One that should be free for users of cubase 8.5
This. I was really REALLY hoping for some kind of overhaul to the tracks, allowing you to see inserts/send fx directly there… 
Too expensive for what it brings.
For me at least.
I love Cubase but its time to try another daws.
Though this update is not much Cubase as a whole is a very powerful and creative environment, it has features like expression maps not found in other daws. I would suggest thinking hard before jumping to another DAW.
I’ve tried it - and I like it. The new GUI is slightly nicer and more professional looking. I have a small improvement in cpu performance (on Mac) which is always a bonus. The lower zone sounds quite trivial but I’ve found it very helpful - particularly in the way it displays the score editor, which is great. It’s possible to set it so that a single click opens up the score in the lower zone, and a double click opens up the key editor in a separate window, which is perfect for me. Having a non floating transport bar is also nice. I used to find it was always in the way .
Steinberg already lost some employees to Presonus. Now they will be loosing customers.
Why on earth would they ‘give a new UI to all the plugins’? That would be a total waste of resources towards what actually needs doing.
I’m very disappointed that an extension of the Import Audio feature was not brought to fruition. It was my biggest hope as a mix engineer
My guess and my hope is for VECTORIZATION and scaling !
Which is needed if a user upgrades to 4K video - or you can’t read anything on the plugin GUI because it is the size of a thumbnail!
I think I may be one of those Steinberg lost today.
Just upgraded my Studio One license to the latest version, instead of Cubase. Been watching some videos on YouTube, and it looks like Studio One has all the features I love from Cubase (minus Expression Maps, but there are work-arounds for that), but they have been implemented much better. Presonus is actually doing the forward thinking that I was hoping Steinberg would be doing in this version, so I’m gonna give them another shot. They’ve come a LONG way since version 1, that’s for sure!
Anyway, I’m not saying I’m completely out. But, from what I’ve learned so far, Studio One might be what I need right now. We’ll see 
.
I think Steinberg lost my annual payments too. 100eur is not much, but if I pay 100eur, I want something in return. C9 is giving me nothing, I’m done paying for things I don’t need. This may be the first time in many years that I will not update.
The only thing I’m struggling with is the fact that if I do not update now, but decide to update in few years, the longer I wait, the more it will cost me to update. If I wait few years, the cost of upgrade will be just like buying another DAW like Studio One. So if I do not upgrade now, I may as well switch to Studio One asap, and be done here. Uh, the dilemma…
So far, compared to C8.0.0, which was far from the best in terms of QA, the C9 quality looks much better at an initial glance. (perhaps I set the expectation little too low? 
)
There seem like some nice features to explore - the biggest would be the undo/redo functions in the mix console.
There are some tiny things that didn’t happen (fixing regressions, reducing UI annoyance etc) but I’ll post them in a separate thread.
I only scratched the surface, definitely I need to look around more.
Meanwhile, I’m seeing some graphics performance issues, which I didn’t see in C8.0.40 on the same hardware.
I find the graphic performance degraded especially during playback.
I can tell by the sluggish vertical cursor movement quite easily. It looks sluggish and clumsy.
It’s not just the cursor, the time display in the transport panel updates much less frequently (I can practically read every number in there now!).
The meter update rates are very slow and very sluggish during playback. They are so slow, the meters are useless.
And so on.
8.0.x had bad graphic perf regressions which were ultimately fixed in C8.0.40. The phenomena aren’t exactly the same, but perhaps the history is repeating again?
Oh, and I have noticed that one of my tracks sounds rather differently on C9.0.
I’m trying to figure out why. So far got an impression it might be related to the fade out in an audio chunk not treated or treated differently. But it’s not conclusive yet.
