Finally the very good news from Steinberg!!!

[felis]

It's called... C/R......And, you definitely have to be online to authorize the plugins initially.

What are the drawbacks besides having to authorize and update them online?

[rasmusklump]

When the company goes down you can't authorise the software you have paid for anymore.

[enroe]

It's called... C/R......And, you definitely have to be online to authorize the plugins initially.

What are the drawbacks besides having to authorize and update them online?

---------> Haha, it's always the same:

In some future - you don't even know when exactly, e.g. in 10 or even 20
years - you might want to remix an old song. Or your son or nephew wants
to change an old song and mix it up again. Or the record company calls
and says: "We want to mix this (old) song again and put it out again."

What is going to happen now? Yeah, you install the old DAW from back then
to load the old project files. But for this you need the old activation code,
otherwise nothing will work.

So you feverishly look for the activation code, turn the house upside down
until you realize that even that is of no use, because you need a "current"
activation code.

Tcha, but the company that operates the activation server has been bought
three times in the meantime, has renamed itself seven times - and the old
activation routines have long been gone.

And that means: The song is lost! There is nothing more you can do.
It's like you never recorded and arranged this song. In general, all of
your previous work is lost - as if it never existed.

[sprnva]

Or, as in the case of NI, they change their activation scheme from Service Center to Native Access which won't run on older operating systems. You have a hardware change on an old system, all your plugins are in demo mode and when you contact them for help they close your ticket linking you to an article stating the operating systems supported by Native Access.

I've actually been considering Cubase lately and the dongle was a selling point for me. Partly due to the fact that it could also enable me to run old versions on old systems. I hope it's kept as an option at least.

[noiseboyuk]

In some future - you don't even know when exactly, e.g. in 10 or even 20
years - you might want to remix an old song. Or your son or nephew wants
to change an old song and mix it up again. Or the record company calls
and says: "We want to mix this (old) song again and put it out again."

What is going to happen now? Yeah, you install the old DAW from back then
to load the old project files. But for this you need the old activation code,
otherwise nothing will work.

So you feverishly look for the activation code, turn the house upside down
until you realize that even that is of no use, because you need a "current"
activation code.

Tcha, but the company that operates the activation server has been bought
three times in the meantime, has renamed itself seven times - and the old
activation routines have long been gone.

And that means: The song is lost! There is nothing more you can do.
It's like you never recorded and arranged this song. In general, all of
your previous work is lost - as if it never existed.

While this is true theoretically, it's not just limited to C/R. Any old plugin you might have could be lost, non-functioning with the future OS.

I'm starting to migrate to rendering out a combination of channels and stems for a final mix / mastering stage combined, all designed so leaving all faders at unity gain has the mix I had in Cubase, and I can refine from there. I love it as a way of working. And part of the reason is exactly the above, when you have everything as a bunch of WAVs, it is safe as houses.

Sorry for the tangent...

[pixel85]

It's called... C/R......And, you definitely have to be online to authorize the plugins initially.

What are the drawbacks besides having to authorize and update them online?

---------> Haha, it's always the same:

In some future - you don't even know when exactly, e.g. in 10 or even 20
years - you might want to remix an old song. Or your son or nephew wants
to change an old song and mix it up again. Or the record company calls
and says: "We want to mix this (old) song again and put it out again."

What is going to happen now? Yeah, you install the old DAW from back then
to load the old project files. But for this you need the old activation code,
otherwise nothing will work.

So you feverishly look for the activation code, turn the house upside down
until you realize that even that is of no use, because you need a "current"
activation code.

Tcha, but the company that operates the activation server has been bought
three times in the meantime, has renamed itself seven times - and the old
activation routines have long been gone.

And that means: The song is lost! There is nothing more you can do.
It's like you never recorded and arranged this song. In general, all of
your previous work is lost - as if it never existed.

While it's reasonably right, it's unreasonable to believe that in 10-20 years you'll be able to recover the same PC hardware + OS version + the same version of plugins and DAW you used for a particular project. Except of course someone is collecting installation files of every single update of every plugin and DAW (is there anyone doing it?).
It's even worst with license apps because in some cases you can't even get installation files, like in the example of Native Instruments it's necessary to copy such file after it's downloaded by license app but before it's installed because then files are deleted forever... and even then, you may occur error if you try to install something from such files because 'reasons'.

tl;dr with or without a subscription, there's nothing to guarantee that you can get back to your old projects except you keep machine + software untouched from the time you made such project.

The real solution is to bounce everything to audio as a multitrack session in the highest sample rate / bit depth (for future proof requirements like eg. remaster in new audio standard).

[ReleaseCandidate]

You might think there’s nothing worse than a dongle. But if anyone, it will be Steinberg who can come up with a worse option.

