1. Cubase (or Logic or any other system) costs about a billionth of protools. But if you really want to be cool, you could pay lots more for a system which does lots less. Your choice.
2. Cubase (and many other software based daw’s like Logic etc) has a billion more features. I’m not kidding. A billion. Protools is so feature-less it is amazing people pay for it. For instance, if you want a good four band parametric on a channel in protools, you have to BUY one for hundreds of dollars, which will likely work on only one to four channels, if that. Cubase comes WITH a four band parametric for every channel, and could run hundreds of them at a time if you have enough computer processor power. The same applies with other types of inserts on a channel, like compressors, gates etc.
3. Commercial plugins (effects, compressors etc), cost more for protools, because you’re so cool being a protools owner that you want to pay more for everything. Case in point, a VST plugin reverb I bought for Cubase at $200 sold the Protools version for $500.
4. You are committed to Digidesign’s hardware, which can’t even record at 32 bit. That blows. But hey, if you own protools, you are cool. It doesn’t matter if you have 10X the dynamic range on systems which cost thousands less. You just want to be cool.
5. Cubase can use any of hundreds of hardware devices, and records at 32 bit. Know how hard it is to clip a 32 bit system? A hell of a lot harder than it is to clip a Protools system.
6. Protools tech support sucks worse that a $20 hooker.
7. Protools thinks it “owns” every hard drive you connect to your computer, and insists that it “mark its territory” by putting a bunch of files on them, even if you have no intention of using protools on that drive. And it bugs the crap out of me when running protools that I have to use Protools to eject a damn drive, not the computer’s own operating system. What’s next? I have to use Protools to flush the toilet in the studio?
8. Midi on protools is so limited and crappy, that it may not even be better than the midi implementation of a Commodore 64 from 1983, while Cubase’s midi is outstanding. Don’t believe me? Well just find out what sort of HELL you’ll go through working with Midi and buy a PT system. You’ll come crying back to me later.
9. Cubase can output sheet music from midi you play in. Protools couldn’t do that in a million years.
10. When you pay your billion dollars for protools, upgrading is SO fun! Like when my buddy bought a $15,000 system, and then couldn’t update it when they came out with a new version two weeks later unless he forked out another $5,000! Yeah baby. Protools is SO cool! My last Cubase update, from version 2 to version 4 (a large upgrade) cost me $249.
2 replies on “10 reasons I’d pick Cubase over Protools”
I gave up on ProTools after experiencing many of the same issues… plus one more on my Windows box. With ProTools simply installed, it would not show up if Internet Explorer browser was also installed. DigiDesign’s (before they sold out) support told me to have a machine dedicated to ProTools only to avoid this. They had no interest in fixing the bug and won’t give you an update to fix it. You have to buy the new version basically at full price or something, with no guarantee that would solve the problems. Plus, it was pretty difficult to work with. So, for all the great timing specs that it touts– that I could never see benefitting my creative work, I went back to Sonar X1 and haven’t looked back. ProTools got deleted and tossed out. Highly highly highly overrated indeed.
Great points. I forgot to mention the “dedicated” machine concept. So true. Once studios get them set up for PT to run properly, they don’t even want to turn them off or change their underwear for fear that it will change.