Update: Cubase 6.5 available (49,99€)

[Compyfox]

I think its a bit of a joke when you think about the one thing Cubase is lacking in (2 if you count lack of a sampler) are Synths.

The ones that come with Cubase are pretty rough at best, Halion Sonic SE is a rompler not a synth, so realistically 2 new synths should be there to replace the stuff there now.

Actually, Cubase once featured SEVEAL synths by Waldorf, Wizoo and Virsynth (IIRC on that end). They were usable, they were accepted, they were dropped.

Now Steinberg shoves back some of the "old days" and adds these two synths for like 50 bucks. One's a granular "rompler", another one a VA. Add to that the MOTIF Rompler (which has definitely MORE control compared to HALionOne), the stupid drum machine and their Mashup tool. Oh, and nevermind the old critters from Cubase VST3.x days (the Bass synth and the drum machine).

Do we really need more?

I'd love to have access to other Steinberg tools "within" Cubase. Wavelab for example. Though I have to admit that I haven't tried to copy the plugin content from WL's VST folder to Cubase's (or a common folder) to ultimately use the denoiser tools or the excellent Harmonic EQ from WL (pretty much borrowed from Nuendo). But I'm sure you catch my drift.


What Steinberg would help on the long run, would be reviving OLD tools. And by that I mean: XPhraze (which seems to be PADsynth now), Virtual Guitarist (yes - it's still better than Stylus RMX, but not future proof anymore), Voice Machine (competition to zplane and Antares!), Hypersonic seems to be Halion 4 now. But that won't happen.

Same as with Wizoo who wouldn't rerelase their old initial (and great) IR hybrid reverb anymore (get Reverberate for that purpose, since SIR pretty much stalled as well), or Waldorf with the A1 (er... they told me several times that it's unfortunately not going to happen).

I can't see the additional stuff being included in the maintenance patch, especially stuff like flac support and quantize improvements.

Why not? Why should a faulty comping and lanes mode not being updated for free (or a couple of bucks, should they go for it) and ditch the rest (filter, amp presets and synth). You pretty much pay for the Synth only (since it costs 50EUR as well).

Take a look at SX2.x once again. They added 2 synths and a shitload of features and plugins there - for free. One month later, Cubase SX3.

What happened with VST5 -> VST5.1? Tons of new features and tools as well. I remember SX3 also getting a massive update with it's final release. Same happened with Cubase 5 (I remember that there wasn't the one or another plugin there).

So why should it not be possible?

Granted, Steinberg needs to live off of something, but please... then a .2 would have been enough to push Cubase 7 back a bit further. Steinberg definitely still needs to learn a lot on that behalf.


I'm not too fond of Soundcloud to be honest. But I'd love to see a (way) better solution within Cubase and Studio One in terms of the "Digital Musician Network" that was backed up by former Steinberg Emplyees as well. Here FLAC and HD-AAC would be the solution.

But hey... it's not Cubase 7 yet.


EDIT:
Just got a mail from Steinberg sales (Uwe Huebner) answering a couple of my Q's. They were mainly:

Q1) Will there be a paid .5 update sans the synth?
A1) No.

Q2) Will the .0.6 update incorporate all features than .5 sans the synths?
A2) No, the Cubase 6.0.6 update will only incorporate the Rewire 64bit feature

Q3) Will there be Cubase 7 announced at Musikmesse 2012?
A3) No, Cubase 7 will not yet be announced on Musikmesse 2012

Q4) Own samplecontent in PADSHOP?
A4) As of this moment, it is not possible. If this will change in the future is not known yet.

Q5) Longlivity of Plugins and bundled content of Cubase 7 (Retrology and Padshop?)
A5) There are no details existing yet regarding the shipped content of Cubase 7.



SUMMARY (private):
They could have offered more for longtime users and still wouldn't loose a dime. They failed on that end. I'm surprised that they even answered me "outside" of the support section (I still refuse to register for the 4th or 5th time).

It's Steinberg. At least there is some movement in their actions. And the response was faster than usual (usually up to 2 weeks, now less than 24 hours).

[FrankT]

"Phat, phresh and Phunky sounds with Retrologue"

Marketing 0.2

[Sequent]

I will most likely wait until (if) a trail version of 6.5 becomes available. At this point I'm very wary of messing with a working installation. At least with a trial version I'll be able to make sure everything is going to be functional on my specific setup.

