We now have an official Steinberg statement about the first N8 update/bug fix happening in the first week of November. Assuming the date holds, it’s going to take 5 months to release a fix for several very obvious bugs that should not have been present in any final software release. It’s very difficult to imagine no one at SB knew about the significant instability of DOP, the no-longer-functioning offline process options (as of N8) in the Process Menu and other issues, but I guess it was time to collect some more money from the faithful, regardless of the state of the product.
Seriously, I am not happy that SB released an unfinished major revision of their flagship software and are then waiting almost half a year to correct glaring issues. I’ve been on Nuendo since N2 and for me, this is the most bothered I’ve ever been as a Nuendo user. It’s the principle of the thing more than the specific issues for me. Given the VCA debacle in N7 with a highly advertised and touted feature being a bug fest for a year, this has now become the new way to do business and we users are effectively funding the completion of the software with our upgrade payments. Kind of a “stealth” subscription model, yes?
With other developers, this would be called “Early Access” and come at a reduced price since they would be up front that some of the advertised software features are still in development and not yet stable. That would be full disclosure of the terms of purchase. Tell me I’m wrong about that analogy if you disagree, because I think it’s pretty darn accurate.
Soooo…Steinberg. This is not the way to release the most expensive product you sell to your most professional user group. Unless you are planning to End-Of-Life Nuendo in the near future, you are definitely doing yourselves, and your user base, more harm than good. I believe the percentage of users who have paid for N8 but are still using N7 because of these issues is significant, and that is a powerful (negative) metric of the state of N8 at it’s release.Trust and confidence are being diminished by these last 2 major releases.
Please keep in mind that if you look over my posts you will see that I am most often positive in my posting here. But releasing software before it fulfills the promises in your advertisements and promos and then waiting almost half a year to address major issues is just not OK.
I appreciate Steinberg’s software and the work it has enabled me to do. I would like to remain a loyal customer. Please help me (and I suspect others, as well) to continue to trust you with our needs. It’s good for everyone involved.
Great letter!
I’m also using Nuendo from very first releases and noticed that there is just a simple rule - Steinberg software is ready after 1,5 - 2 years after release. Now I’m on Nuendo 7 - it works really well but with that awful limitations - you have to limit yourself with the most useful features (widely advertised btw) constantly waiting for update which (and you know it!) won’t help you much. And you stops using VCA for example or workspaces, or virgin territories.But…
As I know Avid guys doing nearly the same. So in post pro we practically have no choice.
Hear, Hear. or is it here, here. i agree with you about the vca and avid limitations. I will say that pro tools is the industry standard and cost way more than Nuendo for a serious setup. I think most would do better to go with avid-pro tools environment for any serious post production. That being said, I love nuendo over cubase. I find it to be stable and productive for a DAW but am leary for using it for serious post production work. but it is true. Not to start a Nuendo- Protools fight but protools is the standard and Nuendo is the contender. They need to develop a serious post tool and it will cost more money. I always feel that they make sacrifices to keep their product under $2000.00 american.
Not getting version 8 was the easiest decision in a while… Unfortunately, every single time a user pays for a new version with ‘serious’ bugs in it it sends a signal to Steinberg that they can keep doing what they’re doing.
Totally agree. It’s possibly the biggest software purchase disappointment I’ve ever had – so much so that I had to get a refund for the large amount I spent. Let’s hope they get their act together very fast in a lot of ways with N8.
I’d like to thank Getalife2 for his open letter!
So true, so damn true!
We use Nuendo since 2003 in 3 Studios and updated to N8 in a blind believe in the work of steinberg.
This release is total crap and we are not able to work with that most expensive crossgrade of some student idea of a professional software.
The videoengine should not be named a videoengine.
Offline Process is not functional at all.
We stay with N7 and we do hope, N9 is going to let us forget N8 and is going to be given for free to all the frustrated N8 buyers.
Umm… me, yes, sorry to piss on your rant parade, folks. But I’m using it on my system as stated in the sig.
Day-to-day as of now in fact, usually simple stuff: Import AAF and QT in DNXHD, mix, voiceover, export wavs to our AVID.
I’ve even gotten around to implementing some VCA stuff. No jitters there either.
RX6 works fine as a plug-in, my ArtistMix is also behaving as it should, no issues at all with the video engine.
Works like a charm.
I never buy a new version on the first day or even month. I wait for the trial.
The trail now, not as before, is for 60 days instead of 60 working days.
The trail was too short for me to even start understand what the hell is going on with the N8.
I understand. I am using N8 over N7 most of the time myself, primarily because I do straight music production, not Video Post. If I were doing Video Post, I would definitely be back on N7. So N8 can be functional for some users, depending on their needs. It mostly works for me but it’s STILL faster to close N8, open N7, open the project, do some specific work, close N7, open N8, and re-open the project to accomplish some processes. How can that be considered a win for the end user? That should NEVER be the case with a software upgrade, should it?
So the real the question is, does N8 do what Steinberg promised in it’s advertising and is it an overall upgrade or downgrade in it’s current state for the user base? It is inarguable that the N8 combo of glitchy and unstable DOP, plus the traditional Offline Process functions that no longer work and the complete removal of Batch Processing reduces productivity for many (most/all?) users. It moves us backwards, not forward, in it’s current state. It’s not just a new feature that doesn’t work properly, it also removes valuable functions that were working perfectly fine in N7. I spent time creating a number of Key Command invoked Batch Function processes that were extremely useful to me. With no notice, they disappeared in N8, replaced by buggy DOP that is simply slower to do the same things (when it works). Why?
So, yes, depending on how you work, N8 can be OK. And there are some nice new features. But for Film and TV post users, the broken parts of N8 offset the value of the new features for many. And that will be the case for at least 5 months from release, assuming the update corrects these issues. And that is not a guarantee, is it?
Steinberg is damaging it’s Nuendo brand with this release. How many users would recommend Pro Tools using friends to crossgrade to N8, as it is now?
Bueller, Bueller…Bueller?
Yes, the new method of counting the trial days makes it of very little value.
I did not at first realise that it had been changed. By the time I found some time to devote to testing N8, the trial period was almost finished, so I too was unable to find out what the hell was happening in N8.
I imagine that most of us here are professionals who are unable to devote sixty consecutive days to beta-testing updates for Steinberg. It would be naive of them to think that this kind of test period calculation is acceptable for a supposedly professional and complex application like N8 to be effectively evaluated.
I will need another trial period to fully test N8 once Steinberg believe that they have fixed the problems. Let’s hope they see sense and revert back to the previous trial method. I don’t think I will be moving on from N7 unless I am able to test N8 properly. So how about it, meine Herren?
Ugh. I was hoping to go through the forum today and see some positive turnarounds for what was clearly a bad release on Steinberg and Yamaha’s behalf. It doesn’t seem like I’ll be upgrading to Nuendo 8 anytime soon. I, like many, have been using Nuendo since the first version. I hope they figure these issues out soon.