I finally got back into amateur music recording at the end of the summer and bought a ton of music software and gear, but the Cubase deal had just ended. As an amateur (and someone likely to get laid off from my full-time job soon) I’m always going to wait for the “sale” price, since for music software it’s always so different from the “normal” price. This leads me to think the “normal” price is way too high.
I’ll be waiting till the next sale if I buy Cubase Pro, but will probably just move to Logic Pro instead if no sale happens this year.
I would advise Steinberg that the way music software sales work, everyone plans their purchases carefully to be sure to only buy during sales and not the “rip-off” price at other times of year. I can’t imagine many people ever pay the full price. Curious if Steinberg has data on that. As a consumer I find this frustrating; I’d rather just see a fair price year-round rather than go through this “sale” charade.
Steinberg is a fascinating and rather mysterious enterprise given it’s been in the game from the start. I wish there were a book or documentary about it.
As to pricing, I’m trying to understand their marketing rationale while impatiently wait for crumbs to fall off Steinberg’s table.
A new version of Cubase is typically released in November/December (Cubase 12 was an exception because of the delays caused by the introduction of Steinberg Licensing). Cubase sales tend to occur in the summer - though Steinberg can always surprise us!
I doubt there will be a Cubase sale before Easter, but who knows!
The simple truth no company wants to accept and admit.
They either think it’s a good strategy to not do sales to keep the “value” of their products high, or they do a bunch of 90% off sales. Everyone knows, there are no sales for these products.
The sale prices are the actual prices, even more than it’s actual value often. When it’s not on sale, the prices are just inflated. This is how it actually is. There are never sales, just price mark ups and temporary revelations of the actual prices.
Rather than rapacity, it’s a grey area of marketing. When I purchased an audio interface that had a Cubase LE coupon included, that’s when I began using Cubase. Not too long later, I paid fair money to upgrade to Elements, so it didn’t break the bank. I’m currently using Elements, but I might look into upgrading later. Consider that there are always free choices available, such as Fairlight (a component of the DaVinci Resolve suite which also comes with a decent selection of stock plugins, such as vocal strip, etc) or WavePad. Cubase has its strongest points, so if you don’t mind paying for anything, stick to the freebies. Not that Cubase can’t be more affordable, but take a look at ProTools and their absurd monthly price.
For example, instead of heedlessly buying fad plugins, etc., I would rather invest my time in research. I frequently find excellent replacements with fewer features, so for the price of the famous pricey all-in-one tools, I have a selection of nice, excellent plugins that can accomplish even more all together.
Have I missed it over the years or have they been sneaking in new drum kits the past few versions?
Been having a blast cycling through some of those this morning, I swear I don’t remember having them before, and several seem to be stuff that also comes with Cubase (Don’t need Collections or Full H7 to get them).
Yes i think think they have and also the GM midi sounds are not quite how i remember them , but in a good way , i think they have done a sneaky resample on some as well . If not , what have we both better miss aahh lol .
To be honest i create my own sample libraries more than using content but im sure it’s all had a make over
In Ontario, Canada $100US translates into $170CAN with exchange, double VAT and GST in the Steinberg shop. So for me, a half-price ‘sale’ is nothing more than price normalization.
Relatively same situations with some other currencies, which had no dollar in name though, but considering their depreciation (relate to usd) say year-two back, the discounted value give for buyer ability for normal (regular) price as before inflation lol.
I’ve been in discussion with Steinberg for weeks as have been other Canadian users. Steinberg is aware of the problem. They are charging VAT twice. Once from Germany, which they’re not supposed to be doing for international export. And again along with the 34% exchange.
At first, I thought it was a problem with AskNet, Steinberg’s former payment handler who went bankrupt recently and left a trail of issues for Steinberg causing their online shop to be closed for weeks. But the new payment handler is doing exactly the same thing. Nothing appears to be wrong on my end with my software or browser or anything else that can be found. In fact I’ve used three different computers to test the final price and they all come out the same. Every $100 US equals $170 Canadian all taxes included.
By comparison at Izotope, a $100 US purchase would translate into $134 Canadian plus GST. And it is the same for other companies per 100 US dollars. Clearly there is either something wrong with Steinberg’s payment algorithm or they’re skimming an extra 16% from Canadian sales.
Try and calculate the exchange rate for Euro to Canadian Dollars
Since Germany is in Europe it would make sense they go from Euro to the currency of other country’s
I think I know what they did …
They left the Embedded 21% VAT in and added 13% … (21 + 13 = 34)
than it’s seems to be around the price you were saying before
