I guess this is sensitive to you. You paid for the license to use the software, but it’s fine if you delude yourself to think it’s fair to then pay for the “just as good” Elements.
The USB dongle, parallel port dongle if you’re old school, is another example of legitimate software users getting inconvenienced by DRM because software developers think they can stop people from pirating their software/music/etc. That’s not going to happen and people are going to get around anything you try.
For the option of running something that’s trimmed down for quick inspiration I personally use an iRig and my iPad or iPhone with Garageband. If I needed something on a laptop then I definitely wouldn’t pay extra to the same company that’s causing the problem in the first place. In that case I would just go with something cheaper than Elements like Reaper, Mixbus, or Ardour. Although, my remote workflow is either getting quick ideas down on throwaway tracks or live recording so this doesn’t work for those who might rely on Cubase’s instruments.
There are people who the dongle is going to turn off when comparable software is available which doesn’t punish legitimate users with dongles. And I’d bet on the loss of sales do due dongle issues or concerns being greater than the loss to pirated copies (which may lead to legitimate sales once it can be afforded anyway).
StudioOne, Reaper, MixBus are just three commercial products that I know off the top of my head that don’t have issues with dongles.
Steinberg’s dongle has been a success though and no one has circumvented it for many years. And clearly, Steinberg believes that any loss of sales from the dongle outweighs loss of sales due to piracy. If you look over the last twenty years at the demise of various audio software companies, in many cases you can see a correlation with the amount of pirated product.
I’m OK with Steinberg doing whatever is necessary to be around as long as they have been, so we can continue to see Cubase progress. If that requires a dongle, that’s not a huge problem.
-E
I understand the reasoning for a dongle…
…but it also means I don’t even bother to install Cubase on my laptop. Not worth the risk. (I use Logic for mobile work now.)
My trial of elements is almost up so I’m about to buy it…
It would be interesting to know what percentage of elements owners are also Pro owners, eh?
I am
+1
…wish I did it ages ago, works really well.
Since Yamaha bundles Cubase AI licenses with seemingly every one of their products now, I had three AI licenses. One I upgraded to Pro, for my main studio PC. Another one I upgraded to Artist, hoping to be able to do some sort of project shuffling between my Surface Pro and the studio workstation. That didn’t work out well, once I start mixing a project on the main machine, it really won’t open well on the Surface. The Surface doesn’t have the Waves plugs I use, the bussing from the big PC with the UR28 doesn’t carry over, and more… it just didn’t work for me and probably wouldn’t have worked even if I had Pro on both machines.
-E
That reason alone is worth the dongle frustration. Sometimes security requires small sacrifices…
Logic has an even bigger dongle, and way more expensive 
It looks pretty good on stage though.
I use AI on the laptop for exactly the reason(s) the OP gives. My take: a) it’s a workable solution, b) AI/Elements is limited to the point where it’s definitely a one-way street, opening Pro projects in AI never works in practice, c) AI isn’t at all expensive, but on principle I think that its license (one install perhaps) should be included in Pro, and d) the ultimate solution for me would be to be able to soft-license Pro to more than one system.
I have no problems with understanding Steinberg’s reasoning, but I do wonder how it’ll work out in the long run, with more and more people going mobile and laptops getting more and more powerful. I must say that I expect …Pro11? to be completely soft-licensed.
r,
j,
Like I said in an earlier reply, even if Steinberg did give us an option, what about all the Ilok stuff and Waves? It still wouldn’t be the same on a laptop.
Use something else, that gives you the option of soft locks (or even better, just a serial). I did: SoundToys, Eventide, Plugin Alliance, DMG, PSP, etc etc.
r,
j,
Yeah, I have a few of those but I use my Waves, Izotope and Slate plugins a lot.
Well, then you’re kinda stuck, yes
But I do suspect that those plugin companies that insist on a physical dongle will be dead in …five years? As for DAW companies? A bit longer. Steinberg does have a dual policy, and I assume that they have a long-term strategy. I do hope so.
r,
j,
Maybe Steinberg can allow a second slave-dongle with an expiration date of 30 or 60 days, which can be extended again to the full timeframe by pairing them again on the same system as the original dongle.
No need rewriting the whole protection system, the original is safe at home\studio and by lost or theft it will become useless sooner or later.
This is also one of the best solutions I came up with.
I’m a pro and elements user, and I also use a lot of Waves and iZotope. With Waves I bought a second Gold and L3-16 license pretty cheap in various sales (yeah, I know…) With iZotope, their licensing is superb, you can have 3 activations per license, one of which can be iLok! So no issues there, and indeed I’m increasingly defaulting to iZotope for a lot of chores.
Dongle … it’s once again proof that the legit license buyers are the real victim; i keep having problems with my dongle with at least 8 licenses running. Quite often it needs re-plugging as it’s not recognized all of a sudden. YES, I DID BUY A NEW MODERN small type dongle, and YES i tried various USB 2.0 and 3.0 ports, YES i updated the mainboard’s BIOS and USB and chipset drivers. PS does anyone have experiences with “professional” Dongle copy producing firms like http://dongleduplicate.nsys.by/ ?? F