Cubase 12 released [DEMO and 12.0.30 NOW AVAILABLE]

[Guy Rowland]

https://www.steinberg.net/cubase/new-features/

The headlines don't feel super-exciting, but some of these workflow-related things look great.



£85 upgrade from Pro 11.

[Pablo Crespo]

Almost nothing for midicomposers, and I think my keycommands requests keep getting ignored for years.

[Guy Rowland]

PSA - lots of reports of servers overloaded and people unable to activate. I'm holding fire til the dust settles, and taking a look at what's new. Here's the things that look very useful to me:

Free audio warp. Just clicking points in the project window and dragging - that's great, so useful to line things up with adjacent tracks.
Export selected events - very handy
Import tempo and signature tracks - essential, can't believe it has taken this long.
Fade editor - this looks like what Pyramix was doing 20 years ago, which is better than anything I've seen since. Love that you can slide the audio too.

Nice to see the Logical Editor getting a little love too.

And let's not forget - no dongle. Means I can have the full version on the MBP with no dongle swapping or 2nd license. Huzzah.

[Lawrence]

Still no resizing of exported video, I take it. The defaulter files (in 20.5) are humongous.

[Guy Rowland]

Still no resizing of exported video, I take it. The defaulter files (in 20.5) are humongous.

Don’t think there’s been any change there. I can’t remember offhand, but doesn’t it use the same codec as source? Or is that just what Pro Tools does?

Overall I’m impressed with this update on paper at least. Feels like the strongest for a couple of versions.

[Lawrence]

Still no resizing of exported video, I take it. The defaulter files (in 20.5) are humongous.

Don’t think there’s been any change there. I can’t remember offhand, but doesn’t it use the same codec as source? Or is that just what Pro Tools does?

Overall I’m impressed with this update on paper at least. Feels like the strongest for a couple of versions.

Wow. Typo heaven (me)

"default file size"
"(in 10.5)"

I don't think it uses the same codec as the original. At least on my system, the exported files are MUCH larger. There are no choices given.

[Guy Rowland]

I don't think it uses the same codec as the original. At least on my system, the exported files are MUCH larger. There are no choices given.

Yeah, I’m sure you’re right now I think of it - it’s been a while since I’ve exported directly from Cubase.

Incidentally, one non-obvious issue - quietly Steinberg have dropped Mojave and Catalina (10.14 and 10.15). There’s some discussion that 10.15 might work albeit unsupported, but 10.14 is a block.

I’m still on 10.14, but I have been getting ready to make the switch at some stage. I’ll lose Adobe Audition CS5.5, that’s the only really bad thing. I got Acon Acoustica to fill those shoes, and it seems to do so pretty well.

However, I have a slightly older version of Pro Tools on it, and that can’t even run on Big Sur, let alone Monterey which isn’t supported on even the latest version. Compatibility issues on Macs are massively worse than Windows.

[Geoff Grace]

Compatibility issues on Macs are massively worse than Windows.

And that only makes sense, considering the migration that Apple is undertaking. I think it will take at least a few more years before the transition is complete. Perhaps then, a new operating system won't cripple recently compatible software.

And let's not forget - no dongle. Means I can have the full version on the MBP with no dongle swapping or 2nd license. Huzzah.

I'll be interested, Guy, in how Cubase Mac performs for you compared to the Windows version. As a Mac user, I haven't upgraded Cubase since the SX years because it seemed to me that the Mac versions had more unresolved issues (and for awhile, even had fewer features) than the Windows versions. I wonder if that still remains true.

Best,

Geoff

[artinro]

Can't believe they STILL haven't brought back localized undo. Never made sense why they just nixed this feature after v10. Very, very disappointing.

[Lawrence]

Compatibility issues on Macs are massively worse than Windows.

And that only makes sense, considering the migration that Apple is undertaking. I think it will take at least a few more years before the transition is complete. Perhaps then, a new operating system won't cripple recently compatible software.

And let's not forget - no dongle. Means I can have the full version on the MBP with no dongle swapping or 2nd license. Huzzah.

I'll be interested, Guy, in how Cubase Mac performs for you compared to the Windows version. As a Mac user, I haven't upgraded Cubase since the SX years because it seemed to me that the Mac versions had more unresolved issues (and for awhile, even had fewer features) than the Windows versions. I wonder if that still remains true.

