I don't disagree with these points but all of these things depends on who you're talking to, what type of music are they doing, etc. These forums are not full of recording pros. A few sure, but the large majority, no.

I know one thing for sure, digital bits are digital bits. The basic sound quality does not change in the slightest from one DAW to another. Plug in a guitar or keyboard or vocal mic and record some audio into as many DAWs as you want, the raw file will be the same. If you're saying that all of these extras helps you to achieve a better mix, fair enough but bits are bits.

It's been discussed here off and on for years that the PG plugins for EQ, compression etc were written by the same people who now do work for all the big name plugs. All that's missing with the PG plugs is the cool looking graphics and presets. But, if you understand how compressors work, now to use EQ and all that you can get the exact same results from PG plugs as you can get with many other plugs but if you'd rather pay for and use Ozone or T-Racks then RB handles those just fine.

When you talk about loading multiple large sample sets, how many tracks are you working with at the same time? The vast majority of stuff I do is with Biab generated tracks, a few VSTi tracks and my own playing using various keyboards. Yes the big name DAW's have unlimited tracks but for me anyway I've never used even 40 tracks, I think the most was 18 or 20 one time. This is probably where 98% of forum users are at.

I think of this like cars. What's does a car do? Basically it takes you from point A to point B. Is a nice 10 year old Honda Civic good for that? Of course it is. Is a new Mercedes S Class better? It depends. Better than what?

Similar thing here. It's already proven RB is fully capable of producing high quality broadcast ready audio. Yes, comp track folders are cool, better automation is cool so what you're talking about is basically workflow but like a new Benz, it's also about price. My only point is basic sound quality. You can achieve it just as well with RB. But I'll agree maybe not as slick, not as good looking, not as much fun? Oh, and lets not forget the learning curve, Cubase is infamous for being a very complex piece of software. It costs how much again?

RB is free and very easy to learn and use and you can get the results you want. I still say it's a very competitive DAW.

Bob

Biab/RB latest build, Win 11 Pro, Ryzen 5 5600 G, 512 Gig SSD, 16 Gigs Ram, Steinberg UR22 MkII, Roland Sonic Cell, Kurzweil PC3, Hammond SK1, Korg PA3XPro, Garritan JABB, Hypercanvas, Sampletank 3, more.