System Requirements for Cubase SX3

[siddharthsekhsaria]

I am planning to make a home recording studio.
For this purpose i am purchasing Cubase SX3 and a firepod.

Please help me with the system requirement for this purpose.

I found this in system requirements page on steinberg site.

""Windows MME compatible audio hardware is required (ASIO compatible audio hardware required for low latency operation)""

What is this all about.

Please help me out i am not that good with computers

Besides I thought of buying a 19" monitor
Is it essential that i go with two monitors from the beginning ?

Siddharth

[richiebee]

Originally Posted by siddharthsekhsaria

I am planning to make a home recording studio.
For this purpose i am purchasing Cubase SX3 and a firepod.

Can you even still buy SX? Cubase 4 is the current version. If you can still get SX, do it - I think 4 came out before it should have.

""Windows MME compatible audio hardware is required (ASIO compatible audio hardware required for low latency operation)""

What is this all about.

It means you want a sound card/audio interface with ASIO drivers. The Firepod is one.

Besides I thought of buying a 19" monitor
Is it essential that i go with two monitors from the beginning ?

I've been running cubase on a single monitor since 1994. I actually don't ever wish I had two monitors to run cubase.

[siddharthsekhsaria]

Thanks for your reply.

I want to do record a rock in the studio through multitracking and also want to keep the option for live recording open.

Would cubase LE which comes free be good enough or is Cubase SX3 worth the money..?

What are the major differences between the two..?

Siddharth

[brandondrury]

Besides I thought of buying a 19" monitor
Is it essential that i go with two monitors from the beginning ?

I've been running cubase on a single monitor since 1994. I actually don't ever wish I had two monitors to run cubase.

I've got a 19" LCD and a 17" CRT. I always wish I had more real estate. I hate closing out of boxes all the time. However, it's certainly not critical. It's just a matter of convenience. I would HIGHLY suggest you use just a single monitor until you have all your other gear out of the way.

Would cubase LE which comes free be good enough or is Cubase SX3 worth the money..?

What are the major differences between the two..?

http://www.steinberg.net/552_1.html

The big one for me is the "inserts". Cubase SX3 has 8, which is more than adequate. Cubase LE has 2. You could probably get away with buying some kind of channel strip thing and get away with LE, but sometimes I use quite a few plugins (depending on what I'm doing).

I think if you are serious about jumping into this, just get Cubase SX3. LE is pretty limited in my opinion.

However, don't just buy SX3 outright. Upgrade! I did this and got SX3 for $400.

Brandon

[richiebee]

There are numerous versions of Cubase. LE is a freebie. It's pretty poor. It'll get you started, but you'll be wanting an upgrade soon. SX is the top end of the scale. In between is SE and SL.

Here's the official comparison chart -

http://www.steinberg.de/552+M52087573ab0.html

Don't forget though that Cubase 3 may be unavailable now (that is SE SL and SX) since version 4 is now out.

[siddharthsekhsaria]

You guys were right. Cubase SX3 is no longer available
Now my options are cubase 4 or cubase studio.
Which one woule be a better buy considering that 4 is more than double the price of studio version..

Also steinberg distrbutor in My country India has qouted
Cubase LE to Cubase 4 upgrade - Rs.56,000/- + 4% VAT this more than 1000$
Cubase LE to Cubase Studio4 upgrade - Rs.24,000/- + 4% VAT. - arnd 600$

The above prices include shipping , but would that be so high a price ?

[TimRP]

http://www.reaper.fm/download.php

30 days to try, $40 for non commercial use, $200 for commercial use, updates every 2-3 days. Midi is getting there, audio is more featured then SX3, with unlimited inserts per channel, routing is fantastic. Only thing major that doesn't work with it is UAD-1. Other then that....at least give it a 3 day try.

[brandondrury]

audio is more featured then SX3, with unlimited inserts per channel, routing is fantastic.

Are you sure?

I mix with reckless abandon pretty much all the time and I've never used more than 7 inserts, so the number of inserts in Cubase SX3 has never been an issue.

I'm curious about the stuff that you really can't put a number on like the feel of the software or the ability to edit, comp, and track quickly.

Can I create shortcuts for anything? I have very specific shortcuts and would lose tons of time (and great vocal takes) if I couldn't instantly call up Auto-Tune immediately.

Are you saying that the routing is better than Cubase SX3? If so, I'm curious to how. I can't remember a time where I couldn't route a signal in a way that I wanted to (once understood the Steinberg implementation of Group Tracks). I'd say that I use more mixing trickery than the average home recording guy...but maybe not.

I'm not saying that Reaper is or isn't X, but I just have a hard time believing that it is THAT good.

Maybe I should try it out.

Even if I don't like it was well as I like Cubase SX3, it seams like your recommendation makes it worth at least the $40.

Brandon

[TimRP]

Think of it this way, every track can become a send, return, group (reaper calls them folders), etc. at the flick of a switch. Ya you probably don't need more then 8 inserts but if you want to go wild, you can. You can loop record, you can easily set punch ins/outs, keyboard short cuts are endless, I don't know very many, but you can print out a list if you need to. You can drag and drop insert order, meaning if you want EQ before compression but you have it set up the other way, just drag and drop them into the order you want. You like a certain FX chain for you drum folder and want to recall that easily you just save the order they are in and their settings and you can bring it up later on in a different session. If you liked Vegas which Brandon that is what you had before Cubase right? You will love Reaper, as it has added or fixed most everything that was missing or maybe just set up wrong in Vegas. Psssst, the thing you download is a never ending trial, so if you don't like it now, don't pay for it now, come back to it in 3-6months maybe what you don't like about it will be fixed or just set up different. Pay for it when you are going to start using it on a regular basis. And make sure you take part in their forums, especially people who are long time users of something else, as you can do a feature request and if it makes sense or isn't already implemented 10 bucks says it will take less then a month to get in there. Sometimes less then 24 hours features get added that were just requested. And by all means if you have a plug or piece of hardware not working with reaper, tell Justin in the forums bug report area.

I have been using reaper for 4-5 months now, it is the fastest developing program I have ever used or come in contact with. Midi I will admit is coming along still, maybe not upto Cubase standards but if you don't use midi much or don't use it at all like me, *shurg* why use anything else. I hope this doesn't come off sounding like a fan boy, I hate fan boys, give it a try, its free to try....ok that sounds like a crack dealer, its free to try for the first time....LOL

[TimRP]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Justin_Frankel

"Justin Frankel is an American computer programmer best known for his work on the Winamp media player application and for inventing the Gnutella peer-to-peer system."

That is the guy behind Reaper.

/fan boy syndrome off