Just to provide some perspective:
- The SAC controllers were released in 2000-2001
- By early 2004 they had already stopped providing new driver and firmware updates. I believe it stopped being manufactured around the same time.
- Official support for this controller was dropped in 2013 with Cubase 7.5. Cubase still retained “legacy” support for it, meaning no tech support or bug fixes.
- This legacy support was removed in 2020 with Cubase 11, when the developers began laying the groundwork for the new MIDI Remote API.
So the SAC controller worked natively with Cubase for about 15 years after being discontinued by its manufacturer. I would say that’s a pretty good run. And it’s not like it completely stopped working with Cubase 12 either, you just have to use it like a regular DAW controller now.
The Houston was also discontinued around the same time, but it makes sense to bring back legacy support for it because it was an official Steinberg product that was purchased by many of Nuendo’s early adopters.