There is no question about the value and sophistication of Cubase Music Production environment and some musicians prefer to move Motif tracks over to Cubase for further processing, and finishing.

But with Cubase 12 has Cubase become too sophisticated?  Has it become too complicated?  At this point does Cubase have featureitis?  Too many menus, options, left clicks and right clicks.

I believe Cubase was introduced to the Motif somewhere around Cubase 3 or 4 I’m not sure.  Cubase 5 AI came with my Mox and Motif XF.  And Cubase was a lot simpler back in those days.  Now its a Powerhouse Daw Extravaganza.  I recently got a chance to look at Cubase 12 Pro up close, and compared to Cubase 5 it was almost unrecognizable!

So many features, options, and menus.  I guess if you’ve grown up with Cubase and followed the upgrades every step of the way, you know how to get down with it., but if you’re new to Cubase 12, or looking at it coming from Cubase 4 or 5 Yikes!

At one point Cubase was just a simple Sequencer with a nice big screen.  Now its a full blown super duper recording studio with every bell and whistle known to man, with a bewildering choice of VSTs and Plugins.

IMO Music Production on the Motif is straightforward and fairly simple(Perhaps I’m Biased) And its entirely possible to take a composition from raw idea to a polished, finished, mastered song. And then take the stereo WAV , to the computer convert it to MP3 and distribute it world wide.
And if you combine the Motif with a Tascam Portastudio, or Tascam Model series for any necessary audio editing you would have all possible bases covered.

But Cubase 12 Pro OMG!  I guess a DAW can never have too many features.  But Cubase has so many features and its getting so complicated, the guy I saw trying to use it, was struggling to get it to do simple things!

I’m hardware only these days.  I’ve long since dropped Cubase from my music production and recording studio.  So I haven’t kept up with Cubase or any of the other DAWS.  Are they all so bloated?

Has Ableton, Pro-tools, Studio One, Cakewalk, FL-Studio and Logic also become more complicated?

What version of Cubase is recommended for Montage/MODX?  It has to be somewhat of a challenge getting all that motion sequencing, multi-part voice thing happening in Cubase.

I dunno but maybe the DAW has grown too big for its britches LOL!

Motif’s have their own little ways of course but once you get in the flow and vaguely know what you;’re doing there’s no question it’s a fast and streamlined route to - at the very least - demos or pre-production work.

For me I think the issue is accepting the limitations and using the Motif for what it’s good for and leaving it at that. I can whip up a pretty decent sounding demo - of pretty much anything - in a few minutes. I can send that out aa audio and/or MIDI if I need to use Motif work as a basis for continued production on a DAW.

Our video Music Production On Motif is currently on sale in a bundle with Sound Advice in the Motifator Shop. Sound Advice is a wonderful expose and explanation of Motif-style voice programming. Armed with these two videos there’s no excuse for not getting down to some pretty in-depth and highly musical productions.

MM

PS And, yes, ALL DAWs are guilty-as-charged of absurd feature bloat. They have to do that to justify launching new versions but ultimately this will come back to bite them methinks. Manufacturers simply do not understand the value of directness.

MrMotif - 13 September 2022 11:08 AM

Motif’s have their own little ways of course but once you get in the flow and vaguely know what you;’re doing there’s no question it’s a fast and streamlined route to - at the very least - demos or pre-production work.

For me I think the issue is accepting the limitations and using the Motif for what it’s good for and leaving it at that. I can whip up a pretty decent sounding demo - of pretty much anything - in a few minutes. I can send that out aa audio and/or MIDI if I need to use Motif work as a basis for continued production on a DAW.

Our video Music Production On Motif is currently on sale in a bundle with Sound Advice in the Motifator Shop. Sound Advice is a wonderful expose and explanation of Motif-style voice programming. Armed with these two videos there’s no excuse for not getting down to some pretty in-depth and highly musical productions.

MM

PS And, yes, ALL DAWs are guilty-as-charged of absurd feature bloat. They have to do that to justify launching new versions but ultimately this will come back to bite them methinks. Manufacturers simply do not understand the value of directness.

Yes if I’m being totally objective (which is hard for me) I have to concede to the fact that Motif as a complete Music Production solution works until you really need more than 16 tracks of audio.  I think Motif is unmatched when it comes to midi editing.  But audio editing is not Motif’s strong suite.

And if the music production project requires more than just a stereo mix down and master of the 16 tracks on Motif then YES!  a a DAW is one valid option.  But certainly not the only one.

The Tascam Portastudio Series can produce commercial audio.  It has excellent audio editing, mixing, and mastering capabilities, and is a perfect (direct) complement to the Motif series.  Also it maintains the “recording studio” metaphor.  Prior to Yamaha’s purchase of Steinberg, Yamaha was going down the hardware recorder road.  Remember this:

Yamaha AW 2400

Or Rolands VS 2480

Roland VS 2480

Yamaha should have continued to innovate along those lines!!!!

Yes for Mix/Master engineers, Film Composers, commercial recording studio owners the DAW is extremely important.  But for the average gigging musician, home recording studio, musician that wants to self publish and distribute MP3s on Itunes, Spotify, Amazon Music, Bandcamp, etc.  A Tascam Portastudio, or Tascam Model series, or even the Zoom devices can actually get the job done.  These hardware recorders are easy to use and straight to the point without any of the shenanigans involved in using DAWs.

Yes the Motif has its limitations in that it is a full blown Midi recording studio and does not offer serious audio editing.  But paired with studio grade hardware recorders a DAW is not necessary.  And hardware recorders are on the rise!

For the Motif masochists , we can bring audio submixes in through Motif’s A/D inputs by connecting a mixing board from 12 to 64 tracks into the Motif and using Motif’s compressor, multiband eq’s and entire suite of FX to mix with Motif’s sixteen tracks down to a stereo WAV.

We’re living in a day and age where lots of folks listen to music through ear buds connected to an Android phone or I Phone, or listening to music in their vehicles and Motif is more than a match for that task.  LOL

Cheers!!!