[Deranger604]

For those that are upset... no one is forcing you to buy. You'll get your FREE 6.0.6 update soon enough. They could have been complete a-holes and jumped straight to 6.5 with no maintenance release in between.

Two things:
a) they were constant a-holes before (.5 release with more bugs, then straight to major without bugfixes, for almost a decade now)

b) the "maintenance update" is not availlable yet, and it is not known what will be included either (for example the multilane and easier comping mode but not the plugins - would be a great move, but don't count on it).

Yes.. I'm right there with you. I've been a Cubase user since VST5. It's been rough ride at times BUT, I prefer to live my life not stressing over little things like so and just write some music.

[bjporter]

Ok, it seems to be true
There are some rumours about Soundcloud integration, the new synth "Padshop" and other stuff... But this update will not be for free.

Some quote from the Steinberg Forum from Helge Vogt (Product Manager Steinberg).

The good news is: 6.5 brings a host of useful and great sounding features, and you'll love it — just like we do. But yes, it won't come for free - it simply can't.

However, we are confident that this is a fair deal - consistent with our philosophy. In less than 24 hours you can make your own judgement - when we reveal the full picture

Thank you!!! Amazing price. Puts much new faith into the company

[synchronizer]

I've been afraid to update Mac OSX Cubase 6 from version 6.0.0 to any of the other point versions because of all of the troubles people seem to be having. Is 6.0.5 safe? How about the soon-to-be-released 6.0.6? I want the fear of updating to end.

ALSO, does 6.5 use more RAM and CPU than 6.0 does? This is extremely important to me, because my system isn't the "ideal" music system.

There is no one here who would be kind enough to address my concern?

Note, I have ~96 GB of space left.

[LeVzi]

I didn't think that the addtional stuff like the quantize improvements would come in the 6.0.6 fix.

But there is a lot that still isn't fixed in the 6.0.6, or the 6.5.

Seems they are now getting more bothered about pushing new content than completely fixing the existing problems.

But hey, isn't that what all larger companies do ?

[Sendy]

Not sure how obvious this is but I was entitled to a free update to 6.5 since I bought cubase 6 very recently and there's a grace period. I didn't know about this until I checked their site.

So basically I got 2 synths and some workflow stuff for free

[4damind]

Never had so much fun with an update Always playing with Padshop and Retrologue. Nice stuff from Steinberg, from Hamburg with Love

[synchronizer]

How much more space does Cubase 6.5 take up? Ihave to be wise with disk capacity now, since only 96 GB or so remain on my system. (Until I purchase an external hard drive; perhaps one from Glyph.

[Compyfox]

Er... seriously? 96GB is MORE THAN PLENTY. I run a 160GB HDD as OS with XP and ton of sh*t on the main HDD while having about 46GB left for chaching and stuff.

You should use a seperate HDD for recording anyway (ir's a necessity for PT, and Cubase runs more smooth as well).

My Cubase 6 folder in Program Files eats 285MB, in Common Files it eats (due to the samplesets) about 50MB and in the profiles folder about 600MB (HALone content on "all users) plus 5,5GB Sample content (studio profile, the main content - yes, blame Steinberg for stupid installation folders). All in all about 6,5GB.

Now let's assume the update is 250MB packed and about 500MB to 1GB unpacked - you should be more than healthy on your main HDD.

[Sendy]

Really liking the sync and x-mod sounds in Retrologue. I didn't want to like it, but the oscillators make my ears prick up.

[inboxzero]

Enjoying the new sythns, but annoyed that it crashes everytime I shut the damn thing down.

Disappointed!

[breakmixer]

Is their a 6.5 demo available, need to check compatibility with my Plugiator synths VST's, it didn't work with 5.5. had to revert to 5.1?

The update from 5 to 6.5 is £168, it's quite alot, would not update without a demo.

Anyone know? Cheers, couldn't find a demo at Steiny site....

[Akiha]

I think Steinburg may think their older synth in Cubase are dated and need to be updated. Also, a couple of the plugins require Rosetta therefore will not work on the newer macs (as Rosetta has been dropped by default from Snow Lion onwards). They probably realised people would get annoyed if the Cubase 7 release was dominated by new plugins, therefore created a point release which would have a lower effect on their overall output than if Cubase 7 was released with said features and many users did not see the reason to upgrade.

I have no reason to upgrade myself, so I am not going to. I wish they would work on getting the interface issues (window focus...) resolved for the next main release. That, fixing bugs and removing that cursed dongle would be my wishes, not new plugins or instruments....