Cubase 12 released

[Prototype_human]

Can someone confirm it is ok under osx 10.15.7 ?

[David W]

I think Steinberg hinted, however, that they may "streamline" this process for future upgrades (likely only requiring to see the dongle once rather than the multi-stage affair of Cubase 12..

Upgrades from Cubase 12 will happen entirely in the Steinberg Licensing system; eLicenser will not be involved at all. I suspect you will enter the upgrade Download Access Code in Steinberg Download Assistant and your Cubase 12 licence will be replaced with a licence for the upgraded version.

It is only when upgrading from an eLicenser version of an application to a Steinberg Licensing one that you need to go through the convoluted process.

[David W]

Can someone confirm it is ok under osx 10.15.7 ?

Officially only Big Sur (11) and Monterey (12) are tested and supported by Steinberg. However, there are several reports of Cubase 12 working on Catalina (10.15) - this is, of course, unsupported and untested. The Cubase 12 installer is blocked on Mojave (10.14) and earlier.

If you are unsure about upgrading Cubase and do not want (or cannot) upgrade your OS beyond Catalina, I suggest waiting until trial licences for Cubase 12 are available in a few weeks.

[Prototype_human]

Can someone confirm it is ok under osx 10.15.7 ?

Officially only Big Sur (11) and Monterey (12) are tested and supported by Steinberg. However, there are several reports of Cubase 12 working on Catalina (10.15) - this is, of course, unsupported and untested. The Cubase 12 installer is blocked on Mojave (10.14) and earlier.

If you are unsure about upgrading Cubase and do not want (or cannot) upgrade your OS beyond Catalina, I suggest waiting until trial licences for Cubase 12 are available in a few weeks.

Thx

[PAK]

Upgrades from Cubase 12 will happen entirely in the Steinberg Licensing system; eLicenser will not be involved at all. I suspect you will enter the upgrade Download Access Code in Steinberg Download Assistant and your Cubase 12 licence will be replaced with a licence for the upgraded version.

It is only when upgrading from an eLicenser version of an application to a Steinberg Licensing one that you need to go through the convoluted process.

Yes, that makes sense for Cubase 12.5 or 13 or whatever they call it. But, right now, everyone who upgrades is coming from eLicenser. So I thought it was in reference to other eLicenser upgrades. IE That they'd streamline that, since the knowledge to upgrade is held server side, and surely there's a better way to do that (IE mark non upgradeable and deposit license in account in one step).. BUT you're probably right, and it's a reference only to non-eLicenser updates

[mountainmaster]

My upgrade went well. At least once I realized that the Steinberg shop account was not the same thing as my main Steinberg account. What's up with that, Steinberg?

But where do people see this "non-upgradeable" in the eLicenser? Mine says "Cubase 11 Pro (Upgraded to Cubase 12 with Steinberg Licensing)". I suppose it means the same though.

[toddbooster]

I think there was a recent update to eLicense Control that fixed that. When I upgraded, my Cubase 11 license said "Non-upgradeable", but now it says "Upgraded to Cubase 12 with Steinberg Licensing".

[jancivil]

non-upgradeable is an interim designation on the way to it being upgraded, then it shows that.

[David W]

non-upgradeable is an interim designation on the way to it being upgraded, then it shows that.

It seems that the latest eLicenser database has renamed the "Cubase 11 Pro (not upgradeable)" to "Cubase 11 Pro (Upgraded to Cubase 12 with Steinberg Licensing)". There has not been an additional eLicenser transaction to do this.

My "Dorico 3.5 Pro (not upgradeable)" licence has become "Dorico 3.5 Pro (Upgraded to Dorico 4 with Steinberg Licensing)".

[David W]

But, right now, everyone who upgrades is coming from eLicenser. So I thought it was in reference to other eLicenser upgrades. IE That they'd streamline that, since the knowledge to upgrade is held server side, and surely there's a better way to do that (IE mark non upgradeable and deposit license in account in one step).. BUT you're probably right, and it's a reference only to non-eLicenser updates

They are not going to change the way the eLicenser system works at this late stage in its life, especially as the on-sale period for the Cubase upgrade, which will be the most demanding upgrade period to Steinberg Licensing, is now out of the way.

