Agreed, the new caps always look out of focus to my eyes on a 27" 2560 x 1440 monitor, creating a needless source of eye strain…
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Well actually since Steinberg sends people to this forum from their DAW’s and on their web site, technically it is the “official” forum. And yes I guess I am “entitled” if me wanting to use what I paid for without accessibility issues. So I will keep on mentioning it here and on their support site which I have an open ticket since November 3rd which they didn’t respond to.
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A little dickybird told me , Steinberg are looking into it so , sit tight 
Maybe a sollution is to have a bit more customisation for looks and feel…
And make the setup, storage and sharing of custom coloring a bit more friendly, so people can share
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A very good analysis. Funny how these experts can show you things that are rather obvious but you didn’t think about. Well, to a certain extent, because the trend to make things flatter is something rather evident, but I hadn’t realized how many logos were part of this trend.
And in some cases they actually look better, but in some others they just look plain and boring, like the Cubase 13 GUI.
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How is this not THE Cubase official support forum? Why do people keep saying that this is not the official support forum??? As another user pointed out, it’s in the welcome screen. Not only that, but if you go to the Steinberg website, then click on Support and scroll down a bit, what do you see? A link to this forum!!!
I keep reading over and over that this is not Steinberg’s official forum as if this was, for example, VI-Control, an excellent forum not associated with any any particular brand.
I don’t know if they are required by Steinberg or not to be here, but any reputable company would monitor their official forums as a show of good will, hell, even as a brainstorming source of good ideas. Do they have an obligation to implement them? Of course not, otherwise Steinberg products would be a mess. But they surely owe their user base the consideration of at least replying to long threads where most people seem to agree on a few problems.
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I think it was the beginning of everything going backwards. Mobile first obsession kind of ruined everything because the dumbest of the dumb in charge of graphics everywhere mistook fashion for common sense and applied the same trends to the desktop environment.
I, and a minority of others have been moaning about it for years and have been often bashed for it, accused of being stuck in the past etc, but it’s nothing to do with that. Sure, modern can look good, sometimes, but it should never ever prioritise functionality - and that is all that has been happening. Everything on desktop has become harder to look at when it comes to intuitive feel and ease of use. More clicks, more sub-menus, less separation, fewer options and customisation, deprecating things unnecessarily, etc etc.
If I want to stare at something pretty then I’ll buy a painting. Maybe I’m just impatient. I used to fly around the old Cubase versions very quickly. These days it all just feels like a chore. Very little can be viewed at a quick glance and too many usable functions are harder to find and remember unless you use them daily and distinction between many elements is almost non-existent.
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Just to emphasise the points made in the post from @Monotremata
This is designated as a User-to-User support forum provided by SB for the community. It is NOT a Technical Support facility. There is another official route for that if that’s what you are seeking.
However the devs often ‘look in’ to monitor activity here of course, and respond/comment to certain topics from time to time. But they are not obliged to engage at all.
If they do, its off their own back that they do so.
Any reputable company has their own rules and protocols to follow. They may or may not align with your own. Its YOUR choice whom you do business with. The current market for DAW’s is quite varied in terms of budget, skill level, consumer expectation.
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Dorico team members are also busy making lots of improvements, but somehow find time to interact with the forum.
There’s a difference between a reasonable amount of Cubase employee forum responsiveness (even if it’s not to the excellent levels seen on the Dorico forum) and “Hug session”. The latter is a little bit of a straw man, imo.
Having said that … I’ve noticed a definite increase in Cubase employee responsiveness over the past few months … the arrow is pointing up! (Thank you guys for that!)
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I beg to differ. The ticket support system is for specific cases, and true, for these as well, but support forums provide a way for users to talk about issues with the software and maybe find a solution without having to file a new ticket each time. As a result, lots of questions that are easily answered in the official support forum don’t overload the ticket support system.
It also serves for cases like this, where a large numbers of users have the same problem or opinion on something that needs to be fixed, so the Cubase devs only have to scroll down, and copy and paste things they might find useful, as opposed to getting 300+ tickets from users that are angry about the new GUI. That’s far more efficient and saves them a lot of time.
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Thanks guys for this thread (I’ll postpone the update for now).
Personally I don’t mind if the buttons are round, 3d or flat- but they should find a way to make the app look consistent and use the same design language across all dialogs etc.
I’m also using Dorico and I have to say that the Dorico UI is much more streamlined and consistent.
Of course designing for visual impairment should be top of the list as well.
For some reason the design of the UI always influences the perceived quality of the app.
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I’ve been using Cubase for a long time and find C13 to be so difficult to look at that I’ve pretty much gone back to C12 until things improve. If they don’t then I’m not quite sure what I’ll do.
The bright whites, the lesser visibility with things like the selected track, the sometimes tiny fonts, and the fact that it’s too contrast-y yet somehow not contrast-y enough are tiring and often confusing for my eyes. I strongly hope Steinberg is taking note and giving us strong options to make it clearer.
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Yes, Pro Tools is an incredible GUI, the Cubase team would do well to study why it’s so good and so easy to work on for hours on end. I don’t use Pro Tools myself but every time I’ve needed to in the past I felt this way. It’s modern, pro, and always easy to see and find anything.
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For those interested, I’m trying to research the issues people are having with Cubase’s UI. Some of it relates to legibility, contrast, etc. Here’s an example of a comparison. I have a screenshot of Cubase on the left and my mockup on the right. I’m trying to explore different approaches to contrast and depth in my mockup.
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Have you made a separate thread on the forum for this? If not, I think you should! Really like the mockup you’ve done.
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I definitely like your mockup better.
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I really didn’t want to have to post here but the support ticket I raised last weekend with Steinberg about the usability issues I’m having has gone unanswered. So, in the hope someone over there will pick this up I’m posting.
Age-related weakening of my eyesight coupled with easily triggered migraine headaches mean I simply can’t use Cubase 13 in its current form. It’s killing me because I’ve used Cubase since 1990 - the Atari days.
I list a bunch of issues on a blog post over here. I hope Steinberg takes this seriously.
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I did. It is here:
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Thanks for doing this analysis.
What you’re discussing is so important. I would venture to guess that many Cubase users are… older than other DAW users. This impacts our vision including mine.
I’ve spoken a lot about this issue on these forums and so I won’t go on too much about it now but Steinberg is overdue to fix it’s accessibility and UI problems. At certain point, we literally won’t be able to use their software.
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