Cubase 12 leaked on Steinberg's site

[antic604]

Its all supposition and only Steinberg know, but i'd bet money on it being the reason for the no 11.5 release and the delay to V12.

So we kinda sorta established that we both have no idea, but somehow you decided your uninformed speculation is true and mine isn't. Ok, got it.

[LeVzi]

Its all supposition and only Steinberg know, but i'd bet money on it being the reason for the no 11.5 release and the delay to V12.

So we kinda sorta established that we both have no idea, but somehow you decided your uninformed speculation is true and mine isn't. Ok, got it.

Well considering you were so quick to say I was wrong about the Dongle drop, I'd say you were just as guilty of that. Works both ways.

[antic604]

Its all supposition and only Steinberg know, but i'd bet money on it being the reason for the no 11.5 release and the delay to V12.

So we kinda sorta established that we both have no idea, but somehow you decided your uninformed speculation is true and mine isn't. Ok, got it.

Well considering you were so quick to say I was wrong about the Dongle drop, I'd say you were just as guilty of that. Works both ways.

That's true

[LeVzi]

Its all supposition and only Steinberg know, but i'd bet money on it being the reason for the no 11.5 release and the delay to V12.

So we kinda sorta established that we both have no idea, but somehow you decided your uninformed speculation is true and mine isn't. Ok, got it.

Well considering you were so quick to say I was wrong about the Dongle drop, I'd say you were just as guilty of that. Works both ways.

That's true

Either way, I am hoping V12 to be the best version of Cubase ever. I have to say V11 is really a pleasure to use.

[pixel85]

I would even go as far as to see performance improvements from the dongle being removed. All depends what kind of security they implement. (I pray its not codemeter)

It depends. If they just replace the type of license but they keep the same amount of 'checkpoints', then it may change nothing. It will be even worst if it would be online check-out, especially on WIFI which would hit real-time performance a lot.
Of course, they promised an offline system and not so often check-outs online.

Ps. if they would go for codemeter (which I highly doubt), then even I would quit Cubase

[chk071]

I would even go as far as to see performance improvements from the dongle being removed. All depends what kind of security they implement. (I pray its not codemeter)

I think I posted 5 times or more now on KVR Audio that it won't be any existing copy protection scheme, but Steinberg's own development.

I know, I know, there's no way to read everything on this site, but, with a little bit of search, this can be found, either here, or on Steinberg's forums.

It most likely will be a typical online check protection, like NI's or Arturia's solutions.

And, before the anxious panic folks freak out again: No, Steinberg said that it won't require permanent online connection. I can't prevent any further panic which might occur though, with other fears, whatever they will be. There surely will be something scary about it. It might eat your cat, and burn your house down, stuff like that.

[LeVzi]

Well whatever they come up with, i'm hoping its good enough and V12 is their best version.

[BBFG#]

Their dongle doesn't appear to effect performance at all. That's an iLok thing, or more specifically, the PACE/EDEN software that runs with or without the dongle. It enlists two or three OS functions which can take another 1-4% of your CPU in cycles that aren't present after uninstalling all iLok software. (Spikes can run as high as 8-12% though which disappear completely after removing it.) Whereas uninstalling eLicenser makes no change.

[Compyfox]

they should embrace the subscription way

That's one surefire way to flip the bird to long-time users. So absolutely not!

I would suggest that removing the elicenser hardware from the Cubase program was the reason for not releasing 11.5 and V12 will be Dongle free and it took some major changes to the whole code. It maybe not a MIDI note , but opening a steinberg VST probably checked the hardware license. (im guessing) but it wouldnt surprise me at all. As it seems the cracked version crashed all the time, so obviously its deeply integrated and you dont just remove that quickly, and make it stable.

If that were the case, then Wavelab 11, which jumped directly from Wavelab 10 as well, would be Elicenser free.


My suspicion is, that due to COVID, they've been "short on staff" and to catch up with everything and "stay on top of the competition" (higher number = better, right? This is why XBOX360 wasn't called XBOX2 while the PS3 came out - implies inferiority), we just "hop a version".

There is another aspect, and that is pure speculation, but I think certain "backdoors" are about to be closed forever. This is why we can't have nice things.

I would even go as far as to see performance improvements from the dongle being removed. All depends what kind of security they implement. (I pray its not codemeter)

It will be their own proprietary thing, and they said "there will be solutions for always-offline rigs" (hinting at a continuation of Elicenser). Not a fan of "random online checks", no matter the company.

Well whatever they come up with, i'm hoping its good enough and V12 is their best version.

Good one, made me chuckle (not!).

Quite honestly, their focus has been way off in certain areas for years. The maintenance has also been absolutely sub-par for years. Things being broken with every update "we'll fix it in the next paid .5 version". Unacceptable!

Or what about features that were "part of Cubase", then removed for years on end because "reasons". "Replace audio in video" comes to mind, removed from Cubase 8.5, then some... Frankenstein crap has been sold back to us with Cubase 10! Thankfully another company stepped up to that -- now Wavelab of all places got it back in first! Prior to Nuendo and Cubase!

