Cubase 12 is coming in 2022

Dear Cubase friends,

Today would have been the day of the year when every member of our Cubase team leans back for a moment and watches with excitement how the next generation of Cubase is released into the world. For the last 10 years we have been working toward presenting customers our achievements at the end of the year. But this time it’s different.

With the decision to switch our license management system to a modern, flexible, and open solution, this project became our number one priority from day one. Our goal was to introduce the new system with the next major update, even if this would require us to postpone the release of Cubase. We wanted to be fully committed to the project and thankfully everyone at Steinberg felt the same.

Today, we would like to give you the heads up on the next generation of Cubase, which will be Cubase 12 by the way, and which we are already beta testing and plan to release in 2022. This will be the first Cubase version supported by Steinberg Licensing. Please have a look at the announcement of our president, Andreas Stelling, and the detailed FAQ section that we put together to answer your questions. If there are more questions on Steinberg Licensing, please let me know, and we will try to provide the answers on our website ASAP.

Steinberg Licensing: A new and exciting era begins

For those of you who expected to get the full list of new features and improvements in Cubase 12 today, I kindly ask for some more patience. Of course, the next generation is not only about Steinberg Licensing. We have been working on new features, workflows, and performance improvements in many different areas in order to deliver a worthy update. But I’m not going to reveal too many details and spoil the release for you. You know us — we’ll try to keep it secret for a while longer.

Still, there are some things that I can already confirm. Cubase 12 will introduce native Apple silicon support to begin with. Please be aware that VST 2 is not supported on native Apple silicon, except when run in Rosetta 2 mode. So please make sure that you let the plug-in manufacturers still hesitating to release VST 3 versions know that it’s about time!

Additionally, we can confirm that the grace period for Cubase 12 has begun with this announcement. This means that all new Cubase versions that are activated from today onward will be eligible for a free grace period update to Cubase 12. Please have a look at the knowledge base article for further details:

Cubase 12 Grace Period Knowledge Base Article

So that’s it for now. I would like to take the chance to thank you, the Cubase community, for your support. Many of you have been using Cubase for decades, and we appreciate the trust that you put into our products and Steinberg as a company. I hope you are not too disappointed that you won’t be able to try out the new features today. It has been an exciting, but also challenging year for our teams at Steinberg, and we look forward to celebrate the release of Cubase 12 with you in 2022.

All the best,
Matthias

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Looking forward to seeing what features are included. Not too fussed about dropping the dongle, mine causes me no issues so hoping there’s a bigger reason for skipping 11.5.

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I hope upgrade prices for those customers who are not eligible for free upgrade offer and activated Cubase 11 Pro previously wil not be higher than now? (99EUR or 159EUR)

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+1!!!

12 01 2022???

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The update from Cubase 11 to Cubase 12 will probably be EUR 99.

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Great news - having recently ordered one of the new MacBook Pro’s! Can you clarify the statement in the FAQ’s “A single-user license is intended for a single person, and it is not permitted to use the software simultaneously on two computers”. Does this mean you will not be able to use Cubase 12 on a MacBook & Desktop at the same time?

Thanks for the update, As someone who’s desperately been hanging on for the new MIDI API since last year, do you have any kind of indication if C12 will be in the opening months of 2022?

Just feels like a long wait has just got infinitely longer :frowning:

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You can install Cubase on as many systems as you want. But you can only activate it on two systems at a time. I guess that part is clear. The End User License Agreements says that you have just a single-user license, so only you will be permitted to use the software. It won’t be allowed to share your account with another user. That’s what the “use the software simultaneously” part is about.

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I cannot announce the actual release date yet. Dorico 4 will be the first product with Steinberg Licensing in early 2022 and Cubase 12 will be the next in line.

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Congrats Matthias ! take your time, I hope Cubase 12 will be a great step forward!

(diying to know about those new features though)

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Thanks for the response. So potentially using system link using my ageing iMac (my second system) for those legacy, non-apple silicon plug-ins is an option? Also will add further flexibility for future potential desktop upgrades. If so, using Cubase cross-platform on 2 systems will be a neat USP for some.

In any case, really look forward to learning more, as going by what I have seen & learnt - Cubase on native Apple silicon will be an absolute beast of a system :wink:

I understand that products such as Cubase, Nuendo, Dorico, WaveLab, SpectraLayers, Absolute, and VST Connect Pro will be progressively upgraded to the new licensing system as new major versions are released. But what about products from which no major new versions are ever released? Like Groove Agent or Retrologue expansions (Simon Philips, Blues Essentials, Vintage Classics … you know), or the Basic FX Suite, or even the free products for HALion (Alto Glockenspiel, Guitar Harmonics) will they also be updated to work with the new licensing system?

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Yes, that is an option.

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Many of those products (mainly content sets) that won’t see any new major release can still be ported to the new license management system, and this will also be part of the transition period.

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off topic: If Cubase only gets native Apple M1 support from version 12, what about Nuendo? Also with Nuendo 12?
Nuendo is usually updated much later.

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Yes, Nuendo 12 will also support Apple silicon natively.

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That does help open up the “flexibility” referenced as part of the new license system :clap: :clap:

Slightly miffed that I caved (read: finished a handful of ongoing projects) and activated C11 two weeks ago, but on the other hand I can now stop having Elements versions of Cubase and Wavelab on the travel system, so perhaps it evens out. …I’d still like some backwards rubberbanding of the grace period though :slight_smile:
j,

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