesome makes mixing a breeze I hate mixing in FL studio one 7 is so much more fluid better stock FX too the limiter in fl is shit it needs a huge update same with the EQ no dynamics in it I mean come on it’s 2025 you can feed studio one with your own plugins and make it even better sure it doesn’t have tons of stock instruments but that’s where freeware or third party comes in recording MIDI is a breeze

 

Last edited: Feb 8, 2025

If you don't use your key commands, sure, I guess.

There are three major sections where you have a secondary menu (aka menu diving), the first under Edit > Functions has key commands assigned by default to nearly all of them since they're used the most, the second under Audio > Advanced if you use those functions a lot, it would make sense to make key commands for them, and the third under MIDI > Functions, those are used the least, you might want one or two from that list.

The rest of the major functionality is accessible from the top level of their respective menus (also most are already assigned to key command), and most of that is mirrored on the three toolbars or available via shift-right click. On top of all that you can customize the menus if you don't like the layout or if there is a lot of functionality you don't need to look at.