The Cubase forum is chock full of smart folks who are also very generous with their time in helping others. But when folks post a question here there are several things they can do to improve the likely hood of getting a useful answer.
1. Give your subject a good descriptive title
I, like most participants here I suspect, skim the titles of posts and read the ones for topics of interest and also for topics I’m knowledgeable about. If your title doesn’t give me a clue on what it is about, I’m less likely to read and answer it - even though I may know the answer. For example if you title a post “Logical editor not selecting note events” it will get the attention of folks who understand the logical editor. If for the same problem your title is “why is it doing this?”, or “Cubase not working” the folks who have the expertise you need are less likely to read the post and you are less likely to to get an answer.
2. Proof read your question as if you didn’t know what the problem looked like
Fairly frequently I’ll see a topic in my wheelhouse, read the post and be baffled as to what the question means. It is easy to write a problem description that makes perfect sense to you because you have experienced the problem, but for someone who hasn’t had your experience the description is inadequate. So take a moment and ask yourself if the question would make sense to someone completely fresh reading it.
3. Provide sufficient info to answer your question
Give a DETAILED description of both the problem and the environment it is occurring in. Make sure to include a full hardware description for crashes or hardware problems. Indicate if you are on a Mac or PC since some issues are platform specific. A lot of folks wisely use their profile signature to do this. If you get followup posts asking for more info, you didn’t get this part right.
4. Consider attaching an image
Sometimes it is much easier to understand a problem visually than from an ambiguous description. Try and make it easy for folks to help you.
5. Check the manual first
The Steinberg manuals are pretty well written and often have pictures and other good info. Granted the index is only so-so at best, but pdf search helps mitigate that. So check it first and then ask in a forum. Consider if the manual has a page long description of something and you just ask on the forum - then you are expecting someone here to spend their time paraphrasing a page from the manual. My mama would have called that selfish. Also don’t get bent out of shape if someone suggests you RTFM because it likely means they are directing you to the clearest and most complete explanation available. And responders, it is helpful to suggest where in the manual to read, especially for newbies - consider it positive reinforcement to get folks to read the manual. And for those who dislike the acronym RTFM, it is well over 20 years old and ain’t going away. Get used to it being part of the language.
6. Give at least as much as you take.
If you are asking questions, you should be answering them too when you can.
7. Don’t be a jerk and ignore the jerks
You don’t really need to stoop to their level do you?
