I’m not a frequent visitor these days. Can anyone tell me whether upgrading from 6.5 to 7 is going to make an old boy, with failing eyesight, happy? What does it give that I don’t get with 6.5? Thanks - I just know I’m going to get helpful replies… 
I’d wait to see how the 7.0.2 update is received!
Aloha t,
For me it’s ‘Hermode Tuning’, ‘ASIO-Guard’ and ‘VST Connect’ but YMMV.
Also I’m sure there will be a trial/demo version out soon.
HTH
{‘-’}
BTW
good to see you posting again. 
Thanks Curteye, battling macular damage… bugger!
I’m a humble peasant but I have to say, from my point of view, the biggest problem Cubase 7 has is Cubase 6.5. I’ve been so happy with it that I held back on upgrading from the first time in about twenty years. People would have had to have been universally euphoric to get me to change and that hasn’t quite happened(one reason, I suppose, you’re asking). I’m hoping they’ll be a lot happier after the next update but its ok if it’s not. 
Same here. I would hold off. There are way too many oddities in version 7. At least, I wouldn’t trust using it if I had it based on all the reports in the C7 forum of issues and the major loss of control surface integration with mixer views. As far as eyesight, I don’t know what to tell you but I have read text gets truncated in the mixer.
I agree with what everyone said about the foibles of the new version, but from purely a text clarity view, I don’t find it any less useful than that of 6.5. I would not be in any hurry to uninstall 6.5 (in fact, I have versions 5 and up still installed) and the cool thing is that 7.x projects will open in 6.5, so if you have that, you have easy roll back in case of fek-ups at inopportune moments.
The last time I spent in front of seven, I finally smiled… I am getting to like it slowly. 7.0.2 is supposedly going to tighten some things up… We shall see. I fear it wont address as much as is hoped for.
Thanks for your input guys, it all makes sense. I think I’ll ask the same question a week after the 7.02 release. In the words of Sir Charles Sedley - “When change itself can give no more, 'tis easy to be true” 
…and that’s why I still use XP when I’m not using Cubase!
This is just me ,so please, my comments aren’t aimed at anyone. For the life of me ,I can’t understand how anyone can decide to upgrade or not based on the general mood in a forum. Since I’ve been visiting this forum starting
In 1999, there has never been a time when some folks weren’t screaming about bugs ,and every single never version was attacked on arrival until users simply figured out that they didn’t know what they were doing or just pissed that something changed
The only comments I’d consider would be users who have specific issues and have demonstrated a balanced approach over the years. I’d check to see if those are verifiable including looking at the database of issues.
As far as C7 goes ,the Club Cubase vids will show the features. My eyes aren’t as good as they used to be but I don’t have any issues using C7 .There is also a good review of C7 in this months Sound on Sound
No issues here either… except loading a C6.5.4 song on which I used the Embracer plugin. I had to copy the Embracer Folder to the C7 location. It worked but occasionally C7 would crash while loading the Project… a pity… I used Embracer quite alot.
Otherwise everything else works just perfect. I waited a while before upgrading but ended up asking myself why I waited so Long
works good for my old weary eyes too
My days of using software of any sort are probably numbered, macular degeneration doesn’t get better. I’ve never previously used a forum to decide whether to upgrade or not, but in this case I wanted to know whether there was anything particularly “must have” in C7 before spending money on an upgrade which might be of limited use for me. Most replies have been constructive and helpful, thanks for those.
I heard a really interesting piece on NPR as I was waking up this morning that focused on electronic communication. My takeaway was how easily nuance and mis-interpetations can happen with emails or online posting. With that in mind , I thought I’d comeback to the question of upgrading to C7 by saying that, to me, a look at the Club Cubase videos that show the actual features was compelling enough for me to upgrade. My experience over the years is that the vast majority of features offered on 1st version upgrades work. To me the big improvements over 6.5 are
searchable mixer
agent in the mixer to hide or show tracks by type easily
track pictures and being able to import pictures of the people you’re working with (haven’t done this yet)
Scaling the mixer so things are easier to see
CHORD TRACK
those are just the ones I’ve used but I haven’t scratched the surface
Hey bud:)
Woah, hope it gets better… Ive also had macular swelling n stuff… The dark spot is no fun… You need as little stress as possible… Maybe try some canabis or so… Also try to get in some neck/back masages…
That being said:
For me, Cubase 7 puts a lot of fun back into it;)
Take care and be good to yourself:)
ggc - that’s the best advice I’ve had so far 
I think I’ll be positive and go for it. Thanks MrM for the additional information.
