First, thanks to all who chimed in on the logic big box v. cubase SL.
After doing a lot more research, I'm trying to decide between logic 6 Gold and Cubase SX. I tried cubase on a pc and liked it, but from looking at the Steinberg forum, there seems to be a lot of problems w/ OSX and Cubase SX, but it's always hard to tell if the people claiming that are just a vocal minority, using a cracked copy etc. I'd be interested in hearing if people think that Cubase SX works well with Mac, or, if it is excpetionally buggy and I should stick to an Apple-owend product, or DP 4. Thanks

Steinberg products have a deserved bad reputation on os9, but since they are coded in UNIX and osX is UNIX based - I've not heard a lot of complaining about sx on osX. No more than you hear complaining in general.

search the forums, even here there are lots of comparisons between these different systems.

the run down = logic is for people who like playing with the tools or need very very detailed in depth control of their application. DP is favored by musicians with music schooling quite often, it is on osX now. Nuendo is a ProTools alternative with all of cubase sx's midi - 2 to be release next month. cubase is like nuendo but with less audio features and is generally favored by techno musicians who aren't using logic.

Those are some huge generalizations to get the conversation started.

I'm using SX with a M-Audio Delta 66 on a 350mhz AGP Graphics G4 and I'm quite happy with it. I still switch over to OS 9 every so often to use Cubase 5.2, simply because there are plug-ins there that I want to use, but as soon as Pluggo comes out in an OS X version, I probably won't do that anymore.

I've been using Cubase for 12 years now, so that's one reason that I stick to it, but I really like it, and I'm happy with SX. As a matter of fact, I really like the VST Dynamics plug-in for mastering. It has a really nice feature called 'soft clip'. I know it sounds crazy, but I like it more than the Waves mastering stuff that I used to use under OS 9.

I think manexmachina's 'huge generalizations' are spot on. I'd just like to add that self-taught rock musicians tend to use Cubase and Pro Tools tends to be the favorite of ex club DJs.

I like Cubase SX - it has a much more appealing interface than Logic, which helps me work better. I find it more intuitive to use and easy to get good results.

There are some bugs which Steinberg really should sort out, but I've never had quite as many problems as you read on the Cubase forums - most of their complaints seem to stem from working differences in SX compared to earlier Cubase VST versions which they're annoyed about. A lot of those forum posters are pretty grumpy people.

However, with the release of v.6 I've come back to using Logic. It's the best version yet and works fine in OS 9 or X. The plug-ins are excellent, too.

IMHO 6 is probably better than SX, but if you bought SX I don't think you would be disappointed - it's still a great sequencer. People like DP4, too, just to confuse matters a little more.

I would NOT go with Cubase SX/SE for Mac and Mac OS X.
The midi implementation is cumbersome and very irritating.

Go with Motu:s Digital Performer 4 - especially if you want to use Reason with it. all reports indicate this is a great setup.

In Cubase SX the midi instruments DOES NOT pop up in the sequencer by names like in DP3/4.

1) Add your synths:s with the device-command.
2) Choose midi-ports in & out in the sequencer-tracks.
3) In Kurzweil 2000 you'll get 24 numbered boxes with +-signs beside them.
Every numbered box contains 24 K2000 sounds. from bank 100 and bank 200
numbered consequtively.
4) In Proteus 2000 you'll get 48 numbered boxes with 32 sounds in each numbered box. They happen to be sorted by "intrument category". Not by bank numbers like you usually work.
( boxes 12 to 20 in the middle is likely to contain all percussions sets in the Proteus -- for example)

Of course you dont get to see each complete box even with only 24 sounds in the damn thing - rather you must scroll each box individually.
With some 1500+ sounds in the Proteus this way of working really sucks.

Besides Cubase is rather ugly - looks is very important to me.
Good looks in a program to me indicates that the programmers have been careful with functionality and quality - as well.

I'm waiting for my free upgrade to DP4.
Cheers: Dixiechicken

Short addendum only...

If you have made up your mind between your two choices above. I would go with Logic - much better looks

Good luck!

Cheers: Dixiechicken

Thanks for the great replies. It looks like now the choices for me may be DP4 and Logic--I just get the impression that Steinberg is gearing its stuff to pc users first. I'm not a fan of messing w/ computers to get something to work, I just want the software to work (but I don't mind playing with complicated software). I'll probably just play with Reason for a couple of weeks and see how people like DP4 before I make a final decision.

I have been suing a full legit copy of Cubase SX (1.052) with NO problems at all. I use a G4 933 with 752M of RAM and the MOTU 828 interface under OS 10.2.5 update. I have had a few spiratic crashes, mostly when I really load the plugins on it but other than that very good.

One complaint, AUDIO UNITS!!! They had said they could do it when i bought it and Steinberg simply neglegted to say that they had not infact put them in the copy I purchased. As well the export to MP3 function available under SX for PC seems to be non-existant in the MAC for this version.

If you can be patient on those two features until them come out in future version I would recommend Cubase SX without hesitation.

The install was LITERALLY pulgin hardware, install software, restart and go. The MIDEX 3 i bought for USB was even easier.

REPLY TO DIXIE CHICKEN: Sx has worked very well for me with my Proteus 2000. Go to the EMU website and download the patchnames for the unit and they come up fully named and in fact searchable. i can change my setup accuratly and within a second of changing my mind.

Cheers

This post has been edited by clarence169: Tue 22 Apr 2003, 18:33

Thanks for the tip, I'll check it out.
http://www.macmusic.org/agora/forums/style...s/11/icon14.gif
Cheers: Dixiechicken