Ahhh, six weeks ago I updated, finally, to Cubase 6.5 from 6... only to find out today that Cubase 7 will be out in a few weeks... with a free update 'grace' period for those who bought any version after the 25 of October (2012)! Three weeks' grace! Generous sirs, very!

This is a tax to all of us who had been spending £70-100 a year to update our DAWs. Goodness knows how much this new update is going to cost! I hope that following the flop of the update from 6 to 6.5 (many "a special offer this week only!") the 6.5 to 7 will not be crazy!

EVEN WORSE, and this is driving me crazy, for those few idiots among us who updated from 6 to 6.5, we are not going to get any discount whatsoever in respect to those who update now from 6, therefore making our upgrade a complete and utter rip off! FURIOUS! Steinberg, do something for us 6.5ers, NOW!

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www.bugiolacchi.com
Songwriter/guitarist

Wow, that's a terrible grace period, especially considering everything from 6.5 will obviously be contained in 7, which will most likely be the regular upgrade price.

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Composer;
www.ogonline.org

That's harsh.

I really hope they do something for you and others that have been caught in this way.

Native Instruments are famous for doing 'sales' a couple of weeks before a new version or bundle comes out...... I've been caught before but on other occasions I've benefited so on a personal level I forgive them but of course it is possible to get struck by lightning repeatedly if you catch the sales cycle a bit wrong!

On the DAW front, I skipped to Reaper a few years ago and overall very glad I did - $40 IIRC for two complete VERSION numbers of updates from a chap who seems to whack out a bug fix / feature tweak on a weekly basis.

This happens in nearly every SW company I know, there is always incentives for those who are not on the current version to update for the same price for those that are. Steinberg are not the only ones that do this - NI for example do the same thing.

However, as it has happened many times before, I didn't upgrade to 6.5 for exactly that reason, and also I really didn't need some more soft synths!

I will update to 7 though, the new mixer and revised control room implementation look worth it...

Steinberg's appalling treatment of existing customers never changes....

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Samplecraze
Stretch That Note

Quote Gary_W:

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Native Instruments are famous for doing 'sales' a couple of weeks before a new version or bundle comes out...... I've been caught before but on other occasions I've benefited so on a personal level I forgive them but of course it is possible to get struck by lightning repeatedly if you catch the sales cycle a bit wrong!

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Thing is with the NI sales they tend to do two or three a year, so if (for instance) you get a cheap Kontakt in one sale and then they bring out an upgrade, you just have to wait 6 months and you'll get that on the cheap as well.

Quote Pete Kaine:

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Quote Gary_W:

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Native Instruments are famous for doing 'sales' a couple of weeks before a new version or bundle comes out...... I've been caught before but on other occasions I've benefited so on a personal level I forgive them but of course it is possible to get struck by lightning repeatedly if you catch the sales cycle a bit wrong!

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Thing is with the NI sales they tend to do two or three a year, so if (for instance) you get a cheap Kontakt in one sale and then they bring out an upgrade, you just have to wait 6 months and you'll get that on the cheap as well.

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Yes, once you get to know their little ways you can work their system and get some good bargains. I have Komplete 8 Ultimate and, despite being attracted by the new horns they've just brought out I'm waiting for them to release K9.

If only so I can make Doctor Who jokes

There will always be a cut-off, and there will always be some who miss that cut-off by a smaller margin than seems fair - such has it always been.

I thought the 6 to 6.5 upgrade was a fair price, but I do hope those of us that paid it get some benefit when upgrading to 7.

Can anyone see any pricing details? I haven't found anything.

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An Eagle for an Emperor, A Kestrel for a Knave.

Quote Gary_W:

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Quote Pete Kaine:

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Quote Gary_W:

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Native Instruments are famous for doing 'sales' a couple of weeks before a new version or bundle comes out...... I've been caught before but on other occasions I've benefited so on a personal level I forgive them but of course it is possible to get struck by lightning repeatedly if you catch the sales cycle a bit wrong!

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Thing is with the NI sales they tend to do two or three a year, so if (for instance) you get a cheap Kontakt in one sale and then they bring out an upgrade, you just have to wait 6 months and you'll get that on the cheap as well.

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Yes, once you get to know their little ways you can work their system and get some good bargains. I have Komplete 8 Ultimate and, despite being attracted by the new horns they've just brought out I'm waiting for them to release K9.

If only so I can make Doctor Who jokes

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Yes I found that with NI, I got K5 for about £60!!! and that was upgrading from K3 which I got extremely cheap anyway.

I haven't been as lucky with Cubase, and I was perfectly happy paying about £50-100 to upgrade every couple of years, but now the upgrade price is slowly creeping up (£160+ now and heading towards £199) and becoming more frequent. I like Cubase, but am looking to switch, Reaper of course is a good candidate but it doesn't have the patch name scripts, and I have 4 hardware synths so the Cubase patchnames are really useful instead of the usual Bank x, Program y setup

It is annoying - I bought the Cubase 6-6.5 upgrade as well. If you compare it to Propellerheads Reason though, I recently upgraded that from version 1 all the way to version 6.5 for the same price as those upgrading from version 5. You win some, you lose some I suppose.

