Usually Grace Periods are 3 months only.

I can understand such a move if Cubase 6.5 was released recently, but it was first released in February. Dunno where you get that with the Grace Period, but this is usually not Steinberg's style. Else people who bought Cubase 6 the six months prior to the February would have gotten the upgrade for free. But they didn't.

I still say that if they sell Cubase at a reduced price now, it falls directly into a 3-month grace period should Steinberg to sell it from September onwards. Longer and it would be total overkill and more whining going on "why <inser user here> didn't get a free upgrade".


Also, Steinberg doesn't send out "free disks" as upgrade (not anymore since SX and especially "download" days). I've been with them for quite a while now. I also got download versions only.


And "retailers giving the upgrade for free" on top of it. Depending on the version - but this is usually not what Steinberg had in mind.


Then again, my unworthy 0,0002c.

You appear to be both agreeing and disagreeing with what I said.

Yet I did not say how long any grace period lasted. I only said Cubase 6.0 purchased after January 1, 2012 is essentially 6.5 due to the upgrade eligibility, (of course if a 7 comes out everything changes).

Steinberg does acknowledge a grace period. From their website:

"Grace Period

All customers who have activated Cubase 6 or Cubase Artist 6 on January 1, 2012, or later, are eligible to obtain a free Grace Period update to version 6.5."

Given that 6.5 was released Feb. 29, 2012 this was a 2-month grace period. The context from which I was referring to the period regarded buying a 6.0 retail box and considering it 6.5 because you are eligible for an upgrade to 6.5. I found a retailer honoring this current Steinberg upgrade sale except they were selling 6.0 upgrade boxes with 6.5 eligibility.

I also did not say Steinberg offered upgrade disks. I said "...if not a mailed disk" which indicates I did not know but one way or another you get an upgrade.


.

the question remains:

why do I (living in Germany) have to pay the same price a always for a upgrade from Cubase Essential 4 to Cubase Artist (eventhough it says "special upgrade offer"), while the North American customers obviously are offered a reduced price for the very same upgrade?

Is this a mistake?

Ask Steinberg?

Shame the cut off is Cubase SX. I own a very dusty copy of Cubase VST 5 and might have considered getting back into it.

VST5 was cut off with the release of SX3. This is how I got on the "newer host" boat myself.

Yup, you read right - I never jumped on SX1 or SX2 - which where like 5-7 years or so from VST5 to SX3. Don't remember anymore.

When I actually try to check out from the Cubase page, I get $159.00 Canadian instead, then told me it wasn't available for Canada. I suppose should contact Steinberg Canada, but wondering if anyone has been able to find out.

$159 is practically Cubase Artist educational version price.

i have asked Steinberg directly about this , but it seems they don't want answere about this !

Just to update -- retailers here (Canada) do have it, but Steinberg didn't tell some of them, apparently. It's $99 and $299, as on the Steinberg website.

Is this upgrade available to Cubase Studio 4 owners?
I checked on their website and got the impression that it is not but maybe I'm missing something?

Contact Steinberg to be certain. The description of the sale does not state "Studio" where I can see anywhere.

Of course I don't know it definitely, but as far as I know there is no upgrade from Cubase Studio to Artist, and upgrade from LE/AI/SX has different upgrade code from Studio. So my guess would be no. All the other upgrades actually have same product code.

(but isn't the upgrade from Studio to Full 6.5 cheaper than the offer anyways?)

So I ordered the upgrade and it came earlier than was projected. Unfortunately when I read through all of the details on the sales page I did not comprehend that a hardware USB licenser is required. I thought the soft licenser that came with my AI5 would be enough. Apparently soft licensers only work with Steinberg's lite-level versions. I found a hardware licenser for less than this retailer's price on Amazon and am hoping it arrives earlier than later.


There is no upgrade from Studio 4 or 5 to Cubase Artist and the upgrade to full Cubase 6.5 is $249 on the Steinberg website. The choice would be to either buy a full version of Cubase Artist 6.5 at $200-250 shopping around or to buy an upgrade to the full version for $250. I suspect locating this specific upgrade from Studio to C full at a retailer will be more difficult as it is less common and the various upgrade versions are not widely available anyway. There isn't likely to be a better price than $250. One might think the obvious better deal is the full version yet there is a lot that you may not need or use so it is a matter of space and complexity in the tool that are worth considering. Artist is all most people need and any future upgrade would be less if you went with Artist. (NOTE: if you need a USB hardware licenser it is incl. in the full version of Artist).