I've been using fruity loops and reason for many years now and i'm switching to cubase for its advanced features.

Without getting into a flame war over which software is better, i'll state my main points for switching to cubase.

1) Now i have my Akai MPK61 i want some on screen buttons that i can click and drag samples onto to emulate the look of the pads.

2) Cubase has a very neat feature which allows you to tune any section of the track without losing the time frame.

Cubase has a fairly simple interface anyone who has had previous experience with other standard DAWs (except fruitys) shouldnt have a problem navigating the application.

I am able to create a track easily with the cubase preset VST's without adding any additional software. However as usual with factory presets they are lacking. The cubase sampler HalionOne is simple to operate and they have some nice sounding keys in the factory banks. Groove Agent ONE is the other factory VST I am using to create hihphop. It works well, links to the MPK pads and loads a chopped up wave file into the pads as you would expect.

Everything is working sweet with factory presets I am just having this one hurdle with getting the Groove Agent ONE working correctly for hiphop (I'm sure its just a simple button click that i've overlooked) But I cant work out how to change the polyphony on this VST. Reason users will know its essential to have the polyphony set to 1 on the DrRex sample in order for the pads to work correctly.

If anyone with cubase experience knows how to change the polyphony to 1 on the Groove Agent ONE please post a reply here. It would help any cubase hiphop nooob, including myself. ^_^

PS: since switching to cubase i've also found the Tempo Track. Another powerful feature which would make cubase a superior DAW.