Hi,
I’m sorry to say, dear Steinberg, you’ve made trying out your software a real pain. I wish you’d made your trialware more accessible for people who try to evaluate your software, without having to commit to so much hassle.
I downloaded the 64bit trial version of Cubase 8 Pro for Windows 7 64bit. I have a 6 month old Dell PC with plenty of memory, disk, i7 CPU etc.
Upon download, I got an email with the activation number. Here’s the first failure: the email I got from you questioned its own content: "If the activation number is found below then… ", followed by the number. What gives? If you’re already sending me an email, can’t you already tell which instructions apply to me and save me the confusion?
When I tried to run Cubase and provided the Activation number, I got a message - “currently there’s no USB e-licenser connected”, which makes sense, as this is a trial software I downloaded, it has no physical manifestation. So again, Steinberg - what gives? If it’s a 30 day trial, just kill it after 30 days, why do I need to bother with e-licensers and dongles?
After further learning I realized there’s a soft eLicenser which I got from here - https://www.steinberg.net/en/support/productactivation/soft_elicenser.html; I installed and registered it successfully on Steinberg’s site. But still, Cubase will not recognize the eLicenser and asked for a dongle.
So I found this on your FAQ - https://www.steinberg.net/nc/en/support/knowledgebase_new/show_details/kb_show/program-installation-does-not-create-a-soft-elicenser.html
This exactly described my problem, and provided a helper installer (34MB!) which which upon successful download got promptly deleted by my antivirus software (Panda). So I decided to put my trust (again) on Steinberg, disable the Panda antivirus, download again and install the helper. It won’t install, claiming that my OS is too old and that it requires Windows 7 (I have windows 7).
What do you suggest at this point? Should I go and spend $700 on a promise that Cubase may one day run on my computer? Please advise…