Or what about the constant block of innovation? Like... why still focus on VR in Cubase, yet insist that "only Nuendo is for Surround". Cubase has been "locked" to 5.1 (6 channels) since SX days... that's what... early 2000s? Meanwhile, Logic Pro got a free update to fully utilize Dolby Atmos Panning, and the future on streaming platforms is 7.1.4.

What about the "more than 8 CPU cores" topic and ASIO Guard? (see DAWBench reports on that topic)

Same goes for Wavelab... DVD-A was dead on arrival, yet it continued to stay inside Wavelab for years. Now the focus is Podcasting again and "Video Blogs". Yet what about Blu-Ray Audio? Oh wait, the Surround support is also super wonky. I'm surprised they still collaborate with iZotope (mbit+) and Fraunhofer (ProCodec)... the Fraunhofer collaboration was also once dropped without any announcement (MP3 encoding, especially MP3pro).


Cubase has been treated like "a test subject" for over a decade at this point (on levels of "Sequel", and look where that went!) - and I am still skeptical about the "buy Cubase Artist, get Cubase Pro" type of deal. Then why price Cubase Pro like it is in the first place?! What a slap in the face to loyal users!

Steinberg might still count to the "Top 4" companies, but with Presonus on the verge of breaking away, Avid still insisting on their paid .dot upgrades (and now subscription), and Logic being the top dog in terms of pricing and features (although you need to "buy into" the Apple economy first)... I've been so long with Steinberg (25+ years!)... I think we're about to see a drastic shift, just like it happened every time they got acquired by a company. And I am not sure I like that.

I mean, look at SpectraLayers for example... barely acquired, and we saw sub-1-year paid upgrade cycles! No .1 or .2 versions. Steinberg made that clear in early 2000s already that this "isn't lucrative".



Also, Cubase 12 won't be new code , like it happened with Wavelab 7... now that would be unheard of.

Old Spaghetti Code it is, with "patching in" new stuff, and prey that it works (Cubase 7 Mix Console and ASIO Guard comes to mind... boy was that a ride until about Cubase 8.75 or something!)

[Milkman]

Uhg. My last 2 years experience with steinberg, after the prior 20 years, has been dismal and I am not motivated to buy any additional steinberg products unless I am forced. Ive been following them since before yamaha gobbled them up, and I feel like in decades past it was a LOT easier to get straight answers from them, and far more quickly. Their customer service has turned into a quagmire today, and the overall handling (and honesty) about the hyperthreading/multicore issue that has plagued cubase since version 8 I believe has angered me enough to look for other solutions. : /

[noiseboyuk]

If Cubase 12 won’t have new GUI, menu improvements, and better file indexing, I’m switching over to StudioOne, Logic, Reaper or Cakewalk.

Just picking up on this - what issues do you have here? I've had issues when using DOP of Cubase getting confused between modified and unmodified clips - one moment it's DOP-modified, then the next time it isn't. Is that the kind of issue you have or something totally different?

[jancivil]

Well, I'm stuck with Cubase because of my workflow with timing and rhythm in it is not something I want to change or adapt differently to, and some of it is not likely to be in another host. But I'm only going to pay at this point depending on one factor: I need to save track presets with automation. My mixing in Cubase is not at all extensive so a track preset is not intensively saving time just to instantiate inserts or something. A VE Pro inst. channel preset with say 60 lanes of automation parameters is another story. As it is, a 'template' in Cubase is just a project with stuff deleted, and I have to make sure not to lose automation lanes in deletion.

[v1o]

I have a feeling the last release of Logic with Spatial Audio tools will have an influence on the direction of Cubase 12. Historically Cubase and Logic have always been playing catch up with each other. Atmos used to be more of post production thing but it's now required for music production workflows since Tidal, Apple and Spotify will be heavily pushing the format for music distribution.

[kritikon]

And, before the anxious panic folks freak out again: No, Steinberg said that it won't require permanent online connection. I can't prevent any further panic which might occur though, with other fears, whatever they will be. There surely will be something scary about it. It might eat your cat, and burn your house down, stuff like that.

I was more worried it was going to raid my fridge's cheese compartment overnight after I go to bed, and my truffled Brie is not cheap to replace. This is how DAWs become so bloated, obviously. Not so worried about it eating the cat - he's been dead for 6 months - Cubase can take it's chances if it tries something silly like that.

[Benutzername]

I would even go as far as to see performance improvements from the dongle being removed. All depends what kind of security they implement. (I pray its not codemeter)

It depends. If they just replace the type of license but they keep the same amount of 'checkpoints', then it may change nothing. It will be even worst if it would be online check-out, especially on WIFI which would hit real-time performance a lot.
Of course, they promised an offline system and not so often check-outs online.

After the last cracked Cubase version came along the cracking crew was asked to also work on the new version but they refused to do so. They said that the process of cracking the code was pretty easy but they had to patch out every single dongle call by hand. They didn't want to do it again because Steinberg had increased the dongle calls in the new version to an insane amount and that it wasn't worth the effort. The crackers wanted to prove that it is possible, not make a profit or feed the community with constant updates.

I remember this because we also used E-Licenser back in the day for our software and this story was one of the reasons why we stepped away from them for the follow up product. The other major reason was that almost half of the support tickets we had was about the dongle and Synchrosoft was no help at all.