# Is Cubase Elements sufficient?



## cmtd (Apr 1, 2016)

I'm looking to get a new DAW for my PC.

I plan on just recording guitar & bass tracks through my Focusrite 2i2, and using EZ drummer or pre-recorded drum tracks to make songs for fun. I have no intention on releasing these songs for sale or anything like that. But I do want professional quality. I use BIAS FX currently for guitar tracking. I'd be happy achieving something like Ola does for his gear demo videos.

Will elements be enough for me, or do I need to step up to Artist, etc?

I have no intention of recording vocals or drums or anything like that. Just guitar and bass tracks.


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## Vres (Apr 2, 2016)

I think you'll do just fine. 
http://www.steinberg.net/fileadmin/...ubase_7/Downloads/Cubase_Comparison_Chart.pdf


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## Aymara (Apr 2, 2016)

If you are a Cubase fan, Elements will do the job. If you are not and if you prefer having a powerful community, that helps you learning more about recording, have a look at Reaper, which you can test for 60 days and which only costs 60 bucks in case you like it.

And Reaper will for sure blow Cubase Elements out of the water  ... in case you make progress in your recordings, e.g. Elements doesn't support sidechain compression as far as I know.


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## cmtd (Apr 2, 2016)

Aymara said:


> If you are a Cubase fan, Elements will do the job. If you are not and if you prefer having a powerful community, that helps you learning more about recording, have a look at Reaper, which you can test for 60 days and which only costs 60 bucks in case you like it.
> 
> And Reaper will for sure blow Cubase Elements out of the water  ... in case you make progress in your recordings, e.g. Elements doesn't support sidechain compression as far as I know.



I was looking at Reaper more last night. I'm not proficient in any DAW. I've used protools and logic at different points, but have a very very minimal knowledge on both.

I was just looking for something very user friendly, and I've read that reaper was not (had a steep learning curve), and cubase was easier to navigate. But for $60, it's worth trying out.


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## Rev2010 (Apr 2, 2016)

Yes, Cubase Elements will be plenty enough. I have both Cubase 6 Pro (my main home DAW) and Cubase Elements 8 that I purchased so that I can mess around when I have free time at work. It's definitely enough for what you're planning to do.


Rev.


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## Aymara (Apr 2, 2016)

cmtd said:


> But for $60, it's worth trying out.



Reaper is the best DAW for beginners in my opinion, because it has the most powerful community of all DAWs. There are e.g. many beginner tutorials on Youtube and it comes with a very detailled free manual as a PDF.

And remember ... you have enough time to try it out without spending any cent. As always ... try before you buy  And if you don't like it, you still can buy Cubase.

The only downside of Reaper is, that it only comes with a few free effects, but no instruments. But this is also an advantage, because you don't pay for something, you might not use.

And the learning curve is only steep, if you go deeper into detail (advanced features), which will be the same with other DAWs. Recording your first song only requires watching a few videos ... max. 1 hour.


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## Chi (Apr 3, 2016)

Another plus for Reaper.

Insane value for the license and it's rather straight forward to learn in my experience. The VST that come with it are very popular and get you going quickly.


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## Aymara (Apr 3, 2016)

Chi said:


> The VST that come with it are very popular and get you going quickly.



ReaFir alone makes the free ReaPlugs a must have, because it allows to create amp anti-hum profiles ... there are Youtube tutorials about it at least for microphones. But the EQ is very powerful too. I also like the ReaDelay a lot, when it comes to stereo delay, though it's a lot of hassle to set it up.

So even if the thread starter should decide for Cubase, he should download the ReaPlugs, because they are free and work in every DAW ... except on Mac, where they are integrated into the Reaper app


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## noise in my mind (Apr 3, 2016)

reaper. it's open source. it's the future.

Don't get me wrong i love and use cubase, but reaper can do everything cubase can do for the most part and only cost $60. unlimited demo too.


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## Aymara (Apr 3, 2016)

noise in my mind said:


> it's open source.



No, it is not!

Reaper uses some open source components, but Reaper itself is clearly not open source:

REAPER | REAPER open source components

But Cockos cooperates with other developers, which are part of the community. A good example are the SWS Extensions:

SWS / S&M Extension

And though the demo is unlimited, using it longer than 60 days is illegal.


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## Masoo2 (Apr 3, 2016)

Elements would work fine for you.

Once you start to move onto bigger projects (like mixing multitracks for fun) you might run into some issues.

For example, Eyal Levi and Monuments are having/just had a CreativeLive class where they gave away newly recorded multitracks to the song Quasimodo by Monuments. I downloaded them and put them into Cubase Elements. Low and behold, it is more tracks that Elements allows for, so I decided to scrap the vocals for now.

If you are just recording short demos, you will be fine.


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## Captain Butterscotch (Apr 3, 2016)

Firstly, go Cubase. I've messed with a good many of the major DAWs and none of them were as immediately intuitive to me as Cubase was. Granted, I might work differently than you do. 

Second, Elements will be fine for what you desire to do. I had Elements for a good 2 years before I upgraded to the Pro version and I don't regret it. It's a good product.


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## Aymara (Apr 3, 2016)

Captain Butterscotch said:


> I might work differently than you do.



And that's the reason for the good old rule: Try before you buy.

Btw, I saw there's a demo of Cubase available too, but only for 30 days.

So I would still recommend to start with Reaper and after the first steps are done, compare with the Cubase demo.


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## Rev2010 (Apr 3, 2016)

The Cubase Elements demo is indeed 30 days, is fully functional!, and Elements doesn't require a USB eLicenser key. I've been using Cubase for close to 20 years so it's my preferred DAW. But you can try Cubase Elements, Studio One (any version), and Reaper all for free. Try them all and see what you like. Be aware though Studio One Artist does not support vst plugins without an $80 addon! 


Rev.


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## cmtd (Apr 4, 2016)

Thanks for all the advice guys, I'm planning on getting reaper and playing around with it for a while, and then will get the demo of cubase elements to compare after I get comfortable with reaper.


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## Aymara (Apr 4, 2016)

cmtd said:


> Thanks for all the advice guys, I'm planning on getting reaper and playing around with it for a while, and then will get the demo of cubase elements to compare after I get comfortable with reaper.



Then it might be helpful to know, that you can change the GUI of Reaper 5 to old version 4, which might be helpful, when watching tutorial videos.

First you need to setup the audio interface in Preferences. Then to be able to record, first add a new empty track an "record arm" it. Then choose the source and activate both "record monitoring" and the metronome. Now hit the rord button.

But a video is more helpful:



Don't get shocked ... that video covers far more, than you'll need for the beginning.


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## Lax (Apr 5, 2016)

I always used cubases, lastly element 7 and 8, there are enough tutorials on youtube to complete the intuitive DAW


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