Blackmagic with their dongles is special too. Bought a Fusion dongle and threw away the box it came in. Because the serial of the dongle is only on the box is is shipped in, I don't have that and the official state of my license is the same as if I just had stolen the dongle

[enroe]

... there's nothing to guarantee that you can get back to your old projects except you keep machine + software untouched from the time you made such project.

Yes, that's exactly what we do: We have an old Win XP PC
with the entire configuration on which all old projects can be
loaded. Works great!

But, if you do that, the following generally applies: It would no
longer work if you periodically needed new C / R codes.
Then this option would also be broken! That is important to
understand!

The real solution is to bounce everything to audio as a multitrack session in the highest sample rate / bit depth (for future proof requirements like eg. remaster in new audio standard).

Sure, this is the ultimate solution. Unfortunately, I find it very, very
time-consuming - and also limited. Because all midi tracks should
also be available as audio stems. You can no longer go back to the
midi level.

[chk071]

When the company goes down you can't authorise the software you have paid for anymore.

Same with eLicenser. Same when the company you got a serial protected software from goes down and takes its website down, and you can't look into your account anymore, or download the installer. Same with about everything.

But why fantasize about such scenarios? It's important what happens in the here and now, not what theoretically could happen in some unforseeeable future. You buy software in the state it is today, not in the state it theoretically could be in 10 years.

[pixel85]

... there's nothing to guarantee that you can get back to your old projects except you keep machine + software untouched from the time you made such project.

Yes, that's exactly what we do: We have an old Win XP PC
with the entire configuration on which all old projects can be
loaded. Works great!

But, if you do that, the following generally applies: It would no
longer work if you periodically needed new C / R codes.
Then this option would also be broken! That is important to
understand!

The real solution is to bounce everything to audio as a multitrack session in the highest sample rate / bit depth (for future proof requirements like eg. remaster in new audio standard).

Sure, this is the ultimate solution. Unfortunately, I find it very, very
time-consuming - and also limited. Because all midi tracks should
also be available as audio stems. You can no longer go back to the
midi level.

It's actually a very fast process now in Cubase. A few clicks to export a multitrack session or even a few variations at the same time (in C11 which I don't have yet and I don't know how it really works in practice). But basic MT export is very fast in C10.5.
This + Export Midi File should be enough as long as tracks are properly named to avoid confusion after a few years ("what tf is that Kontakt 5 03 midi track?")

Btw. for midi it shouldn't be a problem. I'm able to run very old projects in C10.5. Beside missing tons of plugins (errors of youth ) all midi and tracks are there.

[maschinelf]

Same with eLicenser. Same when the company you got a serial protected software from goes down and takes its website down, and you can't look into your account anymore, or download the installer. Same with about everything.

But why fantasize about such scenarios? It's important what happens in the here and now, not what theoretically could happen in some unforseeeable future. You buy software in the state it is today, not in the state it theoretically could be in 10 years.

Yea if it all goes to shit in some unforeseen future (which it probably will), getting a 20 year old daw running will be the least of our concerns. We, or the ones still around anyway, will be too busy chasing after aquifiers and guzzoline.

[rasmusklump]

When the company goes down you can't authorise the software you have paid for anymore.

But why fantasize about such scenarios?

Because it happened to me TWICE and not theoretical but practical, smartass

[chk071]

Holy shit. Twice.

How many different software vendors did you ever buy from software in your life? How much software was discontinued? How many OS updates have there been which broke compatibility with some of your software?

Anyway, in your case, I'd recommend going Linux, and full FOSS. That way you will never be disappointed. Just kidding. Of course you would be. Constantly.

[Sam-U]

Steinberg comes up with something new and modern, easy to handle, future proof, somewhat secure, no need to call the support each time, definitely no subscription and something for offline workstations? hahahahahahahahahahaha yeah sure

[melomood]

It's called... C/R......And, you definitely have to be online to authorize the plugins initially.

What are the drawbacks besides having to authorize and update them online?

---------> Haha, it's always the same:

In some future - you don't even know when exactly, e.g. in 10 or even 20
years - you might want to remix an old song. Or your son or nephew wants
to change an old song and mix it up again. Or the record company calls
and says: "We want to mix this (old) song again and put it out again."

What is going to happen now? Yeah, you install the old DAW from back then
to load the old project files. But for this you need the old activation code,
otherwise nothing will work.

So you feverishly look for the activation code, turn the house upside down
until you realize that even that is of no use, because you need a "current"
activation code.

Tcha, but the company that operates the activation server has been bought
three times in the meantime, has renamed itself seven times - and the old
activation routines have long been gone.

And that means: The song is lost! There is nothing more you can do.
It's like you never recorded and arranged this song. In general, all of
your previous work is lost - as if it never existed.

You don't do stems? Plenty of remixing has been done from stems & the wav format has pretty much stayed the same