Best,

Geoff

C6’s pitch and tine algorithms were MUCH better than previous versions. That kept me on C6 for 10 years.

[Guy Rowland]

I'll be interested, Guy, in how Cubase Mac performs for you compared to the Windows version. As a Mac user, I haven't upgraded Cubase since the SX years because it seemed to me that the Mac versions had more unresolved issues (and for awhile, even had fewer features) than the Windows versions. I wonder if that still remains true.

I'm not brilliantly placed for this in truth. I've had versions of Cubase and Cubase Elements on the macbook for years, and it seems to work just fine - but I only use them at about 5% of how I use them in the main rig. No VE Pro, no big templates, just for fairly quick and dirty jobs on the road (if you will). I've read that mac performance in 12 is similar to 11 though.

SX though - geez! That's hardcore.

The compatibility issues are such a pain. Looks like I will have to bite the bullet at update Pro Tools to the latest version to get a rig where I can have everything working.

[Guy Rowland]

Seeing that things had apparently calmed down a little after launch day I took the plunge - if it's a disaster, I always have 11.

Installation went okay - not super-confidence inspiring as it threw up an error code when trying to update the license, but a restart worked. Then it seemingly wouldn't complete the upgrade on the elicenser side, hanging for a few minutes and saying there was a connection problem, but when I simply abandoned it I found both Cubase 11 and 12 (after an activation) worked just fine. All settings seem to have migrated successfully that I can see, zero set up needed within the app itself.

First impressions - great. The fade editor is fabulous. Free warp is fabulous. They've even widened the scroll bar after years of moaning.

So I'm going to put it into active duty and start living with it. The performance meter now has 3 bars - realtime, asioguard and peak. I'll try and gauge how the performance is, too early to tell at the moment.

[Guy Rowland]

Some performance tests. Nothing seemed especially unusual in my first projects. But then I loaded one where several thirsty Omni 2 patches had been really bringing Cubase 11 to its knees. In C12 the realtime and ASIO meters barely moved. I kept checking myself that it wasn't playing rendered files that I'd made and bypassing the synth altogether, but no. I can't really explain it, and I'm waiting to see if it's some random miracle.

Next I tried a recent project that used the VE Pro template. TBH it hadn't been causing any bother in C11, and couldn't detect much change - all working fine. Then another older thirsty one that used a ton of synths and VE Pro which had been very troublesome in the past was still causing issues, and remains a mystery. Something to do with Omni I think, though the synth is behaving fine - more than fine - in other projects (it's not a patch issue, I've eliminated that).

There's a few visual changes, the font in the plugin manager I noticed was different, but I prefer the new version, it seems clearer.

Several people have said load times are much improved - not so sure here. I think the program itself might be a bit snappier, and projects are quicker to get to the part when they start loading channels and plugins, but then it feels as long-winded as it ever did. I think adding plugins or routings on the fly is quicker and less intrusive.

[IFM]

My first impression was the CPU load was much worse as I was over 50% higher on some projects. Turns out that because of the additional ASIO meter all things such as loading of samples in the background cause wild fluctuation and after a couple of minutes when everything was loaded it calmed down. Overall seems about the same on a Mac 6,1.

[FriFlo]

My one and only feature of interest for this release is the new midi remote. However, most of what interests me is hidden away within its scripting capabilities. It will take a long time for me to figure out wether this is what I wanted from Cubase since a long time or isn't. Until then, I am afraid I cannot form any opinion about 12 and wether I will keep using Cubase in general. The only thing I can already say is, I was expecting a rework of the expression maps system. I doesn't make me confident that Steinberg is allowing to competition to develop such a long head start on features that used to be the Cubase big strength.

[Pablo Crespo]

Generic remote is going to be disabled in the future and replaced with the midi remote. I have a very complicated setup with generic remotes and logical presets a Dtouch, so I am a bit scared about it.

[FriFlo]

I have a very complicated setup with generic remotes (...)

As do quite a lot of people, including me! I had high hopes for this, but as of today, there only is a very rudimentary visual editor to learn some faders and switches. There is the scripting, but looking through the scripting manual, it doesn't look to me like there is much deeper stuff to find there.