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When I have nothing to say my lips are sealed.

Right-o... I'm told by Steinberg that (grace period offer aside):

Cubase 6 > 6.5 cost 49 Euros.
Cubase 6 > 7 will cost 199 Euros.
Cubase 6.5 > 7 will cost 149 Euros.

So no-one who upgraded to 6.5 is getting short-changed.

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SOS Reviews Editor

Good to see that those who did the 6.5 jump are not going to lose out for the early upgrade.
It did seem with 6 > 6.5 that you were paying more or less for a few new synths with the rest of it thrown in where as this version 7 revision... well I can see where the development time has gone.

That appears to be one hell of an upgrade!

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ScanProAudio & 3XS Audio Systems
ScanProAudio Blog

Quote Pete Kaine:

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It did seem with 6 > 6.5 that you were paying more or less for a few new synths with the rest of it thrown in

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To be fair, Pete, there were significant improvements to multi-track, multitake comping in 6.5. Not a biggie if you don't track/edit/mix real drums, but a godsend for anyone who does. And for 49 Euros.

I just saw the synths and VST Amp Rack stuff as nice extras.

But yeah, there seems to be rather more going on this time...

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SOS Reviews Editor

Quote Matt Houghton:

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To be fair, Pete, there were significant improvements to multi-track, multitake comping in 6.5. Not a biggie if you don't track/edit/mix real drums, but a godsend for anyone who does. And for 49 Euros.

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Point taken. Shows how often I get involved with the business end of a mic in the studio doesn't it. Needless to say I didn't partake in any upgrades on that revision.

Quote Matt Houghton:

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But yeah, there seems to be rather more going on this time...

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As great as a number of those new features look, it's just the basics that really needed the overhaul and they had me at the new channel strip and channel control center personally... oh and the ASIO drop out guard!

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ScanProAudio & 3XS Audio Systems
ScanProAudio Blog

Quote Matt Houghton:

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Right-o... I'm told by Steinberg that (grace period offer aside):

Cubase 6 > 6.5 cost 49 Euros.
Cubase 6 > 7 will cost 199 Euros.
Cubase 6.5 > 7 will cost 149 Euros.

So no-one who upgraded to 6.5 is getting short-changed.

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There you go. Seems fair to me.

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An Eagle for an Emperor, A Kestrel for a Knave.

Quote Matt Houghton:

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Quote Pete Kaine:

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It did seem with 6 > 6.5 that you were paying more or less for a few new synths with the rest of it thrown in

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To be fair, Pete, there were significant improvements to multi-track, multitake comping in 6.5. Not a biggie if you don't track/edit/mix real drums, but a godsend for anyone who does. And for 49 Euros.

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Yep, a HUGE improvement for me and one that's paid the upgrade fee back many fold. I don't even want to THINK about going back to life without it!!

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An Eagle for an Emperor, A Kestrel for a Knave.

Full boxed versions of Cubase are so reasonably priced here in the US that I'm going to wait until their upgrades include something that I absolutely cannot do without then buy that.
It'll work out about the same.
For now 5 is still miking the cows the same as ever.

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http://soundcloud.com/anthony-wall/sets/audio-reel
http://songsforvoiceandpiano.com/

Hmmm, I want to believe and trust you Matt. The UK website does not mention this and they just say ..."Cubase 6 and 6.5 will be able to upgrade for free within this minuscule grace period".. or sommick...

Still, STEEP upgrade price! 200 euros!! If one totals all the original cost and update prices in the last few years would probably top £700-800.. Still, and I apologies to Herr Steinberg for my original rant (if the 6.5 to 7 price 'discount' is confirmed) and thanks for its amazing software package!

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www.bugiolacchi.com
Songwriter/guitarist

I have Cubase 6 and planned to upgrade to 6.5 but it seems I can no longer do this. There was previously an upgrade option for 40 odd quid on their website I recall which has now gone. I'm undecided on 7 yet but could benefit the extra multitrack editing features of 6.5. Won't be happy if they've removed this upgrade path now that 7 has been announced!

Edited by STRANGY (14/11/12 07:48 PM)

Quote bugiolacchi:

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Hmmm, I want to believe and trust you Matt. The UK website does not mention this and they just say ..."Cubase 6 and 6.5 will be able to upgrade for free within this minuscule grace period".. or sommick...



Still, and I apologies to Herr Steinberg for my original rant (if the 6.5 to 7 price 'discount' is confirmed) and thanks for its amazing software package!

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Confirmed, I got our pricing through yesterday that puts those end prices in the right ball park.

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ScanProAudio & 3XS Audio Systems
ScanProAudio Blog

I have SE or LE or something with an E in it from years ago that came with an audio interface, that runs on XP and it has done me well for a long time. I do need to upgrade in the future to get to 64 bit, but only do this for my own enjoyment.

But I have to say the video on 7 impressed me.

But probably by the time my PC runs out of steam I will be looking at v10.

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Madman_Greg

Sorry for the hijack and especially if you got stung OP but as I don't see 7 for sale yet and it's still a good price for to upgrade from 4.5 Studio, is it worth buying the upgrade to 6.5 now with a view to upgrading to 7 for free?

