Will we see a panboy / fanboy standoff before the year’s out?
Something might sound better or worse but Cubase cannot be blamed. I doubt more than a handful of any DAW users in the world could tell any difference at all and be sure it’s not their own ears being fooled by their lovely new product or even their “wasted” money when the latest doesn’t turn out to be that exciting after all.
Human nature.
If I close my eyes it sounds better without the sight. It looks the same to my ears. 
( btw. just saw you worked on forss, that’s one of my favourite artists! not released anything afterwards i’m guessing…?)
He also makes lot of presets for VSTi, both Steinberg and Waldorf. The tutorials are really good if you understand German then that’s where I would look first.
I haven’t seen any official claim that the audio engine should be altered in any way other than you described (ASIO Guard 2).
I guess it’s just some wishful thinking from some of the less informed users 
Okay, there are so many snarky comments here I’m not sure if this is serious or not, but I’ve never been afraid to use the phrase “I don’t know,” so what the heck.
If this is an actual suggestion to the OP, could you explain what you mean?
Of course, if it’s just another humorous reply, feel free to poke me with a stick for being so naïve. Actually, that might apply in either case. 
This a PM to you personally? Googling the quote just leads back here. One of Europe’s finest MEs won’t mind the advertising if he’s named I’m sure.
The rest of Europe’s mastering engineers don’t seem to have noticed.
That’s not to say most of them might have cloth ears. You could be right. I am hearing music that sounds really naff recently. Don’t know what DAW but, to my ears, really bad mixes / production.
Cubase 7 does not sound better or worse than Cubase 8, they Sound the same. Why? Because they null.
But its a little more complicated than that. External hardware, faulty plugins, changes in the setup of the Cubase versions, like monitoring and and and. Doing a null test using plugins and/or external hardware can make it impossible to null even when rendered on the same version of Cubase.
I think it’s a good idea to do a null test, just to make sure that every thing is as it should be. If not then it is time to eliminate the possible reasons.
That was actually my question. What do you mean by a null test?
Ahh, looked on YouTube and found this old video that explains it in a nice southern way
Oh, so you’re talking about phase inverting and comparing. Gotcha.
I think you are right, but there can exist anomolies between the driver and software that alter the sound for better or worse and performing a null test in the DAW won’t demonstrate the change that obviously so many people appear to be hearing.
What???
Interaction between software and driver is just a stream of bits. Driver should output exactly the same bits the software gave to it. If it doesn’t, you should hear a lot of noise, crackle and pop. Not any mystical reduction of sound quality. Come on! This is not rocket science, just plain digital audio. If you don’t understand basics of digital audio, please don’t make any stupid statements.
I don’t need any forum users’ validation on what I know to be true.
“Just a stream of bits” or “it’s all 1’s and 0’s” is what the non-programming types say when pushed into a corner.
Nevertheless he is right.
is sycophant some kind of troll?
OK. I have not done a lot of programming in last few years, but calling me a “non-programmer” is like calling someone making living from royalties of his old hits a “non-songwriter”. 
Just as you didn’t call anyone here “stupid” I didn’t call you a (non)programmer either.
I have heard changes in sound quality between releases but admittedly only once and would not be surprised if there was something in what people are saying about Cubase 8 and figure it will improve with updates to resolve any ASIO/WASAPI issues.
Plugins may have been the cause no doubt but at that time I didn’t use any however this is not to rule out some internal processing in say a sample player such as Kontakt.
And still no answer to the identity of the “leading mastering engineer” who “qualifies” this assumption.
Also notice the title; “sounds better…at first SIGHT”. I do allow for dialect but also for the odd joke too.
I just don’t know which way to take it.
It is another post where someone says “this sounds bad…” and someone else says “No it doesn’t…” and to me it doesn’t so I have to err on the side that says “it doesn’t”.
As none of us here knows much about each others’ setups any discussion is largely meaningless and usually ends up with two or three people discussing each other’s (expertly opinionated) right to comment. On some systems it could sound worse but I certainly don’t know, but from my own experience I wouldn’t say it’s a Cubase problem. But it could be.
Anyway, seasons greetings to you all. May you all get your hearts desires fulfilled.
The audio interface is outside the signal path of a DAW’s internal mixdown (if not using external gear or loopbacks).
The audio interface will not affect the null test.
As for people hearing differences between v7 and 8, there may be a paradox at play: those with the most golden of ears are most likely to hear, on occasion, differences where there are none.
It takes critical listening and skill to even be working at a level where a mistake could be made.
Another way to put it: the person with the most knowledge and who contributes the most is statistically more likely to say something incorrect than those who don’t contribute much, or who play it safe with their contributions.
So there should be no embarrassment for a mastering engineer being wrong about this, this time (if indeed they are).
yeah. took the two versions and subtracted them. the differential signal is - well, there is a lot of it, it’s not some minute difference. it’s interesting that the difference (L -R) is mostly stereocontent, ie. the actual difference of the two versions is mostly contained outside the phantom stereo center of the recording. in other words also, comparing the (L + R)'s of the two versions, one finds them less different. But given the fact this is such a multi IO analog summed mix and we can’t see what is going on outside the DAW, it is hard to imagine what else is a conteibuting factor. In terms of simple internal audioevent null, c7 and c8 of course null for me.
Hmm, if we all just used this plugin all future discussions of this type would be moot 
http://www.funklogic.com/masterizer
Happy new year everybody 