Cubase = Reason?

I was in a shop today, planning to buy reason 3.0 as a synth and a cubase SE3 so I could rewire them and use cubase to play guitar in.

However, the guy insisted I should buy Cubase 4 as it can so everything reason can, with the added advantage of being able to use my guitar and take full advantage of all the effects etc for it, which would be so limited if I got SE3 and reason.

Is this true, can Cubase do as much as Reason, (samplers, drum machines, synths etc,) I thought Cubase was just a DAW.

If it can't do much the same stuff, please reccomednd me what I should buy. (I want a program like reason, but so you can synth the guitar as you would a keyboard - would rewiring achieve this or could you use a guitar interface as a controller instead of a keyboard on reason?)

At a very very simplistic level - Cubase include a bunch of instruments and effects and a sequencer as reason does, so in that sense the saleman was right. Reaso as you have figured cannot record audio - and probably never will.

At a much deeper level the way in which Reason can be used makes a hell of a difference - it has it plusses and minuses, as does cubuse - at this level - the saleman is a clueless idiot who needs shooting.

Reason is a simulation of a hardware synth and feffects rack which inlcudes all th flexibility of being able ot abirily patch audio and controls all overthe place more or less in any way you see fit, so you get amazing flexibilty from its fixed (ie non-expandable) collection of synths, samples and effects.

Cubase by comparison has very conventional common garden mixer type routing functions - ie you have sends, submixes, sound source and effects chains - alot of common processing tricks that are easy in reason and in hardware are all but impossible inside cubase - even C4 at this time. C4 *may*get more flexible later in the year, but personnal I dont hold out a huge amount of hope as real flexibility needs a radical re-think of their approach, rather than just a little change to enable sidechaning etc.

The are very different animals in many ways - reason is kind of like a modular workstation synth, cubase is at heart a multi-track sequencer and HD record with mixer and usual mixer style architecture. Cubuse supports loads of thrird party plugins - Reason is closed dead end system - no expansions of functionality, just sounds, you cant buy plugins for it - it doesnt supoport the concept. You are stuck with propellerheads development timeline - which is very very slow.

As a half way house that personally I think is much better suited to alot of the creative stages of music production - maybe look at Ableton live - not as string as an overall production tool as Cubase 4, but much more intuitive as simpler to use at creative stages, much more flexibilile in terms of audio and midi routing, and like Cubase - you can expand it with plugins, and its an audio recorder and multi-track as well - so you can record audio arrange it, loop it process it etc.

I think your original idea of getting Reason 3 and Cubase SE would work out good for you.

Cubase comes with some vsti's, but to get it to be somewhat like Reason, you'd have to buy extras, like Halion or Kontakt for a sampler, and so on.

You can use Cubase SE to record your guitar, and you can use the sequencer in Cubase, or the one in Reason to drive your vsti's.

I haven't used Live too much, but a lot of people seem to like it.

Yes, it CAN do some the same stuff. The question is whether YOU can do the same stuff with it, and if it is easier to do it within Reason. It also depands on what comes with each as far as softsynths, samples etc.

The salesman was right and wrong. A program like Cubase or Sonar is cabable of a LOT. At the same time, it is probably better to do it in Reason. It would not be foolish to buy Cubase SE and Reason together. Both work in certain ways and would only compliment each other.

Your best off with cubase 4 and reason. I have not tried to more recent versions of SE but the old ones were buggy and sucked.

Ya, if budget allows, it usually pays to go top shelf.

I figured meddle was balking at the combined price.

What's the difference between Cubase SX and 4 for musicians?

C4 has more bugs, timing is even less stable. Otherwise for steinberg added/removed features - anything between a downgrade and a significant upgrade depending upon how you work and what plugins you use.

For me - its adds about one feature to mixing and post production at this time because useful promised features aint coming until v4.1 (why the f*** do nearly all companies do this when software is invoved somewhere - rant!!! grrrrr!!), for midi recording, use with virus ti its a massive downgrade due to bugs, thouh a bit better since 4.0.3, erm for some aspects of post production - its also a downgrade as seems to get a little upset with my UAD-1 DSP card. As a hardware synths and hardware effects user I dont find any of the new media stuff any use at all.

Im sure the actual details are kicking aorund on steinbergs web site somewhere, or maybe the cubase.net forums.

Cubase 4 is a good program, but probably overkill for what you want - it is also a few $100 more than Live 6 & Sonar 6.

A great & flexible rig (in my opinion) would be Sonar/Live with Reason 3 and the newest version of Reaktor. You really don't need much beyond that - unless you want soft synth emulations of the Minimoog, Prophet 5.....

Thanks a lot for the advice. With a budget of about

Ableton Live and start with a buinch of free synths and effects.

Have you seen the comparison chart?:

http://www.steinberg.net/932_1.html

Cubase 4 and CS4 have had an update. SE3 is till using VST2.3 for example, while the more expensive programs use VST3 for plug-ins.

I use SX3 still. Cubase Studio 4 would be somewhere in the middle between SE3 and Cubase 4. The top program probably has a lot of features that you may not use.

I've never been too fond of cakewalk/sonar, but they make some lower priced programs that could be good for guitar.

Live could be good too.

Remember - most people are going to recommend what they use.

Thanks again. I've found SX3 for really cheap on ebay with loads of extra vstis ect. I think I'll buy that with Reason. What d'ya reckon?

"Really cheap" on eBay might mean "pirated", and in that case it's better to not even offer THOSE people your money but just download it.

If you're not getting an actual box with a dongle and registration you're not getting anything.

Can I post you a link and you tell me if you think it's alright? It says it has a dongle.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/CUBASE-SX3-Recording-Studio-Software-for-PC_W0QQitemZ280125484064QQihZ018QQcategoryZ23784QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Dongle's can be bought and sold with pirated software ya know...

http://www.kvraudio.com/ratings/11.html

I'm about to buy this. Does it look legit to you guys. Much appreciated.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/CUBASE-SX3-Recording-Studio-Software-for-PC_W0QQitemZ280125484064QQihZ018QQcategoryZ23784QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

And it includes Halion and Arturia VSTs? For only 30 pounds? Gee, I wonder if it's legit....

No seller feedback. Items related to his buyer feedback were between 1 and 99 cents. He does not even hide the fact that he is selling stollen software.

Send him some money and see if he is that honest with you.

"Supplied on DVD-R for PC only

I'm thinking of spending a bit more money. If price was not an issue, would Cubase 4 beat anything by Sonar, Ableton etc? I think buying this with Reason would just about cover my needs. Or would it be better to get something like Reaktor to go with it instead? Thanks again