Is 34” widescreen 1440x1080 okay

Hi everyone
I’m a recent user of Cubase 10.5 and enjoying the workflow so far, BUT, I need to upgrade my monitor.
Many 34 inch curved widescreen are cheaper but their resolution is 3440x1080…is this okay to run C10.5 on, or would some of you be against this idea? Should I spend more and get the 3440x1440?

Thank you in advance
Bob

I just got a 3440 x 1440 today actually. I’m going to check how both Nuendo and Pro Tools feels on it tomorrow. But right away I would say that the aspect ratio doesn’t really seem all that convenient. For example, at 21:9 which is what 3440x1440 is you’ll find movies. My old monitor is 1920x1200. So a movie that is shot and mastered as widescreen 21:9 (more or less) will get bards top/bottom on my old computer and will be pretty small, but will fill the entire screen on this new one. If you get the 3440 x 1080 the I would expect the sides to get bars and it wouldn’t fill the entire width of the screen. It may seem like a thing that doesn’t matter, but I’m guessing the price difference between the two isn’t that huge so even just for this it might be worth it.

Also check out the actual size of the display. For example, I didn’t realize that the 1440 vertical pixels fit inside the same physical distance on the new display as the 1200 do on the old. So stuff like text etc feels “squashed” right now. I’ll get used to it of course, and I can scale up things if I need to. But I think it’s worth thinking about this a bit because the display/screen size is one thing and the monitor size another.

Anyway, if I’m not keeping this screen then I’ll for sure switch it out for a 4k 30 inch display instead. In that case it’ll be a 3840 x 2160 screen. That one should be taller but also fit more pixels vertically. More narrow of course.

Anyway, if there’s something particular you want me to check let me know and I’ll do that tomorrow or this weekend…

cheers…

I would wait get the 3440x1440 - I did and it rocks for Cubase, and pretty much every thing else I do. The aspect ratio is great for longer timelines editing (aka the main project window). You also don’t suffer the performance hit you get from a 4K monitor when gaming (says the dude who has an RTX2080 graphics card). I’d also watch for viewing distance if using a 4K 30" monitor - the text will still be pretty small unless you enable hidpi in which case you lose the pixel real estate (but my the text looks pretty).

Really depends on how you use it but I woudn’t bother with a 3440x1080. It’s an odd aspect ratio, never quite tall enough for me and there isn’t that much of a premium to go 3440x1440.

Opps, forgot to mention. With an Ultrawide monitor you’ll find windows 10 default windows layout annoying (e.g. drag to edge window resizes to half screen). Install MS Powertoys extension and use FancyZones to provide some more useful layout options (e.g. 3 columns, 3 columns with left and right ones split horizontally so you have 5 spots available).

Hmmm… what do you mean by that? It appears to be working as before for me. Drag to sides will fill the window to half the screen and drag to top will fill the window (Edge and UWP apps).

Yes Windows 10 default works, didn’t intend to imply it didn’t…but half screen is rather limiting as the only option when your monitor is ultra wide - I find it annoying. With the FancyZones you can setup your own layouts and drag windows into those rather than just the half screen setup. So you can easily get say 2/3rd and 1/3 layout so Cubase gets lots of room for main window but an editor can sit in the other 1/3, OR 1/3rds all across, or 2/3 split in half horizontally (so 2 regions) and 1/3 full length. FancyZones makes this drag and drop and you can switch layouts with a keyboard shortcut. I find it more efficient than “Drag to side of screen - half size, Select other window, Drag middle of windows to get 2/3 - and don’t get me started on what happens when you want 1/3 columns all across…

Ah, got it, thanks!

hah! A day later and I already see what you mean :slight_smile:

@MattiasNYC - :laughing:

Thank you all for your comments - I really appreciate it! I managed to find a good deal on a 34 widescreen 3440x1440 so this will be arriving shortly.
Many thanks :blush:

You mind sharing which exact monitor you picked? :slight_smile:

I’m guessing you weren’t asking me, but anyway;

Samsung SJ55W, a 3440x1440 VA panel.

Cheapest I could find at the moment since a lot of stores are closed or not getting restocked quickly. My previous monitor was/is a Dell 2407 I think, so 1920x1200 IPS.

My reasoning was that I would want the extra horizontal space and that I would need the vertical space less than the horizontal. I was actually surprised to see that the difference in actual screen size vertically was less than I thought. I was expecting this new panel to be ‘taller’. It’s fine though since I get more information than previously (1440 versus 1200) and I have my center channel speaker above the monitor.

The width is awesome. When browsing the web or working I can now comfortably have two windows open which is great for referencing things on one side and working on the other. It’s also a huge benefit for apps like iZotope RX where the modules open in new windows. I can now have a large image of the audio and still fit my desired modules to the right of that. Previously in RX and in DAWs (Nuendo/PT) I always felt that plugin/module windows were in the way of text and waveforms. Like, always.

I was a bit worried about bleed and color of a VA panel since it’s the first time I’m using one. I guess my Dell is old and I’ve gotten used to it, and I actually reasoned that since it was so old even a new VA would be better than an old IPS since technology has advanced in the past decade+. And colors are good. Viewing angles are totally acceptable.

I now have the ultrawide front and center, below my speakers and my old 24 inch 16:9 to the right. I’m actually enjoying working more now than before.

Highly recommend ultrawide.

I have never used FancyZones, however all my LG’s, 2 34-inch and 1 28 inch came with a LG program that offers about 12 zone set-ups including “no zones” that I believe achieve exactly what FancyZones does? For myself, there are advantages and disadvantages that I have discovered over a period of a couple years. Yes, just drag a Cubase window into a zone and it “snaps” to that zone, however there are times when you don’t want that to happen. And Cubase is crazy customizable when it comes to their own windows…

I guess not all monitor manufactures include these features like I would have thought.

This is good info. I didn’t realise that. Is there any pictures showing comparisons?

I don’t really have any photos unfortunately. I did get used to it though and it may have been mostly “in my head”…

I hope so i know this would bother me.