And why is frequent, free of charge and easy-to-install updates a problem?
Because being âtwo whole operating systemsâ behind is seen as a problem when that period is a mere two years.
I had that problem with earlier versions of Cubase 11. It became stable after several maintenance updates, and to me, this is a clear sign that new releases of Cubase are not ready enough to be placed into customers hands. And no, I have no exotic hardware or driver issues, I am using a 2017 Intel Mac and its internal audio. People are correct that it could always be plugins or drivers or system related, however, since Cubase 9.5 new features introduced to the DAW have had a lot of complaints for not working as intended and have always been fixed in the maintenance updates, clearly visible in release notes. And I am not a fan of that. I would want Cubase to be released in the state it is after several maintenance updates. And even then, small annoyances seem to never get fixed. Together with the fact that none of the new features introduced to Cubase 12 are relevant to my workflow, I donât even want this version. And since there is no sign of changes to Steinbergâs approach with releasing and fixing the major issues after the fact, I think 11 was my last version of Cubase.
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It canât be Cubase. It has to be that you are not on the current OSX version.
Please, this is Cubase plain and simple. You are running a SUPPORTED OS as well per STEINBERG.
Sibben seems to think that running the current Apple Smapple OS fixes everything.
As a Mac user for YEARS, it doesnât not do so.
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While I recognize that we have two debates here (C12 stability vs C11 and supported OS), I think they coexist.
When you find a stable workflow (especially as a working professional with clients that rely on delivery time) you tend to not change it (this is very common amongst mac users). And DAW and plugin makers know this.
This made me look at whatâs the minimum macOS is being supported with other DAWs.
Pro Tools - 10.14.6
Ableton Live - 10.13
DP - 10.13
Studio One - 10.13
And this totally makes sense! I know people who still use mountain lion (an extreme, but my point stands). The common denominator with most music makers is you find a stable system (OS, plugins, DAW, hardware support, etc) and you ride it until youâre missing on too many features or until you start losing support.
Steinberg releasing such an unstable version of Cubase that supports OSâs only 1.5 years back is an odd move IMO.
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What I dislike a lot is this⊠stiffness when it comes to product support. You get a release that tends to crash or has new features not work as they should and then you get 3-4 maintenance fixes, thatâs it. New version, same cycle, and you can only hope that the older version is good enough at the end of its life span, because youâre left with what you have. Or upgrade to the newest mess.
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I think thatâs extreme and adds unnecessary costs and complexity. I also do video production and Iâve had no major problems upgrading versions of the Adobe Creative Cloud suite - with particular focus on Premiere Pro - the most Iâve ever had to do was install new video drivers and when that was necessary Adobe told me it was necessary.
And before that, when I was a software engineer, I routinely upgraded my working copies of Eclipse, Visual Studio and Android Studio with no major downtime.
Itâs worth noting that in the latter three examples, all three products had extensive beta programmes so other pioneers got to have the arrows in their backs, not me. But based on all the C12 trouble Iâm seeing here and on other boards it looks like Steinberg expects us to be the beta testers.
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The maintenance for a version should not just end with a new release. There should be maintenance for the most recent AND last full .0 release continously, including fixes to even small annoyances, so you get a thoroughly polished experience, whether you run the newest version or not. That would be âproâ.
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It has been like this since SX1. I donât see this ever changing
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Yes, thatâs another good point. In my 35-year software-engineering career I worked for small and large companies in several different industries and all of them overlapped support for product revisions. When a new version came out the old one was still actively supported for a period of time - typically a year or two.
What does the âthisâ refer to?
Meaning you get the 0 version then .1, then .2. then .3 then a new version of Cubase.
You donât get a FIX for the version you are using . They just drop it and put whatever fixes into the newer versions. And of course bugs get left behind as well.
You have to wait till the 3rd or final version to get a stable app with some fixes. By then the NEW version shows up. Rinse and repeat.
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I donât know how it is internally handled by Steinberg, but to me, from the outside as a customer, it appears like the programmers at Steinberg have to maintain several products with a quite rigid time frame, like work on Cubase maintenance, release scheduled for X, then work on Nuendo maintenance, then maybe a few weeks planned for Spectralayers and Wavelab, then Cubase again, etc. Basically to keep the programmers continously busy and working to capacity. However, IF that is the case (and it is just speculation on my part), it would be quite bad, because someone couldnât become fully familiar with a certain code base. And obviously that approach would leave no time to support older versions. I really hope that there is somebody truly working only on Cubase and Nuendo. If not, it should be that way.
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Yes - Iâm running Monterey 12.3 and having many issues with Cubase 12 that do not happen with the same projects when opened in Cubase 11.
Generally itâs best to be a few operating systems behind with MacOS and audio production but Steinberg have insisted on the most recent two for Cubase 12.
Call me paranoid but I ALWAYS trash the Cubase prefs when I go to a new version. I know some canât do that but it seems to eliminate a lot of heartache here.
Im sure Steinberg will just support the most recent two OSX versions from here on since Apple insists on killing our creative flow every year. I would too if I were Steinberg but the problem is it screws the end user with their plugin compatibility and all that.
I still have my MacPro 2010 on High Sierra as it is bricked without a new video card which Im not shelling out for. I can only take it to Mojave. I have Monterey running on this 2013 iMac using Open Core Legacy Patcher.
Me I think Im skipping 12. First version to do so as well
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Having the uncertainty of a new release with teething problems, especially when they state they have made performance improvements (which requires touching the code deeply under the hood).
Mystic, Prologue, Specter, LoopMash, ReWire taken out of this release.
Most MIDI insert fx UIs still outdated and not scalable. For example StepDesigner. I was hoping they would include a decent step sequencer in the bottom area of the screen, since that was a suggested feature to vote for in the last two surveys.
Okay, the new MIDI learn function looks nice, but personally, I only work with the virtual keyboard for the most part. Crossfade editor looks good, but is not a reason for me to upgrade and accept the above cons. And chord extraction and new editing enhancements for audio material, nice, but I work mostly with plugin instruments or samplers. So nothing I would really need or want in this update, except the performance enhancements maybe. What I really want is a fully featured step sequencer and long term support with as many testing and fixes as possible to have a real reliable workhorse DAW. But it seems I wonât find this here.
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When I worked on a headend for broadcasting tv we were always quite a few versions behind on all the equipment. We had a staging area where the test team would simulate live and report all the bugs back to the developers. They would the give us a patch to fix the bugs. Eventually a version would be released into live and thatâs when we hit a load more new problems. I donât see anyone doing any better than steinberg in major industry. Thatâs why banks go down after upgrading. There are always bugs no matter how much testing you do. We only moved to a new version if our version became unsupported or there were essential features. My favourite term coming from 3rd part developers was âits an edge caseâ meaning they had never seen it before and it was very unusual even though it could take a channel down.
Well, first of all Ableton Live delivers a MUCH more stable and tested product. And Studio One is somewhere inbetween, but still a better release quality than Cubase had in several versions now. And while not perfect, Logic offers a boatload of value with a one-time purchase the fraction of the cost of Cubase. Yes, there will always be bugs when you release something. But itâs a matter of severity of those bugs, the amount and if older versions are a solid long term support option or being abandoned with the newest release.
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Open up Console.app and look for any Cubase-related reports. You can typically find more info there vs. what you get in one of those automatic crash report dialogs.
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