Thanks.
i am kind of disappointed with cubase 9. Besides that i can now see the grid in audio warp, and only becuase of the lowerzone concept. NONE of the bugs i had in cubase 8 were fixed. that drives me crazy. i really dont need any new features, i just want to work easy and without workarounds and without extra clicking around just for muting/solo a track for example (shortcuts in channeleditor dont work, because of the shortcut focus i guess).
thats just one, and there so many more stupid things in cubase.
maybe in cubase 13 we are finaly able to route an fx-track into a group. well, maybe not. 
nice new features, like the hot usb device connection,the lower zone is nice,mixer undo nice but not complete without snapshot system,VSTi sidechain,sampler track,export by marker.
but Cubase 9 still lakes some new thinking of speed workflow with the editing tools, the editing tools are rather old and need lot of clicks and switching to accomplish editing fast.
also the editing of midi events can be a nightmare if cutting events,it can do a mess.it needs some intelligent musical brain.
generally,steinberg seems to me less innovative the last years,and rather work slow with new or overhauled improved tools.
i’m not familiar with Studio one that well,but looks they do more efforts to build their DAW in more intuitive workflow in lots of areas/ if it’s the mixer or project with more efficient tools for editing.
I thought the top polled “feature request” for Cubase9 was fix the bugs, but I must have missed all the requests for … a new uglier icon and splash screen!
I’m sad to think even a minute was spent on such things, while chronic bugs like events on duplicated channels and the video engine crashing are still not addressed.
I am pretty close to ecstatic about the new hot plug USB feature!
I definitely thought they would at least give us a SMART TOOL or better color options for the mixer. You can’t even color multiple tracks at the same time in the mixconsole. You have to go to one channel at a time or go back to the project page and color multiple tracks.
I saw the negative comments and thought ‘am I really going to consider another DAW? What a hassle’ so I went ahead and downloaded it anyway.
Actually I quite liked it! I have got a small performance boost, which is always welcome, so that one project that maxed out cpu doesn’t anymore (on Mac) . The Gui is cleaner. The lower zone is great when set to show the score editor. It displays scores just as i’d like them to be. I can access the score with a single click and the key editor in a separate window with a double click. The transport bar at the bottom removes the problem of the transport always getting in the way. For me, well worth the money.
Steinberg I am a loyal supporting customer, but I’m sorry I really expected more, this version seems to show features already available in one way or another served up as supposed something new, but as far as anything new, for a major version upgrade, the slogan says, "our most complete version ever, I don’t know seems a bit like the most complete disappointment ever. I was so blown away by version 8, maybe my expectation’s were just too high. could’ve used folders in the mixer, could’ve used variaudio navigation improvements, is there someone different in charge of R&D?
I may be being too hard, I’ve read some people feel this version was good for them. maybe I will come around with a little more time, but right now I feel like I paid for what I already have, with a few extras
I also noticed, after opening and closing several projects, C9 has lost the audio output.
Quitting C9 (I tend to see a crach here, but not always) and restarting didn’t solve it, still no sound.
I had to reboot the PC, then C9 got the audio again.
I saw this not just once. Almost always when I did several project open / close / open / close / open, eventually I hit this issue, lost the audio output and had to reboot the PC.
I don’t remember seeing this before. Not sure if this is related to the C9’ new PnP functionality.
The USB hotplug is already worth €100 on it’s own
Sample track > win!
Touched up GUI > so much better!
Better ASIO performance and more realistic performance scaling > solved all my previous performance gripes
“Below” is not for me, though I love the new transport docked.
FreqEQ Frequing awesome
What’s not to like in 9?
It’s the pro evolution.
Let me be a bit more direct with the moaners: I’ve been on Steinberg for over 25 years. They stay true to their legacy and point of view of what a daw should look like and still evolve.
If you have been around for only a couple of years and are still shopping between fruity loops (now flstudio) S1, ProTools or Live. Just choose what you like best. But stop trying to lobby Cubase into something it’s not: a melting pot of all of the above with no own identity.
I love the workflow, how the tools are layed out, the included functionality, the GUI, the scalability, the stability, the outboard support. It a rich legacy and displays vision. And it gets better and more refined every version.
If your expectations are that Steinberg should throw all of that framework overboard, just go shop elsewhere.
I have huge respect for the developers and some of the replies here make me cringe.
€99,00 is NOTHING for the amount of refinement and improvement you get in this update.
Again, if Steinbergs view of a DAW is not yours, I can fully appreciate that, but then you boarded the brong boat, just abandon ship and enjoy S1, or Live or any other flavour of the week.
Team Steinberg, you did a great job on 9. Stay true to your Vision, evolve but don’t divert.