I had hummed and hawed over upgrading to the latest version of Cubase but after installing and testing it out during the week I’m glad I did. As I’d read in reviews the new GUI is abit of a shock at first but the enhanced usability functions are fantastic, primarily the scalable, fully customizable mix console. Compared to previous incarnations of Cubase it makes much better use of the screen real estate (In full screen mode I can now view 34 channels on my 24 inch monitor – perfect for the average project). I haven’t had a chance to test out the included plugins but going by the Steinberg video overviews Groove Agent 4SE finally looks like it works in sync with Drum maps and has more intuitive MIDI integration (something that annoyed me no end about the older version). Unfortunately I still cant drag and drop channels in the mixer but hopefully with the new instrument rack/channel feature I wont have much need to do so.
Project wise I have the rough layout finished for the current electro tune. It’s going to need alot of automation work to breath more life and expression into it but I’m happy enough with the overall sound. The extra time I put into sourcing alternative sounds and presets definitely paid off, thou I’m not sure its a practice , time-wise, that would work well for commissions. Unsurprisingly (yet again) I back pedaled on the current version of Black Crow (acoustic tune). I don’t know what it is about this song that makes it so difficult for me to settle on a structure that I’m happy with. Doubtless by-and-by something will click :P (nervous whimper)
