Upgrade from Cubase 6.5 to 10.5

Hi all,

Way back in 2012 I purchased Cubase 6 and upgraded to 6.5. The software remained largely unused (due to its steep learning curve, I kept going back to Adobe Audition 3, which I knew pretty well). I currently use a Tascam US-2000 interface into a quad core laptop (circa 2013!), with a Faderport (v1) connected.

Over the Covid 19 lockdown, I set myself the task of learning Cubase. I have made pretty good progress and and am becoming familiar with its use - very powerful, yet still a bit daunting.

My questions:

Is it worth upgrading to Cubase 10.5? (The upgrade cost is around $450 Aussie. I think occasionally Steinberg do upgrade deals as well).

What would be the top five or so (big picture) advantages of upgrading from 6.5? (There is plenty on the Steinberg site about upgrading from 9 to 10/10.5, but nothing that gives a feel for the large gap between 6.5 & 10.5).

If I upgrade, will I have to re-learn what I already know?

If I upgrade from 6.5 to 10.5, can I seamlessly load and edit projects that were created in 6.5?

Any assistance would be much appreciated.

Cheers!
Paul

The big difference is.
10.5 is 64 bit which means any old third party plug ins aren’t going to work. is your computer 32 or 64 bit ?
Steinberg are only supporting Windows 10 (again 64 bit)
I’m sure others will chime in with other differences and things to think about

for me the biggest change is the bezel curves in the automation, there are updates on Variaudio, the mixer is full of new options with sidechain, drag and drop and reorder and a lot of stuff that is changed in the GUI.

6.5 is soooo long ago I don’t even know what it looked like so it’s hard to pin point what is new and what is redesigned (like colors etc)

Steinberg had a 40% on all updates a month or 2 back, they really don’t do discounts that often so I guess you missed the boat for now.

anyways, it comes down to what you want. What is it that Cubase 6.5 can’t do that you want to do? Most likely it will make no difference for you in price if you update Cubase 10 or 11 - it will be the most expensive option since you didn’t update for a long time. So maybe just stick with 6.5 and master it before you decide if Cubase is the choosen one?

the most significant question for you I think will be if you are ready to move on to strictly 64 bit or not

If you need other people to decide that for you, based on no facts, then it isnˋt worth it for you…
There ˋs a demo version available - for download…


Since you know all that already, you don ´t have to re-learn anything, you just have to learn the things you do not yet know.
And yes, obviously there are new things in new versions - thatˋs the whole idea behind the 1new version“ concept

If you were using everything in 64 bit - maybe.

I would start by using Google to search “New in Cubase 7”, then 8, 9 & 10. That should bring you the highlights, there’s still a surprising (to me) amount of info using those searches. It really has changed a lot, unsurprisingly in eight years. The Mix Console, sampler Track, better audio editing and rendering facilities. Audio quantise? I can’t remember when most of these things came in even. Also what I find the most useful changes may mean little to you (and vice versa). Above we have bezel curves on automation listed as someone’s biggest change but to me this is a useful but not essential feature.

As Sven suggests above, get the trial and yes, there will be a lot of learning involved. You may indeed do better to ask “what is missing, what would make this a better programme for me”?

Many thanks to all for the for the very helpful input.

I did a review of the enhancements from 7 to 10 and, given my basic use case, there does not appear to be anything I currently need. I will wait until the next discounted upgrade from Steinberg (maybe another 12 months?) and then upgrade to the latest version, confident that I will not have to start all over again.

Best regards

Paul

The discounts come round at the same sort of time every year I think. Would make sense to wait. If what you have now is working well that is the most important thing.