The only way Steinberg can mark the eLicenser licence as already upgraded is to carry out an eLicenser upgrade transaction to exchange the current eLicenser licence for one valid for the last eLicenser version of the application marked as upgraded to Steinberg Licensing (i.e. both "Cubase 10.5 Pro" and "Cubase 11 Pro" will become "Cubase 11 Pro (Upgraded to Cubase 12 with Steinberg Licensing)").

For most people, the steps should happen seamlessly, as they did with my Dorico 3.5 to 4 upgrade:

1. enter Download Access Code, 30-day "verification pending licence" for the new version deposited in your Steinberg Licensing account
2. eLicenser upgrade transaction takes place
3. the eLicenser server outputs that the eLicenser upgrade transaction relating to your Download Access Code is complete, leading to the Steinberg Licensing licence being changed to perpetual validity

I am sure they will work on improving reliability of the processes and squashing any bugs, but I expect will will continue to use the same process to upgrade eLicenser licences to Steinberg Licensing. I have 25 products still to move (Nuendo, WaveLab Pro, SpectraLayers Pro, VST Connect Pro, Absolute, Iconica and a lot of other add-ons). Nuendo 12 is likely to launch soon. I expect a paid update to Absolute (I'm pretty sure a paid update to HALion was mentioned in the Steinberg Licensing announcements). SpectraLayers has fairly frequent paid updates, so that will probably move on a paid update. WaveLab has relatively infrequent paid updates and there was a paid update late last year, so that might move across on a free minor version update. I have no idea what to expect with VST Connect Pro. I expect the content packs including Iconica to move without a paid update; I cannot think of any paid updates to Steinberg content packs in the past.

[PAK]

They are not going to change the way the eLicenser system works at this late stage in its life

Of course not. But they could've simplified things. Right now they get eLicenser to change the dongle license name to upgradeable. Then they email an activation code after it checks for this. Then it requires another eLicenser transaction, to change the license name for a second time to "upgraded", before activating.

That first step is already known to Steinberg server side. It means they could use their back end to check against the dongle serial / license activation date registered to the Steinberg account - WITHOUT the need to mark any licenses as "upgradeable". They'd then email the activation code on that basis. Then, whilst activating, and only then, it'd check the dongle serial and activation license, before changing the license name to say "upgraded" and granting activation on the new system.

That would simplify the user process and reduces the number of eLicenser transactions required. But it was maybe easier for them to implement things in the current way. Hopefully they still do back end checks btw, and it doesn't just look for the license name, as that would create obvious vulnerabilities.

All that said, I'd rather see them spend their time on Cubase 12 fixes, as I'm one of those who gets a significant performance hit with real-time instrument usage.

I expect HALion 7 will be along fairly soon and, with that, the new content licenses. But, given the number of possible content licenses, they might well stage those as it could potentially generate a heavier load, on the eLicenser server, than just a single Cubase license! Hopefully not

[jancivil]

non-upgradeable is an interim designation on the way to it being upgraded, then it shows that.

It seems that the latest eLicenser database has renamed the "Cubase 11 Pro (not upgradeable)" to "Cubase 11 Pro (Upgraded to Cubase 12 with Steinberg Licensing)". There has not been an additional eLicenser transaction to do this.

My "Dorico 3.5 Pro (not upgradeable)" licence has become "Dorico 3.5 Pro (Upgraded to Dorico 4 with Steinberg Licensing)".

Yep. But another lost-in-translation gem from Steinberg. I'd be scared or livid or both to see that, outside of having seen this on KVR and Steiny dot net.

[_leras]

If you're upgrading; the "prompt" you saw was likely it launching eLicenser (in the background) to change the name of the license, on the dongle, to make it known if that license has already been used to upgrade. I think Steinberg hinted, however, that they may "streamline" this process for future upgrades (likely only requiring to see the dongle once rather than the multi-stage affair of Cubase 12.. )

Whooops. After reading this I checked, and actually elicenser was not plugged in!

I totally got the wrong end of the stick as it was available to download and installed fine!

[felis]

I just checked mine and it showed not upgradeable until I ran maintenance, and then the new message showed up.

[dellboy]

The question that no one seems to know the answer to, is, can you sale Cubase12 if you want ? - and if you can, do you have to give the old dongle with it?