How is one supposed to try Cubase???

[bduffy]

...It was very hard to understand and use, but it was like having a YAMAHA mixer in the box.

Sounds like Yamaha!

[offthewall]

Whatever anyone says, there is a Cubase SX demo.
As I wrote in a post a couple of weeks ago, I found some tutorial books in my local library which include the Cubase dem disc. I have it installed on my PC and am learning to use cubase from that. All the features are useable but save and import are disabled. A search on Amazon, or somewhere, should turn these books up.

[DyerMaker]

What does people mean when they say "Sonar is so American"? I have seen that comment a lot in different Cubase vs Sonar threads.

Btw. Cubase is great, but its way too German.

[bduffy]

Whatever anyone says, there is a Cubase SX demo.
As I wrote in a post a couple of weeks ago, I found some tutorial books in my local library which include the Cubase dem disc. I have it installed on my PC and am learning to use cubase from that. All the features are useable but save and import are disabled. A search on Amazon, or somewhere, should turn these books up.

Still...funny way of providing a demo...Do you need a dongle and is that version 3?

[birrbits]

Btw. Cubase is great, but its way too German.

Logic is German, Cubase is Danish

[bduffy]

Sigh...Is there any way to prevent Cubase threads from turning into every other Cubase thread?

[HanafiH]

Sigh...Is there any way to prevent Cubase threads from turning into every other Cubase thread?

Write them with a key protected dongle on the meaning. That way you won't ever have to read anything you don't like.

[Ildon]

Isn't the Yamaha DSPF card kind of outdated now? Wasn't it coded for Win98? Would that explain some of the problems trying to use it with SX 2/3?

Now to get back to the original question: I wrote Steinberg and - contrary to popular lore - got a near instant response! Here's what they said:

Indeed we would love to have a freely available Cubase SX demo version but since Cubase SX is key protected we cannot offer one.
The is a demo for Cubase SX 3 that's shipped with every new VST instrument (e.g. The Grand 2, Hypersonic 2, Groove Agent 2, Virtual Bassist) but it requires the demo license code to be transferred to a Steinberg USB key. Offering Cubase SX 3 for download without the key protection would simply compromise the copy protection for the retail versions.

And there you have it. Another casualty of protection. Too bad. They probably have me for life...but I've never owned a Yamaha DSPF...

At least they replied to you. I got no reply back. Bastards.

[Sascha Franck]

Btw. Cubase is great, but its way too German.

Logic is German, Cubase is Danish

Err???
Since when?

Anyways, it really makes no sense not offering a demo if you want truly convinced customers.
I also doubt the tutorial CD mentioned contains an actual SX 3 demo (seems to be the older SX 1 demo that they took away as well).

I mean, their demos have allways been save-disabled, so, what would you actually gain through them? Oh, you could probably abuse their time stretching. That's about the only thing I could imagine. They could take it out then.
I don't think it's fear of piracy. I mean, usually hackers aren't able to implement a function that hasn't been there in the first place. So a non-saving version would just remain that, a non-saving version. Useless in the long run.

Regarding stability, I have to agree with what was said before, SX has gone a long way and it's fairly stable these days on quite a lot of systems.
If you have a proper soundcard that is, preferably an ASIO driven one.
Use MME drivers and you might still be out of luck. Unsynced audio recordings and the likes.
And well, if you are demoing a product, you may not have an ASIO card already...

Not sure whether Steinberg knows about those shortcomings and whether that knowledge might be related to the absence of a demo. On *could* suspect so.

But no matter how you put it, a product in that price range should have a demo.
Btw, it's the same with Logic, there's no demo either.

[HanafiH]

Another possibility, of course, although I don't really think this could possibly be true , is that a build freed of dependency upon the Syncrosoft dongle exhibits strikingly different performance from those builds that are dependent on it.

[stag]

What does people mean when they say "Sonar is so American"? I have seen that comment a lot in different Cubase vs Sonar threads.

Btw. Cubase is great, but its way too German.

Cubase´s GUI responsible, or not, he´s american, still you rigth the damn thing as an european look to it, i´d say Italian design

[Sascha Franck]

i´d say Italian design

Italian design is known to be rather tasty...

[offthewall]

The demo version is SX 1.2 and there is no dongle.
The good thing about it, as regards the original post, is that it proves whether or not you can set it up on your system and also how you are able to adapt to the learning curve. I've tried many different demo's and find cubase to be one of the 'user-friendly' ones.

[HanafiH]

Designed by computer
Built by robots
Driven by Italians

[bduffy]

Another possibility, of course, although I don't really think this could possibly be true , is that a build freed of dependency upon the Syncrosoft dongle exhibits strikingly different performance from those builds that are dependent on it.

I hate to say it, but I'd loooove to see how Cubase handles without the dongle. Probably the same, but I'd love to know.