Hi all,
As someone that has sworn off C14 to stick with C12 Pro just because of the GUI which hurts my eyes (and I dont think I’m the only one) can anyone report whether there have been improvements on the look of C15?
Thanks!
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Your best bet is to look up videos on YouTube about Cubase 15. That said, personally I think it looks a lot closer to Cubase 11 than Cubase 14 (Never tried C12 or C13 but they were pretty close to C11 AFAIK).
Unfortunately not - the GUI is still pretty terrible. I’m not sure who decided that hiding information in plain sight was the way to go.
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Hi,
As this is 100% subjective and everyone has their own opinion (as we can also see in the posts above), I would strongly recommend downloading Cubase 15 Trial and testing it with your own environment, setup, and expectations.
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While that’s true, there are standards for things like acessibility like the W3C’s Web Content Acessibility Guidelines.
There’s also the European Accessibility Act, which has been introduced in June this year.
A common complaint that a few people have made about the UI is there’s not enough constrast between elements so things are hard to read and the fonts used are too small and tend to blend into the elements already suffering from lack of contrast compared to Cubase 12. And people started complaining about those changes in version 13. Doesn’t seem like a “100% subjective thing” especially considering things like contrast ratios are measurable.
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I’d counter that the interface from v13 onwards is objectively worse. Information hierarchy the user relies on (e.g. contrast with elements, type sizes etc) took a large leap backwards. I’m not sure how you could call that subjective.
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Whether or not “there have been improvements on the look of C15?”, as the OP asked, is 100% subjective.
If you don’t like UI of v13/v14 then it’s unlikely you’ll find improvements in v15 as it’s basically the same.
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14’s was superior, in fact I made a post about how 15’s removal of extended customizable colors sucks, donno why they broke something that worked great.
Not sure what you dislike about 14’s GUI, it had the most customization of all the others (infinite color options), are you not able to set the colors to something that doesn’t hurt your eyes? Personally I need black backgrounds to reduce eye pain and 14 was the best for that. Unfortunately, 15 removed the ability to have infinite colors including pure black for whatever reason.
All that said, I still think Cubase has the best GUI of all DAWs, which is why I’ve stuck to it. I just wish they would stop changing and breaking things.
Thanks for the replies - I know these things are subjective but I also know that there are a large group of users besides myself who were unhappy about the recent GUI updates in 13 and 14, so wanted to find out any early opinions, things to look out for, before diving into trialling etc. As someone who uses Cubase professionally day in / day out I might not be able to find the time to test out the new version for quite a while.
As already said, lack of visual separation in some areas, bad color contrast, tiny fonts, especially on resolutions higher than HD.
This for example (default Cubase settings, from C14) is an example of this, a selected channel in the mixer:
The “Gain” label is white on a very light background, the value indicator is practically invisible. This is simply bad design (or bad execution), the font color should switch to dark on selection the channel.
Or this, first is Cubase 12, second 14. Font size has been reduced quite dramatically, hard to read for people with non-perfect eyesight.
The list goes on (I created a thread here a while ago with several examples).
This is not about taste, I can get used to a different look. I cannot get used to bad legibility.
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If Steinberg keeps removing UI customization options and reducing the constrast between elements, they’ll eventually have to add “perfect eyesight” to the system requirements.
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Yes, there are some weird decisions regarding color contrast in Cubase 15 that are not helping. As an example, the Plugin Manager window. Now it’s harder to diferentiate which plugins are deactivated because the tones lack contrast:
Cubase 15
Cubase 13
and again, the selected entry is pretty much unreadable, because the font color is not inverted. How things like this pass the alpha stage is a bit beyond me, tbh.
Edit: but at least the font size increased in the plugin manager, that is a welcome improvement!
Thank you - yes, basic legibility due to font size reduction / contrast reduction in the mixer is a particular problem for me. Hate having to squint at the screen unnecesarily.
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They doubled down on flat GUI. It’s even more flat than in C14.
Somehow, in some areas they improved over C14 but it’s still flat and it looks like Steinberg loves 2010 aesthetics and they will continue until you can’t distinguish anything anymore.
I got used to it but oh man, I miss visual hierarchy, easy readibility and pleasant aesthetics (which Cubase was always missing more or less).
At this point it looks like Steinberg decided to completely ignore all the feedback about C14 GUI. Cubase is officially the ugliest DAW on the market next to unskinned Reaper. It’s bland, uninspiring, like Excel in dark mode.
While the world is moving forward and lifeless, depressing aesthetics of 2010’s are becoming a trend from yesterday (thank gods), Cubase is moving backwards or it’s just late and they just catch up with the year 2010.
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I’ve just moved and setup a new studio… So take this with a grain or two of salt…At least in the Project window, I found 15 to be more legible. I’m not trying to get into a debate about the fundamentals of design or its golden eras. I’m basing this on how I squint less, nothing more.
i was using 14 last week.
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The issue is not necessarily the flat design per se (although I am not a big fan of it), it is the execution. Flat design can work, if done with care and consistency, e.g. see Ableton Live, they created a clear and consistent design language and stuck with it. Like it or not, visually, it stayed roughly the same for ~25 years, so you can get used to it.
Cubase, at least since version 7, seems to be constantly changing, while never arriving at a consistent state. Since then, the plugin manager has been reworked at least two times, the mix console also, while there are still windows left from SX days, like the settings or pool window, and several other dialogs.
Good, consistent UI design just doesn’t seem to be the focus of Steinberg, sadly… (and much less across their whole product line.)
Agree with all the recent comments and I’ll reiterate it’s not about the coat of paint, but the usability. With audio, if everything is loud then nothing is loud. Steinberg has taken that concept to heart and applied it across the UI which greatly affects usability. While v12 wasn’t exactly “pretty” it remains infinitely more usable than the current iteration.
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Yes. Ableton made Live around a flat design from the beginning. Everything makes sense there because of that.
Cubase on the other hand is like a Frankenstein’s monster which is constantly morphing. This is a huge issue. Cubase have no personality and Steinberg is constantly trying to find one. But it will never happen. They’ll continue to change the GUI based on what is trending (with a 10 years delay).
Maybe if they would make one full overhaul, then maybe they would succeed. But patching a bit here and there, while keeping some parts unchanged for decades, will always keep it in a Frankenstein’s monster state.
Of course, most likely it’s because of the legendary “old code issue”, but it’s their internal problem, not ours, paying customers problem.
Instead of AI, Yamaha should invest in a resurrection of Steve Jobs, so they could use him for the GUI direction 
A bit like Windows which needed almost 10 years to get a full dark mode and it’s still not 100% finished. When they will finish it completely then most likely another trend will show up and the entire process will have to repeat.
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