This API is MILES away from replacing all of the hacks people have come up with as Steinberg didn't offer them something proper. And this together with the usual Steinberg attitude of not answering to questions in their own forum regarding this state of incompleteness does not exactly fill me with confidence! I suppose, they intend to fix it ... maybe in version 13.5 or so ...

I will thoroughly check out what they have done for the release and what is missing and maybe wait a little for explanations and promises, but if they cannot integrate a complete midi API after all this time, countless of payed versions in between and all of the promises leading up to this release, I think I have finally had enough of Steinberg. I will probably look into Reaper.

EDIT: I will gladly take back the part of Steinberg being unresponsive, this time around. One of the programers answered and it looks like it is worth digging into that scripting-possibilities.

[Arcana]

I haven't updated yet but at first glance there seems to be quite a lot of interesting new features:

Audio to chord - helpful for those Splice loops you can't quite figure out.
VariAudio scale assistant - handy for quick harmonies from vocals etc.
Sidechaining export - this is super useful for us production music composers who have to deliver stems. I have yet to see anyone mention this, and this is perhaps the biggest time save of them all.
FX Modulator - this is essentially Shaperbox 2, which is $99 alone.
ARA integration improvement
Logical Project editor - tons of new options and presets, which will improve my workflow tremendously
Verve piano - Might not be quite up there with Noire, Ascend etc. but nice addition nonetheless
MIDI remote integration - looks promising.

Overall I'm quite impressed. Seems like Steinberg has actually added useful features instead of just bells and whistles.

[Guy Rowland]

Sidechaining export - this is super useful for us production music composers who have to deliver stems. I have yet to see anyone mention this, and this is perhaps the biggest time save of them all.

I agree it's a pretty good list - I think people's hearts sink with the first feature they mention is a new effects unit (snooze) but there is a lot of meat there too.

On the above though, I've not quite got it. I've been exporting groups with side-chain inputs for years and they have the side-chaining in place already... so I can't quite figure out what's new. Sometimes it's handy to NOT have side-chaining - I have to do that manually at the moment.

Incidentally, one not-so-good thing to look out for is that they've dropped support for some of their own previously bundled instruments. Spector, Mystic and Prologue have all gone, but can be brought over by copying Synthengine.vst3 into Cubase 12 vst3 folder. More seriously, the Loopmash vsti now no longer works at all even if copied over. Loopmash FX still works. This feels like a very dodgy move to me, although I don't use any of these plugins it would irritate me greatly to have them a) taken away and b) break compatibility with old projects.

It makes you wary of using ANY bundled instruments and effects. About the only one I do use is the multiband envelope shaper, that's brilliant.

[Home Studio 87]

My (very) old 6800K show 15% minimum less Asio CPU Meter than on Cubase 11 with same project... Very impressive...

[Linos]

If you are working in Surround, this might be big:

[Guy Rowland]

The free demo is out now (no eLicenser required any more), along with a 12.0.10 update. Not tried it yet - note their comments on performance and stability. For me I've had no stability issues, but performance has seemed uneven.

CUBASE 12.0.10
What’s new?
April 13, 2022 – The Cubase 12.0.10 maintenance update is now available, and we are very happy to introduce Dolby Atmos for music, along with long-requested functionalities, improvements on stability, and performance, as well as a long list of fixes and corrections.

With the release of 12.0.10, we also made the Cubase Pro 12 trial available. The big news is that the trial doesn’t require the USB eLicenser anymore. Hence, there is no more reason not to try Cubase.

Dolby Atmos for music
We are very excited to introduce Dolby Atmos for music in Cubase Pro. The integrated Dolby Atmos Renderer and the included VST MultiPanner let you explore new creative opportunities without the need for any additional software. You can start mixing binaural with your regular headphones even without a dedicated speaker setup. To get you started, watch our brand-new tutorial video on the New in Cubase 12 product website and on our YouTube channel.

Additional improvements
We have already preannounced the new option to freeze and unfreeze multiple tracks at the same time in Cubase 12.0.10. Just select all the tracks you want to freeze and choose Freeze/Unfreeze Selected Tracks from the right-click menu. There are also new key commands that let you trigger freeze from your keyboard or your controller.

A further improvement is the redesigned Markers window. While there are no additional features, this window conveys a new, state-of-the-art look and feel.

