So, the first Wednesday in December was correct

Cubase
1

There were a bunch of videos on YouTube that showcased Cubase Pro 9, by Darren Jones of MTT. I had planned to post the links to them but, when I double-checked before making this post, I found that they had been removed. I don’t know why, but it’s a great pity. They were excellent. Being a third-party reviewer, he pointed at some instances where Cubase 9 didn’t work as expected (bugs?). Something I’m sure Steinbergs official videos won’t do, when they are released. I base my opinions below on Darren’s videos.

I’d say that Steinbergs main gaffe this time is the long requested Sampler! It’s not implemented as a VSTi, but as a Sampler Track. You can only have one single sample loaded to a Sample Track. That means no multi-sample instruments (which rules out just about every instrument under the sun). It also means that, provided you don’t use a single loop during your entire song, you need to set up a separate Sampler Track for every loop you use!

Steinberg has a real knack for rendering good ideas useless, by poor implementation, don’t they?

The best new feature, for me, is the Plug-In Sentinal (provided it works properly, of cause) as it may help combat rogue and poorly programmed plug-ins.

I’m disappointed that Steinberg has chosen to not implement another widely requested feature: A VocAlign-like feature. That would really have been useful. Not only for dubbing audio to video, but also for making sure that the individual vocals in a multi-track choir are aligned properly.

It shall also be interesting to see if a couple of major bugs have been fixed:
I) The Econ visibility bug. This has been fixed years ago, according to Steinberg, but they have neglected to release it.
II) The bug that makes the Hardware Set-UP for the the Steinberg audio interfaces to disappear from the Devices menu and the MixConsole, if Cubase crashes or is shut down incorrectly. It’s not enough to reboot Cubase, you have to reboot the entire computer to get it back.

Steinberg claims increased compatibility with Steinberg and Yamaha interfaces, so one can only hope.

Is it worth the cost of upgrading? At about €99, I’d say I had expected more of a .0 upgrade. This feels more like a .5 upgrade to me. However, I don’t expect that I would save any money holding out for Cubase 9.5 or Cubase 10. Judging by the upgrade cost from Cubase Pro 8, I would most likely loose money. Therefore; I will pay for the upgrade. However, If I didn’t expect to loose money by holding out, I probably wouldn’t.

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I think quite a few people share this. For me it would be the only reason, but I’m really disapointed.

3

initially I am disappointed with the direction. putting the mixer at the bottom of the screen has always been available, and in my opinion rather cluttersome. I expected more enhancements to the mixer itself, variaudio enhancments, mixer group channels, I feel at this point rather let down. more research to do and more opinions to hear.

4

MixConsole undo not worth the cost of 99 Euros? Wow! That alone is EASILY worth 99 Euros for me.

Multi-sample complicated sample mapping is not the point of Sample Track (we have Contact or Halion etc for that). It’s about speed and ease of use. I think it looks like something very useful although I have not actually installed Cubase 9 yet.

5

I would have been, had they implemented it properly. Unfortunately, it’s useless because, as usual, Steinbergs programmers has wrecked a great idea, with ill thought trough implementation.

Cubase is listing all your actions in one long list. This gives you one level of undo, in practice. Imagine the following: You decide that action you performed (say a level change) a hundred actions ago need to be undone. You can undo this, but not without undoing all the other following hundred actions you that with to keep.

For this feature to be of any practical use, the history list needs to be parameter (or at least channel) specific! Or you should be able to undo a specific action in the list and leave all that comes after alone. You can’t. You have to undo them all. So…it’s useless.

6

Impressive. %)

7

I’m sorry but I also agree with that when I saw the undo, undoing everything else following it, whether its possible to program it any other way or not, as it stands it does seem from a mixing stand point kind or useless. I’m hoping I’m wrong on all my observations, and that in time I will see Cubase 9 as a useful new version, right now I’m seeing it as windows vista, hoping to get to windows 7

8

alright i’m baffled. I just bought it,(because I am a loyal Steinberg customer) and now i’m looking at it going “what did I just pay for”? its been over a year in development since the last Cubase and as I look at it and use it, it feels like I just bought version 8.5 again with a few of my workspaces integrated. other than that whats the differerence? I mean usually when the new version comes out its like wow, look at all these developments. but with version 9 I’m not sure what I just paid for except the Steinberg Christmas party. I’m sorry but underwhelmed is the best I can say.

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also it appears the usual scroll options I can use my mouse wheel to achieve on the normal mixer view are not valid on the new lower pane mixer view