I am struggling to complete the transfer and upgrade of my Cubase LE AI Elements 9 “Soft eLicenser” key to Cubase Artist 12, which I recently purchased at the end of March this year.
The Steinberg Download Assistant is telling me I need a USB-eLicenser to complete the transfer.
I don’t have a USB-eLicenser, I have a “soft” license and I don’t intend to purchase a USB to complete the transfer into a Steinberg Cubase Artist 12 license which would then make a USB eLicenser redundant.
Is there any way to resolve this issue?
I did create a support request for this 21 days ago and Steinberg hasn’t responded at all.
I also followed up, again to absolute silence. I am now 7 days away from Cubase 12 rescinding my temporary license.
This is frustrating, I just want to sort it out, I see I am not the only person who has experienced this issue.
Ok, I read the article about the update process again.
It should be possible now to use a soft-e-licenser.
Make sure you use the latest Steinberg Download Manager and the soft-e-licenser is showing the license for the upgrade.
I have double-checked the upgrade from Cubase Elements 9 to Cubase Artist 12 and it still appears to be a legitimate upgrade scenario so I’m at a bit of a loss as to how I might proceed.
Can you double check that you have the exact upgrade needed (Cubase AI, Cubase LE, or Cubase Elements?)? I don’t know that that’s the problem here, but it’s worth re-confirming.
Hey Steve, I bought the (“Cubase Artist 12 Upgrade from Cubase AI / LE 4 - 11”), my version of Cubase originally is “Cubase LE AI Elements 9” - perhaps this is where the issue lies? I don’t really know why it’s called all 3, which is confusing.
Every day I see someone who doesn’t know which version of Cubase it is, because the shortcut is named “Cubase LE AI Elements” for all the three basic versions of Cubase.
LE, AI and Elements are three different versions, but some pleople think it’s one version, and some people think LE = Elements.
Please Steinberg stop this mess.
In this case, you clearly have Cubase Elements, but you bought the upgrade from LE/AI.
I really wouldn’t consider this a ‘mess’. The license was clearly labeled, and it’s the license one is purchasing, which is displayed to the user during the process of updating and also in their account.
Anyway, kromenoi marked the post above as the solution.
I have to agree. I see it frequently as well.
I don’t see how there’s a need for 3 entry level versions of Cubase. I think Steinberg would do themselves a favor by scrapping LE and AI.
I know that the license is perfectly labeled, and I never had that problem because I know I bought Cubase Elements (an upgrade from LE/AI to Elements, actually).
But many LE/AI users install the software that came with their interfaces, and the first thing they see is a shortcut labeled “Cubase LE AI Elements”. That’s the thing that confuses many users.
Then what would they have to offer as OEM/bundled sowtware, Elements? I don’t think so. Many users are brought into the Cubase world because of the “free” license included with their hardware purchase. If I hadn’t received a Cubase LE4 license with a crappy old Tascam interface (my first venture into DAW land), I probably would have never known what Cubase was and never would have spent money on Studio 5. And, here I am years (and thousands of dollars) later as a happy Steinberg customer.
I do agree, however, that the “AI” title is somewhat disturbing at this point in time.
I wonder if they keep the titles for backward compatibility – eg, people who, years after they buy a device decide to use Cubase. Also, they might have some contracts with device manufacturers that specify AI or LE.
Certainly I agree in principle – not that it matters Simplifying is almost always a good thing, but it’s not always in the Yamaha/Steinberg wheelhouse!
Having two OEM editions is kind of pointless. And Artist is basically Cubase Pro without a couple of features. If someone wants to buy Artist, it makes more sense to save a few extra bucks and buy the Pro edition.
The versions that make sense to me are LE (I would name it Intro), Elements (I’d add a couple of extra features) and Pro.
Simplifying is almost always a good thing, but it’s not always in the Yamaha/Steinberg wheelhouse!