I wouldnt normally bother saying anything about random computer bits, but this might interest anyone else who finds Cubase SX (or any of the other big DAWs) a real cluttered pain in the ass to use.
After about 6 months of thinking about it on and off I finally threw in the towel and ordered one of
these - its a huge 1920x1600 24" flat panel monitor. It arrived this morning, plugged it in, quick bit of fiddling to re-organise my desktop a bit and OMG - what a difference. Lovely bright screen, very easy to read and nice vivid colours.
So now the relevent bit - you have probably heard me winging about what pain in the backside Cubase SX is to use - fiddly UI, horribly cluttered, blah blah...
After spending about half an hour this morning re-doing my project templates and workspaces to make good use of the big screen, Cubase SX *allmost* seems useable
Spent quite a while today tracking, tweaking, mixing etc on the new monitor and it makes such a difference. For the first time I can actually see all the mixer channels on one screen on a complex track *at the same time* as having a project window open.
Just loads of little everyday things have suddenly become so mch more accessable and quicker to use. On yeh - finally I can have Virus Control on the primary monitor so mouse over works at last (VST host bug, not a VC bug I think)
If anyone else is having a really crap time with one of the big DAW applications, especially Cubase (which I think is possibly the most annoying) have a serious think about a huge screen for it - it really seems to making a huge difference to productivity over the day I have been using it so far.
The other big bonus - this thing is big enough to accomodate my MachineDrum panel (all the MD controls for all channels and master fx on a single panel - its huge...)
I did give it a quick try for a couple of games - Microsoft Freelancer @ 1600 x 1200 - slight bit of motion blur that I am sure i will get used to, but nice bright colours. The other I tried was civilisation that actually supports playing at 1920 x 1600 - that is awesome - especially watching some of the behind menu graphics sequences at that resolution with anti-aliasing switched on
Because of the size of this thing (and it is monstrous!) games do suddenly seem very immersive compared to a 19" screen.