First of all, major kudos to Steinberg for continuously and sensibly developing and improving on Cubase.
I am quite amused by the overall, repeated reactions to each new update that usually split into a few principal categories:
- Some people bashing the new update because it doesn’t bring a “new DAW” that would make them update
- Some people being angry because that one single feature they were asking for years still has not been implemented.
- People simply acknowledging the new update without need to criticize, bash or insult anybody
- People expressing genuine joy about new features and seeing new ways to improve and accelerate, and make their work with Cubase more efficient.
My personal stance is as follows:
On a general note, I do see and greatly appreciate continuous improvements in each update that cover specific areas. For example, there have been great improvements in MIDI/notation in the recent updates, which benefit my mode of work and use of Cubase.
Personally, I don’t care too much about Electronic/EBM, but appreciate the improvements in those sections as well, as it opens up new possibilies and thus facilities the creative process of music making. Even if I do not need the LFOs/Modulaters right now, I might play around with them and find a way on how they could complement and enrich my music as well.
Two other examples, how the Cubase 15 Update is probably one of the most enticing and interesting to me, are Ominvocal and Stem separation.
I work a lot with Ultimate Vocal Remover 5 (UVR), a free and open source Stem separation softare with very useful results. However, it’s always been a bit inconvemient to first have run my source audio through that stand alone application and then import the resulting stems one by one into Cubase for futher processing. If the implemented Stem separation in Cubase is anywhere nearly decent as the results I got from UVR, then this will be a substantial improvement in my workflow. So, I can’t wait to get my hands on Cubase 15 and try that out.
The other feature I am really delighted about is the exclusive Omnivocal plugin. At first I thought, what a useless VST, but after watching Dom Sigalas’ video on how beautiful one can make these voices actually sing, I am enchanted! I have always been looking for some useful backing vocal solutions and this one seems to come closest to what I have imagined.
So, personally, I am happy, because some of the additions and improvements just “hit” exactely the points I wished for.
Maybe one more general thought: Even if Cubase 15 didn’t have those two features, I would still update, just to help the good people at Steinberg keeping on with their great work and make Cubase live on.