Having recently upgraded to wave-lab pro 9, and having cubase pro 8.5. I really hope they do take interface ideas from wave-lab into cubase, The ribbon bar is a work of genius IMO. The whole wavelab 9 interface feels modern and far superior to cubase.
I find CP 8.5 to be stable on my system, i’m not a heavy weight user, probably 5 - 6 hours a week (Mixing down multi-track audio) and I stick to stock plug-in and have a Steinberg sound-card, Which undoubtedly help keep things stable
Adding a sampler would be great a Halon SE, just basic sampling looping and key groups, layers blending etc etc, no big synthesis engine or FX systems. Just a software akai s3000 would be perfect!
One of my gripes with Steinberg is non transferable Plugs in. I dream of using master rig and post filter inside cubase, and Reverence and Reverlation inside Wavelab for example. I under stand its added layer of protection again them been hacked illegally been set free, and probable licensing agreement small print with 3rd party developers, But come on make it happen!
I dream of better modulation options been added, cross plug-in cross tracks so you could off set cut off filter values on multiple tracks, and the re verb time on them and control it all from one control should you wish.
Or link re-verb size to the level of compression, or midi note value to EQ frequency, Midi note velocity too Guitar amp model etc etc the possibility are endless.
That all said, I love Cubase, and think its dose a great job of been good at everything, Wanna mix down multi track audio, cool its can do it, Wanna compose a track using midi and vst instruments, cool it dose it, Wanna Record real instruments and vocals along with internal or external midi, yup it dose it, Wanna edit or master some audio you guessed it it can do it. The point I am making is I love its flexibility, and know its also its downfall, It will never be perfect at any one thing. but I can live with that.
Ben