USB Dongle / How long to get it?

I searched and did not find the exact answer - I just bought Cubase 11 pro and downloaded and installed but it will not run without the dongle - is there NO way to run it in maybe like a trial mode until the dongle arrives?

How long does it take the dongle to ship and arrive in you experiences? (basically if I have to wait - how long will my misery be? LOL)

Thanks

Hi and welcome to the forum,

Sorry, there is no way. Even Cubase Pro Trial requires the USB-eLicenser.

The only way is to ask for Cubase Elements Trial, which is USB-eLicenser free.

It depends on your location.

Yes, I already have the Trial Elements

Thanks - Iā€™m in the US / Florida

Getting it from a Guitar Center or other local retail store is gonna be the fastest. For delivery Iā€™d use Sweetwater over the Steinberg online store (aka Asknet).

Thanks - yeah I already pulled the trigger on the Steinberg site because I didnā€™t know any better :confused: now Iā€™m just curious as to how long Iā€™ll have to wait is all

My impression is that it has become increasingly inconsistent during the pandemic.

Buy another one locally from a music store and then resell the other one later. You wonā€™t lose much money if itā€™s unopened.

Ahhh! thatā€™s a great idea! Iā€™ll swing by Guitar Center today

Thanks!

Except the dongle market is gonna drastically shrink when Cubase 12 comes out.

True :slight_smile: but #1 itā€™s too late - already picked up the dongle and am making music right now :slight_smile: and #2 Iā€™ll probably not be the first to jump on 12 when it hits - maybe after the first ā€œoh crapā€ update LOL

1 Like

It wonā€™t be either Cubase 11 or 12, you can run both and you will already own both because of the grace period.

Itā€™s not a bad idea to keep both. Good to have a spare. Besides Zero Down Time, you might also find occasions where itā€™s nice to put some of your keys on some other dongle/machine and divy up tasks.

There might even be a day when those are in ā€˜high demandā€™. Kinda like people paying over 2 grand for Stock Atari Falcon 030 with a Cubase Audio Falcon dongle and a few other interfaces to go withā€¦it seems like almost yesterday you could pick those up for around $600 a pop with a lot of goodies in the box. Now people ask and get crazy money for those retro bits.

I donā€™t know if a working Steinberg dongle would ever fetch ā€˜that muchā€™, but I can easily imagine a day when itā€™ll be worth well more than youā€™d pay for it now.

Depending on how this VST2 thing is handledā€¦people with ā€˜old project archivesā€™ might be ā€˜forcedā€™ to roll back to dongle-only versions to revive old projects with minimal fuss (lets hope not. If they do at least one fully native M1 release for the Mac people that can do VST2 (Apple wonā€™t keep Rossetta in the OS foreverā€¦if history is any indication 2 years at best), and a couple for us Windows people that still has it for the new Licenser systemā€¦we all should be OK. If notā€¦those dongles might become quite the commodity!

They really should do at a least a couple of VST2 releases of all their plugins for the new Licensing system as well. One to get it working with the new system, another release or two to ā€˜get out any bugsā€™ that might pop up in the process. Otherwise, a LOT of people will be left in the dust with their ā€˜project archivesā€™ā€¦with NO WAY to ā€˜roll backā€™ once their ā€˜dongle diesā€™.

1 Like