Suggestion to Combine 3 Steinberg Apps into One

[Aleque]

I had an old paper with some ideas inspired by Valve’s Steam launcher. Wanted to share the ideas before I toss the paper.

I wasn’t sure where to post this suggestion, but since Cubase is Steinberg’s flagship product, it might be the most appropriate category.

Combine these 3 applications - Steinberg Download Assistant, Steinberg Activation Manager and Steinberg Library Manager - into one application, simply called Steinberg Manager. Or whatever you decide to call it.

Having these three separate applications can be confusing, especially for new users. Having one application is possible and will make it much less confusing to download and activate applications, updates, libraries, buy new products, read news, etc.

Suggestion for different tabs in Steinberg Manager:

My Products: A list of owned, full version products (not trials) that are either activated or not. Sorted or filtered by: Applications, VST Instruments, Libraries, Sound Banks, Samples, etc. Again, can be sorted or filtered by the “activated” or “not activated” status.

Store: Browse products, see what’s on sale and add products to your favorites (wishlist), for later. Download trial products, which should NOT be under the “My Products” tab, imo.

News: Read the latest Steinberg news and updates about: new product releases, new product (maintenance) updates, interviews with some VIPs using Steinberg products, links to Steinberg-related Youtube videos (not tutorials, but more like “behind the scenes” footage).

Community / Forums / Discussions: Not sure about this one. The website forums are great, but this could be an alternative way of browsing the forums? Especially if Steinberg Manager becomes a smartphone app, one day.

Learning & Tutorials: A place to learn Steinberg’s applications. Again, I know we have Youtube, and it works, but this one can be an option, too.

Anyone is welcome to contribute. Either to tell me how dumb these ideas are or to elaborate on them further. If there is any interest, at all, to develop some of these ideas further, I could draw up a mockup to flesh out some of these ideas, visually.

[kiwimusic]

Love the thought! Not so sure that the Steinberg Manager should ever become a smartphone app separate from the computer it’s installed on, and definitely unsure that Nuendo or Dorico isn’t the real flagship product!

[XLColdJ]

@Aleque

Combine these 3 applications - Steinberg Download Assistant, Steinberg Activation Manager and Steinberg Library Manager - into one application, simply called Steinberg Manager. Or whatever you decide to call it.

That would probably be a good move.

@Aleque

Community / Forums / Discussions: Not sure about this one. The website forums are great, but this could be an alternative way of browsing the forums?

From an infosec perspective, doing that would be a big mistake. The application that’s responsible for managing Cubase licenses and files shouldn’t handle any data from random users on the Internet.

@Aleque

Especially if Steinberg Manager becomes a smartphone app, one day.

Combing three applications into one, just to require two separate devices to use the new application? That would be one step forward, two steps back.

The “Manager” should run on the computer that’s running the DAW–not on a mobile device. The point of Download Assistant is to download files to your computer; the point of the Activation Manager is to activate licenses on your computer; the point of the Library Manager is to manage the libraries on your computer.

@Aleque

Either to tell me how dumb these ideas are or to elaborate on them further.

The other ideas sound pretty good–but I think they would be better as optional tabs in the Cubase Hub, rather than in a “Manager” application–which IMHO should only be used for activations, downloads, and library-management.

[fese]

This has been requested again and again, last time by me just a few weeks ago.

I suggested the Arturia Software manager as a rather well designed and user friendly example of such a tool.

Feature request: unified Steinberg Software Center

I know this topic has been brought up before, and I even once got an answer from a Steinberg rep here admitting that the situation isn’t optimal and that “they are working on it”, but as this is now some years ago and nothing has happened yet, I’ll bring it up again. Let’s be honest: the current triumvirate of Steinberg Download Manager, Steinberg Activation Manager and Steinberg Library Manager is a usability mess… yes, I personally get along with it, because I am used to, but it is so often t…

[BrunoDSL]

@Aleque

Especially if Steinberg Manager becomes a smartphone app, one day.

Even on the App Store and Play Store Steinberg let’s Apple and Google deal with the licensing side of Cubasis and Cubase iC Pro, so I don’t see their resources being poured into dealing with the endless pain of mobile development more than they have to with moving SDA to mobile.

[Aleque]

Yeah, Steinberg Manager being a phone app was a bit too much of a random thought on my side. Maybe not a good idea, now that I think about it. That is why it’s good to have several minds involved in the brainstorming process.

Arturia Software Center is pretty nice and user-friendly, but they don’t have to deal with the complexities in the same way, like Steinberg does. I can imagine - and I’m just guessing here - that because Steinberg has been in business for so long, they have a certain way of doing things. And it has been building up over the years. And if you have a very old structure, and you remove (or replace) one of the bricks at the bottom, guess what can happen.

Just imagine the challenges they had to deal with when switching to a no-dongle licensing model.

Consolidating the 3 apps into one will be quite a challenge for them, as well, but I seriously believe, that it will be a worthy investment in the long run.

It’s funny to think about, that we previously also had a 4th (mandatory) app, which is eLicenser Control Center. And in some cases a 5th one: ELC Installation Helper.

Almost makes me feel sorry for the new customers, who just want to make music, but they can’t, because they have to jump through several hoops before they are allowed to.

Also, the more streamlined and simple their new “Manager” app becomes, the fewer resources they will have to allocate to answering questions and supporting problems that arise from the current multiple-app-complexities.

[beerbong]

I want to add an option to backup and import all the user files in the AppData/Roaming/Steinberg to different computers without the need to dig into File Explorer.

Things like User track presets, pattern banks, Chord banks and so on have no place being stored in AppData/Roaming directory IMHO. Ideally it would watch these folders for changes and sync them with my other computer.

But this is another 10 years away.

[JuergenP]

@BrunoDSL

Even on the App Store and Play Store Steinberg let’s Apple and Google deal with the licensing side of Cubasis and Cubase iC Pro, so I don’t see their resources being poured into dealing with the endless pain of mobile development more than they have to with moving SDA to mobile.

Apple and Google do not allow other ways of installing apps on their mobiles, than the proprietary stores. This is not required on Windows or MacOS and they are not linked to mobile stores in any way.

How should it work if the SDA is on a mobile phone, but I need to install on a laptop? I clearly do not want somthing like that.

What I clearly support is the request for a single application on Windows and MacOS, instead of three.