You misunderstand me, I can agree it’s extremely powerful just not usable. Unfortunately this renders it ultimately useless and there are countless other examples of this scenario. Linux is another great example. I used Arch for ten years, as a daily, then rage quit and bought a Mac. PowerShell is another one, extremely powerful but unnecessary complicated.

My test for usable and intuitive products is this: if you can’t sit down and start without looking at a manual, and you can’t intuitively navigate most cases, only stopping to look for something here and there, then that is a failure of product development. I’ll give exception to a short intro video that should be no more than 5 mins, but you should know enough to heuristically extrapolate from there. Cubase fails spectacularly in this last one, as does Reaper and Ardour for that matter.

Like I said I mean no disrespect, but my experience in the forums showed me that its mostly older people using Cubase. Those within that generation who adopted technology seem to approach technology in much the same way, this is least reflected in the Cubase docs which are un-Google-able but that doesn’t seem to be a problem for most older users. Steinberg’s SEO is not setup properly so that answers are present when searching (or indeed point you to the right version of docs) and there is no label as to the version of documentation for any DAW. That alone is some schoolboy level nonsense, even obscure C libraries do better, but I suppose Steingerb understand their audience’s needs and lean into that need.

When I submitted this complaint, Steingerb acted as if it was the first time anyone had ever suggested it… my mind was figuratively, metaphorically, and astro-physically blown.

The level of intuitive usability one needs to operate in a professional setting is unfortunately lacking in Cubase, they simply do things the “wrong” way. That is to say there is a much better way and an entire industry of established professionals to handle this usability problem (UX), which I can only surmise flourished long after Steingerb became an established company and therefore they did not adopt those principles… or it’s just a German thing (see: SAP), who knows… like I said, I could probably write a short thesis on all of the problems with Cubase. I do not mean that figuratively.

What’s worse is when you question this on the forums, the only response is a resounding groan without any kind of discussion or room for growth. A collection of Luddites that aren’t capable of arguing a case against sane and well reasoned criticism.

Also I think it’s disingenuous to say it’s just my personal opinion, that is a lazy rejection of something we can easily prove in the wild. Why is Cubase not used more widely? Why is it not used in a live setting as a preference to Ableton? Sure it works for some, but I would be curious as to just how sophisticated those users are in their daily lives and the overall applicability of their opinion to more professional situations.

Do they also use an abacus when an electronic calculator is at the ready? Do they also think the Imperial system is better than the Metric? You can teach a person to eat using their feet, that doesn’t mean the philosophy behind using their hands has no obvious benefit. Sure eating with your feet is an amazing feat (nice), but does that person have no arms? How long does it take them to eat with their feet? Not to say eating with your feet is invalid, but that we are operating under completely different criteria and one person’s needs do not suit another.

The subtext being that all needs are then somehow equal, I reject this notion. There were better Generals of war, better technologists, better academics and researchers. Somewhere in there, a difference means a difference in quality and competence.

Unless you have no arms.

Every person I have ever introduced to Cubase has found it overly difficult to understand and use. This ranges from industry professionals all the way down to amateur musicians who, as you say, are not always tech savvy. To those musicians I now advise Logic

Now for the record, I think most DAWs are trash and most product owners/developers have a special place in hell. Ableton, Studio One, and Pro Tools got it right… but even then, Avid have their head firmly implanted in their collective rectum.

The way I see Cubase is kind of like the Windows of DAWs: clunky, backed by an archaic organization that is too big to support it’s own weight (also Avid), and the solutions to problems are more frustrating than the problems themselves.

If you enjoy using it then more power to you, but you are the minority and not for the reasons you might suspect.

• This post was modified 2 years, 6 months ago by creativenorthmedia.