Cubase Elements

Gear & Tools Talk 💻 Hardware, Software & Recording
1

Hello from Kettering UK. It looks like I will be buying Cubase Elements to use on this course. I’m pretty new to all this seeing as I’ve never recorded anything and have no experience with DAW’s or interfaces! ( however, I can plug my guitar into an amp :upside_down_face:)
Just wondering if people have any opinions on Cubase? it seems well thought of and there are numerous tutorials on u tube etc
Many thanks, Julian

2

Hi Julian,

I enrolled in a music production course and it came with Cubase Elements - it is quite a powerful software. It’s not cheap, though and probably there are comparable products out there that will do the job equally well for less money.
Nevertheless, I enjoy using it, as it is quite intuitive and you really have lots of options. But I am still learning myself and haven’t done that much with it yet. But for recording and production, it will do it’s job for sure. :smiley:

3

I would say that just about any of the mainstream modern DAWs can be considered “good”, and all will have their fans. There are a lot of alternatives including Bitwig, Tracktion, Ableton, Reaper, Ardour, etc.

I will point out that Cubase Elements is a cut-down version of the full Cubase DAW and has some restrictions, particularly the number of Virtual Instruments which is, apparently, only 2.

Now this might not bother you if you never decide to create songs with additional MIDI instruments (like Piano, Bass or Drums), but it feels a bit restrictive to me.

There are lots of other DAWs around including some which are free, and many which are quite inexpensive. Benn Jordan, gave a rundown of some of the free options recently. Note that he is an Electronic Music Artist, so his preferences will be towards DAWs with strong MIDI support:

There’s also some fully-featured DAWs which don’t have restrictions. For example, Reaper is a very popular DAW which costs around $60 and has no restrictions.

Personally, I use Ardour (ardour.org) which (strictly speaking) comes into the “free” bracket, but most people go for the official ready-to-run distribution which is available for a small donation (suggested $45).

Cheers,

Keith

2 Likes
4

Thanks Lisa and Keith for your input. Looks like I can get Cubase elements for under £50. I will have a look at Reaper and Ardour before I spend out. I need something for a beginner, ie basic with simple online tutorials etc. I’ve been given an interface by my guitar teacher ( M-Audio M-track 2x2) and have found that I need to get a pair of monitors. So I’m on a learning curve, which is part of the reason I signed up for this!
Julian

5

I’ve never used it myself, but I’ve heard good things about SoundBridge being one of the easier DAWs to use for a beginner.

Cheers,

Keith

1 Like
6

I’ll have a look :slightly_smiling_face:

7

Thanks Keith, Soundbridge looks very promising. Just downloaded it and found some simple tutorials that are making sense. Looks like a good intro for a beginner. Not too much technical language etc.
Julian

1 Like
8

just watched the first ‘set it up’ tutorial. Looks ok. I’ll have a go at downloading Justins backing tracks and getting them into soundbridge…

1 Like