downloaded and tried elements 8 (i have 7 ) and frankly i dont see the point of this upgrade at all the menu bar at top is annoying asio guard 2 gives same usage as 7 in all tests i know its only 15 pound to upgrade (maybe steinberg feel guilty charging more ) am i missing something other opinions welcome
Surely the Chord Pads alone are worth the price of a few beers?
As for the annoying menu bar, I take it you have Windows 7? The behaviour on Windows 8 is different but all you really have to do is click the “maximise” button.
I use C8Pro as well and the difference overall to 7.5 was worth the upgrade, so I’m happy to get a matching version for the laptop.
Groove Agent SE 4 is really cool addition if (like me) you’ve been missing drum sampler (version in CE7 was ***)
Plugin Manager and improved int. EQ (i’ve been missing freq info and more hp/lp slopes, also horizontal/vertical lines are nice)
Re-Record mode is nice add
Yeah, hard to call it a huge update, especially if main updates like dock-able windows, chord pads are not useful for some people (me!) . I found that ASIO Guard 2 works same like in CE7 but it’s not a big deal for me: huge projects with 3ms latency and everything play smoothly 
Unfotunately, update to full 8 is still necessary for me because most of things that I need is only there 
After using CB 8pro for a while I actually like the menu now. After having a quick look at Elements 8 I would have liked to see 'workspaces and the ‘inspector visibility’ options included in the entry level CB. Although it does open songs I have saved in pro with the correct workspace layout It would have been nice to have the option built in to customise workspaces in elements.
For the price I think it is a great entry level DAW and yes +1 ^ Re-Record is a good addition.
It’s great for the laptop - and dongle free. Mixer is better than 7, activate / deactivate instrument tracks will be very handy, stuff like the VST plugin sorting is too. ASIOguard 2 working well here. Workspaces from the full version would have been nice but hey - for £15 upgrade from 6 (was just trialling 7 when 8 became available) it’s a dead cert for me.
i guess i was really hoping for a comp tool or at least a lanes function so i wouldn’t have to mess about in the parts editor for comping ( i know the full version has these but i can’t justify the cost just for this function i know it has more but i wouldn’t use most of the things it does) as you say its so cheap to upgrade so i probably will eventually
Dongle Free? How can i use this function? Keeping dongle whenever use cubase on laptop outside is annoying. Please let me know the function.
Elements has always been dongle free. You can use a soft e-licenser, which just sits in your computer, as opposed to the normal dongle.
Only if you (have) put the license on the Soft eLicenser. Once you move it to a dongle, you can’t go back.
I’m using elements in an older imac, and my initial experience is that elements 8 is much more stable than 7. I havent had any crashes yet, in 7 it kept crashing all the time. I dont see much difference in ASIO performance, and things like chord pads and instrument docking in the arranger window is pointless and useless to me.
My biggest complain is the same as in 8 pro, I want the fullscreen mixer back, in elements 7 we had at least the thinner always on top bar, now we have only the fullsize window bar stealing unnessesary screensspace.
The better stability is worth the upgrade for me, but please please Steinberg give us the option on a full screen no border mixer again like in cubase 7, and also in elements.
Hj
Oh man! Just check STRIP in the mixer window. Now knobs have proper size. Juhuuuu! Finally In 7 this part of mixer was totally useless on higher res. screens.
I didn’t realise this and put the serial on my dongle.
Is it not possible to deregister the activation from the dongle to then subsequently reregister as soft elicencer?
Unfortunately not, the ability to move a license from USB- to soft-eLicenser is somethig sadly lacking.
The 8 upgrade is great, great price too!
One omission that’s a little painful is the inability to side-chain effects. Anyone used this, which should work with Elements? http://beatrig.com/products/ske6
correct.
And here´s a hot tip…
Cubase 8 Groove Agent SE as a Minisampler:
There is an option to play samples chromatically on the keyboard (!)
You can drag and drop every sample (project window or media bay) on a pad of GA4SE.
Then go to the Pitch tab.
Select key range and set the lower and high keys, your choice.
Then go to the Amp tab and do a double click to add a new point to the amp curve.
You can now play your sample chromatically on the keyboard.
There is another option in the sample tab which activates audio warp to get the sample in time.
This is a nice way if you want to play voice samples for example as a chord because it has the formant fuctionality.
So there´s no need for another sampler… 
My opinion: Cubase Elements 8 is a wonderful and complete DAW, not only for beginners.
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