Kind of surprised nobody here has mentioned Presonus Studio One. It’s made by previous Steinberg employees and is very similar to Cubase, but for many has a much more streamlined workflow.

You can demo it as well as Cubase, so I think it’s at least worth checking out. I’ve been using Cubase for years so it’s my preferred DAW, but if I were just starting out, I think I would likely find Studio One much easier to use.

Thanks! That’s not in the Sampler Track though, right? Ideally what I’d like to do is be able to use the Sampler Track controls (ADSR, pitch, filter drive, etc.) on a per slice basis, and make groups of slices. Being able to assign them to different outputs would also be awesome.

I know some of this can be done by sending the slices to Groove Agent, but then you lose a few features of the Sampler Track and the workflow is different, so it’s not ideal.

In my experience from using both, the Scratch Pad is just a lot easier to pull up in the middle of working, throw extra bits in there, and then recall them when you want to use them. On a functional level you can do this in Track Versions (and I do), but Scratch Pad is designed with speed and convenience in mind, and they really feel like two distinct features with different purposes when you use them.

Not a whole lot I feel like I’m missing in Cubase these days, but I would love to see improvements to the Sampler Track, e.g. being able to edit individual slices or make groups of them that can be edited, modulated, have effects, etc.

Would also love to have an equivalent to Studio One’s Scratch Pad.