Cubase Aesthetic/GUI

currentsound · May 9, 2020, 9:44am

lovegames:

theRoyal1:

kostal:

Well, it IS v1.0.

Also, we are talking about GUI and user interface comparisons here. Luna does look good.

It looks ok…and ftr, I’ve been critical of the Cubase GUI

lovegames:

Cubase can do this

Yep…that’s why I was unimpressed and why I feel like it’s just a go between for their plugs.

Yes, and I agree with your overall analysis of Lunas intent and certainly within that, certain GUI liberties.

A lot of people here talking about GUIs aren’t seeing the entire picture, in that, these programs aren’t designed with the same intent. Cubase and Nuendo are designed to be open production platforms in which the user templates the way they want things to work and what utilities are in the forefront. In regards to the term ‘production’ I’m not talking about people working in their basement, or 808 pop… I’m talking about mass productions, 1000 tracks, film scores, tv episodes, huge remastering and cleaning projects, video game assets, SoundFX and sample library creation, sound archival, etc, etc. They magnitude of these types of projects causes hair loss. Huge track counts, huge number of files, scenes, episodes, seasons, etc, etc, etc.

Using Luna as any kind of reference for how Cubase should look is sort of crazy. People understand Cubase isn’t just a DAW where you make music. It’s a file management program, career management program, record label software, sound library manager, VST host. All of these types of things, need to be considered in what the GUI is and how it changes.

It is also a program that is designed to invite experimentation, part of why it is sort of an open production platform. I think the GUI take into consideration the type of experimentation - long sound scapes that could be hours long for instance in which all sorts of automation experiments are happening scattered throughout - how does the GUI and interface need to accommodate that type of production? This is where Cubase shines, and why it doesn’t need to change too much.

I spoke to the UAD guys about Luna at Namm. They’re not just aiming for the home studio market. I asked the question on camera here: Universal Audio's Luna DAW - First Impressions/Review at Namm 2020 They have big goals and want to convert users from all DAWs over which means they’re likely going to add a lot of advanced features over time. Luna most likely won’t get more ugly just by them adding more features and it doesn’t make sense for them to design something that would prohibit them to fulfil their goal of expanding the function of the software.

Advanced features doesn’t prohibit skinning and design. There is always room for innovation and improvement. Most of the functions of Cubase are hidden in menus and in key commands. Everything you’re referring to is a separate window anyway. The actual DAW isn’t cluttered with a million different buttons that needs to be skinned. Very few items within a session are viewable at any one given time. The viewable items at most times aren’t that much different than Logic and Luna so of course you can compare the look of them.

The exact reason that Cubase is used in more professional environments is the exact reason why the look of it should be more customizable. My recording studio is very dark. Looking at a bright DAW causes a lot of eye strain. The last version of Cubase 10.5, they removed the ability to make the DAW black and removed all the options to make items darker shades of grey. Everything must be lighter grey than before. That makes no sense. So people like myself will have extra eye strain for no reason. Also, a lot of clients hire studios based on their look/appearance. It sounds dumb but despite the 30 songs on my studio website, about half of my clients on average admit to not listening to the songs and just booked the studio because it ‘looked cool’. So appearance = income. Being able to customize the look of the software and DAW to fit with the studio is pretty important considering the client is paying to stair at the screen all day and is hiring the studio based on look. You can design the space as much as you like but the software, you’re limited to whatever Steinberg let you customize which is not much.