Just took my valuable time to fill out Steinberg’s survey questionnaire. At the end, they asked for additional comments. Below are mine.
I love Cubase and Steinberg products in General. Own both hardware and software. My suggestions:
Let us, Cubase users, work with you as beta testers – before releasing a new upgrade. Do NOT release the DAW until all the bugs are eliminated. Cubase should be associated with the words ROCK SOLID, STABLE, ABSOLITELY RELIABLE and PROFESSIONAL, not BUGGY, CRASH-PRONE and “PRO-ISH”. I want to feel about Cubase the way I feel about UAD plugins: works as advertised – and solid and stable.
Protect your integrity. Make sure the things you promise in your flashy advertisements are actually there – and functioning. That’s what we pay for. Do not deceive us. People like me get really ticked off about that and start to cast a “wandering eye” at other DAWS.
Speak with us more frequently on the forums – like every day, please. Make us feel we are part of one family and part of the processs and that you’re in there with us trying to make it happen.
Do not even consider this silly rent model that the Protools guys or Adobe currently uses or we will really start checking out alternative DAWS.
Really ask us what we want and implement them. If not possible, please give us a detailed explanation “why not”. We will really appreciate and respect you for that.
Please implement ARA now, or make up your own version which does the same thing. Producers like me will immediately benefit from this and this does not diminish or threaten the value of Cubase.
Hope you guys really listen and this questionnaire is not just some silly time-wasting gimmick. We the users know what you need to do for the programme to be truly awesome. Please start to show us some respect by listening, implementing and frequently communicating.
I guess the problem is that the user group isn’t very homogenous, on the contrary people use Cubase in more ways we probably can imagine. It’s not like Steinberg get 200 wishlist and with 20 “I can’t believe this is implemented the way I just dreamed before I woke up this morning” brilliant features. If they really keep bugging us about more featuer wishes they get 50 000 lists and … well, I rest my case
I agree if I understood your point correctly. I think Steinberg should do what they think is best.
I often see requests on forums that I think are plain silly, if Steinberg tried to implement every user request I think Cubase could end up a real mess.
One thing to add ( I Did ), support the hardware with drivers over a longer period, as I have and had many steinberg hardware, but if the support continues to drop after a few years I will abandon hardware things from steinberg / yamaha.
It’s pretty sour when you have good working devices which go into the closet due to no driver available.
I think if you look around, something as simple as mix undo is a very homogeneous request…but mainly with experienced users. Steinberg won’t communicate whether or not that is on any list or any time frame. Is it a secret? IMO the reason is that mix undo is something pro users need, but doesn’t appeal to the prosumer market who love all those incredible exotic features. I wish I were wrong.
I completely agree Cubase is used in more ways than we can imagine. My issues with 4 video monitors, 4 MidiTimepiece’s for 32 midi in/outs interfaced with a Qcon Pro, will be very different than the person on a laptop working in the Score editor. I have never opened the score editor! Think how the Windows management problems relate to this.
I completely agree there is too much “noise” about wishing for esoteric features when the basics such as mix undo seem to be forgotten. Then again, that person wishing for an esoteric feature doesn’t consider it esoteric.
As for items 1-7 it seems like the OP is asking for improved user communication, make Cubase more “pro” and don’t do what Avid is currently doing? I have been asking the same for years, but I think when you consider all DAWs are driven by the prosumer market, I’m in a huge minority.
I agree with all topics said, and also that there should and will not be a “wish any feature”. But the big misundersanding is the question, it’s the “Website Questionaire”, so the question was, “how shall we do our advertisment to sell more products”, and not, “how can we improve our products”. Unfortunately.
But the request for more active oficial representatives with reliable statements is valid and necessary. Although, decision makers usually don’t take time to read user’s thoughts and woes. And the ones who read are usually supposed not to talk about internals, plans or even timelines. It’s about take customers seriously as the OP said, but that costs time most companies don’t want to spend. The bigger the less.