Sorry if that's bad form to ask that in this thread.

6.5 > 7 is only free if you bought the full package after 25th Oct.

If you upgrade to 6.5 now then it'll cost you the £120 amount as mentioned by Matt up above on top of whatever the cost is to go from 4.5 > 6.5

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ScanProAudio & 3XS Audio Systems
ScanProAudio Blog

I missed-out on the free grace period - always think that they should reward those who upgrade in the 1st couple of weeks of a new release as an "early adopter" reward. Anyway.

I thought 6.5 was well worth the money and I don't even use synths in anger. Go figure. I have SX1, 3, 4 C5, C6, C6.5 boxes cluttering-up the studio (I tell myself that they work as diffusers) and haven't felt particularly short changed at any point along the way. That said, I did wonder if the 6.5 update is still available from dealers (even though it's been removed from the Steiny online shop) and if so can I buy a second copy and register it even though 6.5 is already on my key.

I'll pick-up C7 on the 5th and roll out my old Nemesis Project that I re-record and mix with every new release.

Horses for courses.

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Andi, www.thedustbowl.net Mixing, Mastering, Audio Editing at The Dustbowl Audio

Quote Andi:

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That said, I did wonder if the 6.5 update is still available from dealers (even though it's been removed from the Steiny online shop).

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If you find somewhere please let me know! I'm stuck on 6.0, no intention of moving to the new Producer's Choice in a hurry but could do with the extra features in 6.5...

Quote Pete Kaine:

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6.5 > 7 is only free if you bought the full package after 25th Oct.

If you upgrade to 6.5 now then it'll cost you the £120 amount as mentioned by Matt up above on top of whatever the cost is to go from 4.5 > 6.5

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Yeah, sorry, prob should've guessed that really. Might still upgrade to 6.5 depending on the 4.5 Studio > 7 price just to get the VST Expression and my CI2 AI knob working. Cheers.

Quote Kayvon:

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Quote Pete Kaine:

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6.5 > 7 is only free if you bought the full package after 25th Oct.

If you upgrade to 6.5 now then it'll cost you the £120 amount as mentioned by Matt up above on top of whatever the cost is to go from 4.5 > 6.5

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Yeah, sorry, prob should've guessed that really. Might still upgrade to 6.5 depending on the 4.5 Studio > 7 price just to get the VST Expression and my CI2 AI knob working. Cheers.

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It's probably worth clarifying that it is free for 6.5 licenses REGISTERED since 25th irrespective of when bought.

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Andi, www.thedustbowl.net Mixing, Mastering, Audio Editing at The Dustbowl Audio

This is one of the reasons im still on 4.5... It works perfectly for me so ive stuck with it

Quote Andy-F:

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This is one of the reasons im still on 4.5... It works perfectly for me so ive stuck with it

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6.5 does everything I need plus a ton of stuff I don't so I'm sticking. I don't see anything in cubase 7 I can't live without, or anything that would really improve my workflow. Visually I think it looks great, but there seems to be an awful lot of retro-style knobs! Knobs are great in the physical domain but aren't the most mouse friendly GUI.

For me a combination of windows 8 & x-box kinect would be perfect. Actually anything that would let me mix whilst jumping around throwing shapes pretending to be Tom Cruise in Minority Report would be appreciated.

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Not much in life worth running for. Or from.

Quote Madman_Greg:

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I have SE or LE or something with an E in it from years ago that came with an audio interface, that runs on XP and it has done me well for a long time.

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A couple of times it has been cheaper for me to upgrade something bundled than to skip a couple of versions. In particular that gave me the opportunity to downgrade to Studio after being forced into the flagship version on SX1. I have a V6 lite version lying around and all.

But then I see Artist 7 has no batch export and no logical editor. I think they are telling me to stick on Studio 5 until I learn reaper.

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"To upgrade a computer, physically hardwarewise, is easier than making a lego dog kennel." Tex

Quote Dynamic Mike:

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For me a combination of windows 8 & x-box kinect would be perfect. Actually anything that would let me mix whilst jumping around throwing shapes pretending to be Tom Cruise in Minority Report would be appreciated.

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Too right, it's the 21st century and I should be able to conduct my mixes by now - move over Andrew Preview!

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Andi, www.thedustbowl.net Mixing, Mastering, Audio Editing at The Dustbowl Audio

Quote STRANGY:

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Quote Andi:

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That said, I did wonder if the 6.5 update is still available from dealers (even though it's been removed from the Steiny online shop).

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If you find somewhere please let me know! I'm stuck on 6.0, no intention of moving to the new Producer's Choice in a hurry but could do with the extra features in 6.5...

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So, I eventually had a response back from a forum rep:

"Hi there,


The Cubase 6 to Cubase 6.5 Update is discontinued.
Sorry, but that is the fact.

We can not help you in this case in any way, the Cubase 6-Cubase 6.5 will not come back.


Thank you for your understanding!

Cheers,"

Well, I guess that's that! Thanks Steinberg... Early days yet, but guess I won't be paying 199 euros for C7 just to roll back to 6.5!