First and foremost:
I recently jumped into the Cubase 7 game. About one week ago to be honest. And already, Cubase 7, or better said Steinberg, is pissing me off big time. Granted, I still have 6.0 on my rig, but I want to do another clean slate to just focus on C7 and WL7.
1) The Installation process is stupid:
Not only are you forced to stay online, no... now you are treated like a videogamer now. So instead of offering EVERYTHING on one DVD, you have to download the core installer, switch DVD's just for the Halion Sonic SE content (which could have been put on a DVD9 along with the rest of Cubase) and do online activation. DLC anybody? Only that you do not(!) have to pay for it, but hope that Steinberg never changes their webpage structure in order to get the files.
"but fine sir, this makes sense, since Cubase loads the most recent update/installer combo". Well, while this might be handy indeed. However, I'm one of the oldschool users that is intelligent enough to take care of updates himself.
So in order to even INSTALL Cubase, you need the core installer (which is not on the DVD), therefore you need an online PC one way or another. Oh, and don't forget to activate your license on your USB key.
2) Being online is cool:
For this, I show you the finger! Steinberg promised to bundle Cubase with tons of tutorials. Apparently, they are "online only" - on Youtube (and therefore filled with commercials).
And don't let me get started on the new "hub" - it has never worked for me once. So I turned it off instantly. And no, I don't have large firewall restrictions. I only hope that Steinberg does not(!) go the Apple route - complete with Micro-Purchases, Cloud and sh*t.
3) Cubase 7 crashes like nobodys business:
And that without reason. Most recent version (7.0.2) installed, and it crashes with IKM plugins, ToneBoosters, MeldaProduction, etc. I even had to flush the Plugin Blacklist two times in a row in order to just get IKM ARC to run!
But strangely enough, after the initial crash - no further issues. As if "Diva Cubase" is trying to tell me "ya know, I'm not in the mood to load this plugin now. Maybe try next time". And the next time, it's like "ya know, I don't like this particular plugin today - so I drop it off the list".
What the hell?!
4) It also comes in black (aka, the Color Scheme):
One word: ugly. Feature Request: Skinning. Will that happen? Funk no, we're talking about Steinberg, where GUI's either look like 90ies VSTs (see new Vintage Comp/Tube Compressor), or like a touch panel app look stolen from the design of Jazzmutant's Lemour.
Beam me up, Scotty.
5) The MixConsole I - to be on top or not:
While I like the concept, something is going terribly wrong. I can't "lock" the height of my faders, only the width. The console is unclear in vertical design, the color scheme is unfortunate (here, other hosts are definitely superior, like Reaper with skinning yet again), double clicking on insert FX is responding iffy (I miss the E button - which is only there if you zoomed in to max). But these are just the minor issues.
I have one severe issue with the "always on top" feature. Because it doesn't work! That means, it does work - if it's "Cubase bundled" stuff (the E button, the console itself), but not with third party plugins, or plugins in general.
With earlier Cubase versions, I could always have a VU or other metering tool on top of my mixing console. Or have several plugins "on top" of the mixing console to mix, change send levels but still have an eye on both compressor and other used plugins. Not anymore. Press on the console, or somewhere else on Cubase and boom - your "always on top" plugins are gone "behind" the fullscreen mixer.
Very clever!
6) The MixConsole II - the EQ
As interesting as the new EQ is, I hate it with passion now. First and foremost, the "channel strip" shows each loaded module in the MixConsole as "module with knobs". Not so the EQ or the Pre Module (and pretty much everything else). These are shown as bars, and butt-ugly as well. The Knob View is only available in the Edit Window.
But this doesn't end here. Steinberg promised (and confirmed to me several times) that the FFT can be switched on/off at will. Well, apparently not. So "funk you, user!!!". This stupid FFT is distracting as funk. The usage of the EQ is also very iffy now. Man this was such an essential tool - now it's just a toy.
7) The MixConsole III - the Loudness Meters:
Oh cool, I can now change/setup color codes more easily. Thanks for that - was about darn time! But in order to use Master meters, I need the ControlRoom (that I never used up until then - don't even know why I should except for the meters). And then... well, configuring is pretty much nonexistent.
The EBU R-128 meter is strange, you can setup the "clipping" ranges, but not a reference level or the scale. And the other meters... well, I'd love to have a digital meter with DIN behavior on fall back (ballistics). Or a view where I have the RMS meters to the side of the digital meters. But no - pinch your eyes, see the horizontal bars that "represent" the RMS meters and hope for the best.
There need to be a lot of improvements. But hey, at least the K-System v1 is included as preset.
The MixConsole IV - control my room:Yeah funk that! I can't really setup the Control Room - or I'm just stupid since I've never used or dived into it.
For example: I'm using IKM ARC for correcting my speakers. But if you don't want to constantly think about "switching" that thing off while rendering, you could setup a so called "listening channel" (or it was there by default). Not anymore? Wow.
And why would I need a Control Room, if I use outboard gear for creating CUE mixes, or having a Talkback mode? Come on Steinberg, not everything is handled through the DAW alone. Especially if you can't setup the input channel's volume - since that is locked to the hardware.
We're not stupid users that only use a Laptop. Some of us have a large scale studio and only use Cubase as tape machine, MIDI recorder or VSTi player.
9) now where the funk were I?
Probably finding more issues compared to old Cubase - where things actually "worked". At least for me.
I already know about certain issues with Generic Remote controllers, then I've read about issues with NI VSTi (Kontakt 5 especially), I'm not liking the smart "ASIO Guard" features which fades in/out the input channels if they're switched over to "use" the guard (remembers me of the "faulty" Behringer ADA8k range, that turned off after a while, and tool 5-10ms to fade in on transients), etc.
Seriously... so far I'm not impressed by Cubase 7. Even though certain features are unbeatable (like the new Chord Arranger) and to a certain extend, the mixing console (I want FUNKING KNOBS!).
But else... I'm currently asking myself why Steinberg stops to actually release "working" hosts these days, and rather asks for 50 quids for .5 updates. Like 1,5 years later, and then 2 months after that, releasing the next major version.
FACE-PLANT! Constantly...
] Keith99 names, together with other 42)... only some minor graphical glitches and a couple crashes when resizing / moving stuff around - gone with the new patches.