Hi ATW10C,
lets change the vibe. I've used and still use many platforms so I'll give my 2 cents on each.
Cubase and Nuendo:
Nuendo and Cubase are essentially the same program with Nuendo offering more video friendly stuff but if you're into making music, both are essentially the same program. Cubase generally requires two monitor screens to fully be effective in my opinion. I don't like the EQ window as I've said cause I think it's too small but if you have third party plug-ins which you rely on, then this wouln't matter so much. One benefit of Cubase/Nuendo is that I find the shortcuts well thought of and if I'm working on a project, I can keep my right hand on the mouse and my left hand solely on the keyboard and all the shortcuts tend to be in reach of the fingers of my left hand. So if you get used to this it feels almost like playing a video game so you can really do things on the fly quickly. I find myself using Cubase more for video projects than music but it's definitely capable for music projects as well.
MIDI is actually pretty good on Cubase but I always use third party stuff most of the time anyway and I find setting up the VSTi's,pretty standard. I used Cubase SX up to version 3.
Pro Tools
I learnt this software in college and they had an LE version hooked up to an analogue board into an 002 rack. I find adapting to PT much more difficult than from other platforms, short cuts like [ and ] are completely strange to me but I'm sure many others in here started on Pro Tools so they should swear by it. I remember always getting stuck on bussing in Pro Tools and the float function when I was using them, I find it somewhat 'convoluted' when there are other softwares offering much easier ways for bussing. I also find PT a two monitor platform to truly maximise its potential but I've also seen an engineer mix solely on one window, sorry I completely forget the name of the mode in which you can grab/crop the audiofiles heh. Sorry PT guys don't flame me yet. Also back then PT LE came with an uppercap of 32 mono tracks which meant 16 stereo tracks of audio only. So I remember having to do many many submixes back on college which added to the frustration. Also back then midi was pretty much nonexistent or very weak. I'm sure they must've improved on this aspect since then. (I hope) Oh yeah you need Digidesign hardware to use Pro Tools and Digidesign don't even allow the sharing of propriety hardware on mac to make a much larger front end for your DAW, sdo you can't combine it with MOTU hardware in a 'combined' audio interface on mac even if you want to use another software not Pro Tools.
Cakewalk Sonar
I believe now its up to version 8 already. I love this platform for many reasons. I started loving Sonar since version 3, vers4 had way too many bugs but since vers 5 everything stabilized. 1 reason I like Sonar because it was written for windows only so naturally it feels very friendly like Microsoft Office almost, the shortcuts are that similar.
Another thing about Sonar I like is that I can actually mix on one monitor much more quickly than other softwares. You do not need a second computer monitor to fully maximize Sonar. Its really useful for location recording on laptops where all you have is one monitor. Also, automation data does not require a separate track on the mix view. The automation data actually superimposes on the audio track without having to change modes. This takes two steps to do in Logic and 3 in Cubase. The sonitus plugins are superb and I prefer them to the digidesign and cubase plugins. I find myself using my Waves plugins less and less and reaching more for the Sonitus ones. Now I use my Waves for more specialty treatments. Their vintage channel plug in is a very good combined plug in but I use them for for finalising/mastering because it is too resource heavy for simple treatments.
The greatest thing I love about Sonar is their V-Vocal pitch correction plugin. it's basically Sonar's version of Autotune but gives you really deeeeeep control if you know how to use graphical mode. I've use autotune, melodyne but I also champion the V-Vocal because of the control and it makes the vocals sound more natural when tuning than all the other software.
Logic Pro
I actually did my first recording on Logic I think it was version 3 back in 2000 but I wasn't behind the faders (or mouse rather). I did find it way too complicated back then ao I completely forgot about Logic until I was hired at my current studio they were using Logic v7 at the time. Since then they've been acquired by Apple and been made over into Logic Pro. Good job to Apple because they have made Logic Pro as user friendly as Sonar. Previously I felt Logic was like Cubase in that it requires a 2 monitor set to maximize although logic did offer screensets which were customizable to fit all the windows you needed into one screen. I hated those screensets but with Apple Logic pro, you now can access certain necessary windows simply from a shortcut such as mixer view, piano view, etc so one window is truly enough.
MIDI wise, Logic in my humble opinion has always been the best of all, you don't need to set up anything just drop your instrument into your input and you're good to go. Their audio instruments sound superb and sampler EXS24, is my favourite. You don't need many third party virtual instruments except maybe your favourite piano, horns if you do jazz.
Their plug ins just like sonitus are written into Logic's code so they won't tax your system more than most other third party plugins. Soundwise, I think they have a slight edge over the Sonitus but both are still very good. Better than digidesign I must add, sorry PT folks. jk.
Also, sidechaining facilities are the best in Logic. For a long time these were completely unavailable except via 'tricks' in Cubse and Sonar but Logic saw the advanced usefulness of sidechaining so they've had that feature in their plugins since way back when. If you don't understand sidechaining, chances are you probably won't need it so pay little attention to this paragraph if so. Only thing lacking in Logic I feel is the V-Vocal feature of Sonar. I always have to export out problem vocals to fix on Sonar and then bring it back to Logic, their pitch correction plug in is like autotune set on auto mode and I need more control than that.
So there you go, those are the major differences in my opinion between the platforms above. So if you've gone through all that then the only factor you might be concern with is cost to benefit ratio. When Apple released Logic Studio, they brought down the cost of their software to USD$500 and that cause many problems for the other companies. Sonar was the cheapest before Apple bought Logic at around USD$800 but even then they had to bring their prie down, and it looks like Cubase have also toed the line. Forget about Nuendo because that's about 3 times the price. So effectively Apple spoilt the market which is bad for manufacturers but good for us.
Pro Tools you need to factor in hardware costs and their LE version is not really practical if its limited to 32 tracks which means if you're a serious studio rat, you're going to have to look at Pro Tools HD which cost minimum USD$10k thereabouts. For that kind of money, and I'm sure you're pretty much not going to need more than 2 inputs at a time, there are alternatives that provide better converters than the what Digidesign are asking you to buy. Apogee and Lynx are good examples.
Sorry guys..I have way too much time today... Anyone got any input on Motu's Digital Performer?