Here’s my problem with C7 … I primarily mix and I don’t like to use the mouse. For me the actual mixing is a significant step backwards.
*The mixer is hard to read.
*You have to click everything, sometimes twice to do anything. Many functions are now hidden in drop downs (more mouse clicks).
*The mixer view recall doesn’t work properly.
*The meter readings and vst settings are impossibly small and have no contrast so are damn near impossible to see. And that’s on my 30" monitor. I can’t imagine someone trying to mix on 23’s. But don’t worry, the track numbers are BOLD BRIGHT and 6’ feet tall … which is nice if you care what the track number is.
*Mixer to Project synch is semi-broken, primarily if you use folders but under other scenarios as well.
*The control to enable/disable/set functions on the console area are all small and not responsive to the mouse click (and they require the mouse).
*The mixer does not scale well. The buttons compress on top of eachother, text just smooshes to a blob etc…
*There are actually fewer tracks on the screen in the smallest size than the older mixer.
*The mixer takes up 1/3’ more vertical height. So, no more stacking mixers. Which doesn’t matter because they don’t recall to their positions even if you try.
*crippled/removed/missing key commands (because of course I hate using the mouse)
*The video response is awful if you get more than just a handful of tracks. I have an extremely high end graphics card that doesn’t get used at all by C7. The CPU takes the entire load it seems. Try this … pull up your cpu meter and move a couple of linked faders … not good
*The new linking system is actually LESS effective not more. You have to have QLink on to begin with (mouse click). Or you have to go through a clumssy checklist dialog (mouse clicks). You can’t just highlight the tracks and perform a change on the selection.
*One track can’t belong to more than one group. Reducing even the potential for coolness to near zero. How are they going to implement VCAs if you can’t have one channel in multiple groups?
*The Zones function has potential, but until they fix the track selection process and view recall, it is actually more clicks than using the old hide selected track process (although getting left/middle/right groupings is nice). But remember that area is supposed to make it faster … it makes it slower … significantly.
I could go on and on, but the point is that C7 may have a lot of things other people will love. But if you spend a lot of time actually mixing I don’t think you are going to like it much. I like some of the new channel editor features. I don’t like others as they hid the controls or made them ridiculously small. Anyhow, just another take on C7. I’m not actually a hater as much as I think the mixer was significantly premature. It needs drastic help.
Thanks for posting that list. For guys like me, it is really informative to know all that and to stay away for a while till things improve.
I would add that I think (and I’m pretty sure you already do this) if Cubase is your DAW, then you should be working to keep up with the releases so that you know how it works. I’m still mixing in C6.5, but I’m recording/editing in C7. I don’t understand the “I have a client and C7 cost me money” posts. If you are charging people to work you should damn well use your known environment.
The mixer has potential. But, as I’ve stated elsewhere, I really don’t want a tablet solution for my desktop mixing. And this reeks of tablet/touch. The QLink, Groups and Zones actually could be really nice once they get fleshed out. But, they really need to fix the readability of the mixer badly.
With everything that is going on with version 7, there is no draw for me to purchase it only to have my work flow suffer. The new version was released severely incomplete. One day, maybe, but I don’t have the time nor energy to put into it in its current state. I do give the early adopters a lot of credit for jumping in the fire. For me, working with what is working is more important. Think of the time where all there were was boards and reels. A rig stayed put for years and was maintained to stay up and running. We didn’t, at least I and the places I worked at, upgrade our board or tape machines every year. I do stay up on software patches for current versions, in my case 6.5xx. That’s a little different that a rewritten piece of software filled with bricked code. I really feel I will most likely skip 7 all together because with big rewrites of code it always seemed it took a whole version cycle to get the new code streamlined. That was my experience with version 4 which I did buy but it wound up never getting prime time in my joint due to issues with it.
Again, thanks to all those on v7 reporting their experiences. Hope it goes more smooth than not.
Although it was probably implied from my post, I wasn’t advocating upgrading just to upgrade… Sorry if that is how it came across. Using what works is always the best solution.
Woodcrest Studio writes
“The new version was released severely incomplete.”
How can you say this with such certainty if you dont have the update? It would seem to me , you should say " Based on what I’ve read…" Wouldn’t “severely incomplete” mean that you couldn’t make music with it or crashed every minute.
I use C7 everyday ,7 days weekly, recording and mixing. I’m not having problems.