Convince me to switch from Fruityloops to Cubase

[SCONES TO DIE FOR]

Should I upgrade to Cubase from Fruityloops. Why or why not?

[Guest hahathhat]

cubase is heavy metal

interesting you chose the verb "upgrade" in post body but "switch" in the topic

i gather you are leaning towards yes but not sure.

from what i remember,

you can use fruity as a plugin within cubase.

i found fruity annoying.

i like cubase.

cubase has lots of widgets

 

this new post window shit is making me go all funny.

[SCONES TO DIE FOR]

I was originally going to put "upgrade" in quotes when I wrote that.

 

But Cubase costs more and indisputably has more features, so yeah, I think to say upgrade is fair.

 

The issue is I don't know exactly what features make it so much better. The last version I used was 5.0 I think, before SX came out. I remember it being a little frustrating to use at times.

 

Not sure what widgets you speak of.

[Braintree]

If I were you, I would just stick with Fruity Loops.

 

If you get a mac at some point, try out Logic.

[Guest underscore]

what issues are you hitting with fl that make you want to use something else? personally, i've gotten to the point with fl where the only limitations are my lack of creative ideas or synthesis knowledge.

[SCONES TO DIE FOR]

Mainly sound quality issues. I don't think FL's effects and EQ, for instance, are that great. I use some god non-FL plug-ins, but they seem to be CPU intensive. I know that Cubase comes with a suite of great effects, EQs etc., but how stable is it when you start using a lot of reverbs etc.?

 

But in general I'm wondering what advantages Cubase has over FL (if anything). I do remember zooming in microscopically on audio and midi parts was nice. I haven't been able to do that with FL, though it's not terribly important for the music I do. And why doesn't FL show audio as stereo files. Never understood that.

[goffer]

stick with what you know... if you find yourself limited by what you use look elsewhere. I started with ableton 4 years ago and haven't tried anything else.

[SCONES TO DIE FOR]

So I did end up getting Cubase.

 

After two days I'm finding the quality of sound is a good step up, mainly due to the quality of the effects plugins and EQs.

 

The GUI isn't as cumbersome as I thought it would be, but not as fast as FL. I think I've figured out everything I need to mix down tracks at this point. It didn't end up having that steep of a learning curve, thought the deeper functions might.

 

I think I'll continue to use both - compose on FL and mix on Cubase.

[acid1]

If I were you, I would just stick with Fruity Loops.

 

If you get a mac at some point, try out Logic.

 

Logic is tough love. I remember running Logic on a brand new iMac and getting errors like "Your computer is not fast enough, Logic has stopped your song" and all you can do is press "Ok"

 

Then I remember I got to the end of an album and bounced all my tracks out of Ableton to 32 bit AIFF's, and Logic complained about not supporting 32 bit audio and that my file names were too long.

[vamos scorcho]

logic is totally love for me. does everything i could want it to. somehow my computer can get up to 30 tracks going at once, all midi. unless of course i'm running reaktor 5 in every single one. idk, i don't see how anything could be better than logic for a computer electronic musician

 

why would somebody prefer cubase? curious

[SCONES TO DIE FOR]

So far Cubase is amazingly stable for me, even without the most recent update and on an old laptop. But again I'm only using it for mixing; I can set the buffer high.

 

why would somebody prefer cubase? curious

I'm using a PC, otherwise Logic would be my choice. All my friends use Logic.

[BCM]

Fruity Loops all the way! Fuck all those other DAWs.

 

unless you like them that is.

[SCONES TO DIE FOR]

FL is just lacking a few things. I wish I could use it exclusively, but it's just not there yet.

[Guest emef]

i'm using ableton live and fruity loops (mostly with fruity inside ableton)

its a nice combination

i was with cubase from the atari days up to cubase 4

i used ableton to play live for years then ditched cubase for ableton 100% cos of the no exporting of fxb/fxp that happened in cubase 4, what a weird thing for steinberg to do... actually taking functionality away... stupid

[Guest iamabe]

i loved fl studio when i used it dude. my roommate uses cubase and he likes it. I think either is fine but I know for a fact that when i moved from fl to logic i lost a lot of the creative magic i had with fl. fl's piano roll is the balls compared to any other midi editor. and fl is pretty, IMO.

[BCM]

agreed

[lala]

my mates an alpha tester for FL, and you'd be mad to disown it from what ive heard next year brings..

