I recently went thru replacing my USB key for my Cubase software.
During the process I made a suggestion to the customer service department.
They suggested I post it here on the forum so that the developers could read it and get a sense if there was an interest in it. So here goes.
(My apologies in advance if this topic has been hashed out before, I’m not aware that it was from my perspective)
It has become a very common situation that most composers have a fairly good laptop these days and often take it with them to many places and use it for music while traveling or when they are out and about around town.
My own situation is such that I’m member of a music organization that I volunteer to archive all our important events.
I usually bring my laptop to our luncheons with guest speakers, to our master classes that are open to the public (featuring well known composers, arrangers, orchestrators) and our occasional award dinners.
I normally record the audio straight off the board onto my laptop into cubase.
I’m sure some of you bring your laptops to gigs, rehearsals, jam sessions or other events where you wish to record the audio quickly and simply and not fuss too much with other software that you don’t use frequently, as Cubase is your choice of software to work with and you’ve purchased & own a professional version of it.
Wouldn’t you find your situation better served if you had a downloadable free lite version that you could record those events with that didn’t require you to be in the dangerous position of having to take along your USB key? Meaning a version that was a ‘lite’ version (say: no score editor, or audio editor, or midi editor) that allowed you to record say 24-32 tracks of audio and 16 - 32 tracks of midi? And was serial number based for authorization, like Cubase AI is ?
I think that registered (paid) users of a professional version of Cubase should be able to download such a copy (making it a minimal expense for Steinberg) and lets say that you couldn’t register it without the USB key inserted and perhaps had to renew the registration periodically (e.g. every 6 months or once a year).
What are you thoughts? Would you really like to have this option? Please post your answers here so the developers can get a sense of the perceived value of such a version.
Steinberg suggests getting the USB key fully insured for the amount of the purchase price of the program. That doesn’t solve my problem. It creates another. And it only starts a process that creates a waiting period for a claim to be settled. In my case, the insurance policy has a $500 deductible to keep the yearly insurance bill down to a reasonable yearly payment. So a claim for the USB key itself doesn’t make economic sense, let alone waiting the length of time it takes to settle a claim.
(Please refrain for rec. other software/hardware items in lieu of Cubase, or how you’ve managed to overcome this issue using cracks, etc. - that’s not the point of this thread.)
Another option would be to make an app for iPhone Cubase app (and avail on other smart phone platforms) that does a similar function (rec) and also can be used for playback on gigs, that allows transfer of files between the phone and cubase. If it worked as described (non- editor based Rec & Playback version) that would be cool too. Free to registered users (of course, when I say free I also mean I wouldn’t mind paying under $25 for it either).
(also, no need to quote this whole post to your reply it will remain at the top of the thread)
thanks,
el profe, LG