 

 

and what its already got as far as techno producing goes - the tunings i get from it are sublime & original!

[The Green Kingdom]

my mates an alpha tester for FL, and you'd be mad to disown it from what ive heard next year brings..

 

Cool, I've been using FL Studio since 4 and I've been able to do pretty much everything I've needed to, the audio recording has improved as well. Need to update to FL 9 soon. It's just the quickest thing to work in for me (admittedly with many vst plugins and effects, but I have thought about looking into Live a bit more sometime.

 

How is the step sequencer functionality in Live? Would it be easier using FL Studio as a plugin?

[BCM]

there is no DAW program out there with the same step sequencer functionality as FL Studio. I know coz i've been looking for one for fucking ages - I have a Mac and didn't want to run Boot Camp and lose all my stuff etc. In the end I could find nothing with a similar step interface - I had to reformat my Mac and Boot Camp it and now I have my beloved FLoops back! I love it.

[SCONES TO DIE FOR]

Like I said, I still use it.

 

FL: Compose, drum programming, midi, etc. Even my audio recording and arranging will still be done in FL.

 

Cubase: Mix, effects, EQ, audio editing and processing, final rendering etc.

 

FL also is king for automation. Simply right clicking anything to make an automation clip is so great. Also how easy it is to link parameters. It makes the whole DAW modular so easily. Cubase, and from what I hear Logic, would be smart to steal those features for their more cumbersome menu-based automation.

[BCM]

yeah, automation clips on FL are a breeze - pisses all over any other program on that score...

 

I know what you mean about using Cubase for final mix/EQ etc - I do the same but use ACID and T-Racks for mastering.

[Guest Lube Saibot]

I've tried every DAW except Sonar, Acid and the free ones. If we're strictly discussing native packages for each, and from said packages only plugins that pertain to chiseling sound (compressors, limiters, stereo imagers, eq's, the sort), then Logic is your best choice. The closest contender is actually FL, and everything elese just doesn't begin to compare. If we're discussing the cumulative experience of a DAW (workflow, routability, midi etc), FL trumps ALL. I personally use FL with Waves, PSP and Sonnox plugins and T-Racks (which i feel makes up for some sweet Logic stuff i'm missing out). However, Fruity Compressor and Fruity Parametric EQ are some of my plugins of choice for certain tasks. Fruity compressor is an incredibly versatile piece of kit, it does wonders on bass, on breaks, for expansion, for sidechaining. It's not a good buss compressor and it's pretty quick to distort but other than that i don't see why anyone would discard it as "low-quality". It's actually THE COMPRESSOR of choice if you wanna clark shit up. Well, him and C1. And Parametric EQ is THE MOST TRANSPARENT EQ OUT THERE. PERIOD. And it's wonderful on voice.

 

So, in conclusion to this illformed rant: it escapes me where you perceive a difference in quality between Cubase and FL. Especially since Cubase's EQ is like... one of the SHITTIEST out there. Just a whole fucking muddy mess of an EQ.

 

And if you say that "Cubase's summing and\or dithering algorythms are better", you're a twat.

[sneaksta303]

People, i think I may go out on a limb here and broaden my horizons. The only thing stopping me from branching out of my reason habit was laziness and unwillingness to learn. how retarded eh? so I reckon I'm going to give this a go. any good resources for FL no0bs? I'm new to the whole vst thing (still after all these years ) but I think I've collected enough of them (for some stupid reason) over the past 2 years, so I'm good with that.

[Guest welcome to the machine]

there is no DAW program out there with the same step sequencer functionality as FL Studio. I know coz i've been looking for one for fucking ages - I have a Mac and didn't want to run Boot Camp and lose all my stuff etc. In the end I could find nothing with a similar step interface - I had to reformat my Mac and Boot Camp it and now I have my beloved FLoops back! I love it.

 

have you tried the hyper editor in logic? its not quite as fluid as fruity loops' and you have to make you own sequencer, saying what parameters you want on it ie Pitch, mod etc etc but it is SO flexible, any parameter you can automate you can program with the step sequencer, makes for real quick bendy loop fun. But its a fiddle to get working sometimes, but then at least you can save your sets so you don't have to do them again!

[BCM]

not tried it no, but from your explanation it doesn't sound as good as Fruity! also sounds a bit flakey and unreliable... anyway, matter, I have FL Studio 8 now so it's all good.