Another small improvement can be found in the preferences. It is now possible to decide whether to append the file name to the event description or not.

Performance and stability issues
We have received several reports about performance and stability issues in the initial release of Cubase 12.0.0 from different users. In the past weeks, we invested a lot of time in investigating why, on some systems, Cubase 12 leads to suboptimal performances. We want to thank all users that provided traces to us and collaborated with our team to help us find the right spots to look at. We are confident that we made significant headway with Cubase 12.0.10. After the update, a good share of the users who previously experienced performance and start-up issues will be satisfied. However, unfortunately, there are still reports that we cannot reproduce on our systems. Sometimes, the root cause results from a combination of different hardware components, plug-ins, and preferences. In this case, establishing the correct configuration to reproduce an issue is crucial to fixing it. Please reach out to our team via the Steinberg user forum and let us know if you are still experiencing performance issues with Cubase 12.0.10. We are taking these reports very seriously, and fixing these issues is currently our highest priority.

WE HAVE CORRECTED THE FOLLOWING FEATURES AND FUNCTIONALITIES:
Audio Warp
The Free Warp tool can now be selected via key command.
Warp markers can now be set correctly on time-stretched audio events.
We have resolved an issue with audio artifacts related to using Phase-Coherent Audio Warp.
We have resolved an issue concerning Phase-Coherent AudioWarp when using crossfades.

MIDI Remote
Factory-supported scripts can now be added via the "+" button, and MIDI ports can be assigned manually if auto-detection does not work.
Plug-in Quick Controls can now show customized parameter names, as defined within the Remote Control Editor.
The MIDI Controller Surface Editor now offers an additional "Transmit to Hardware" option in the Item Properties section: When disabled, it prevents data from being sent back to the hardware device. It can be necessary for devices that transmit data to Cubase but interpret it differently when returned.
Surface controls that are not assigned to functions or parameters will now pass on incoming MIDI data from the hardware device to the respective track.
When used with Quick Controls, custom names for parameters are now working smoothly.
Manually imported MIDI Remote scripts will now activate as intended.
When duplicating a factory page or a page that includes factory mappings from a script, the factory mappings will now be displayed correctly in the MIDI Remote Mapping Assistant.
We have corrected an issue with the MIDI Remote fader banks related to switching the mapping page.
Arturia Keylab Essential 88 is now properly auto-detected.

Miscellaneous
Applying Audio Alignment no longer creates unwanted fades, in the event that the reference and the target clip are partly overlapping.
The Crossfade Editor user interface is now displayed correctly.
We improved the compatibility of exported WAV files with external applications.
We have corrected an issue with WAV files that were not accepted for import.
We have corrected an issue with missing MIDI device panels.
We have corrected an issue related to false content missing warnings.
The pre-filters of the MixConsole now work correctly, after being adjusted while in bypass mode.
StudioEQ curve editing using mouse gestures is now working as expected.
The undo function in the FX Modulator now works as intended.
The key command for changing the vertical zoom in the Sample Editor is now working as expected.
The Sampler Track now stores LFO waveforms as expected.
Move Event Starts to Cursor, in conjunction with Tempo Track nodes, now works as expected.
Changing the video offset in the Video Player setup is now working as expected.
The track selection in the Visibility Agent now follows the track selection in the tracklist, as expected.

Stability
We have improved the stability:
when working with the video track,
when using the Draw tool in the Sample Editor,
when using the MIDI Remote integration,
when working with Groove Agent,
on start-up.

[Guy Rowland]

You know, after reading this thread on the Steinberg forum - https://forums.steinberg.net/t/cubase-1 ... /780413/29 - I'm going to pass on this update. We all know how unreliable forum posts can be, but the lack of anyone at all citing any performance improvements is disheartening. Combined with several who say 12.0.0 was working well but 12.0.10 has broken things, and the fact 12.0.0 is working tolerably well for me, I'll hold fire.

[Home Studio 87]

well with 12.10 I even gain 15% of CPU.... With my Old 6800k & 32 Go Memory, one project take 80% (not running) & 95% (running) with Cubase 11, now with Cubase 12.10 same project take 50% (not Running) & 60/65 % (running) (talking about the Cubase Asio meter) !!! Very impress of the work they do on "Performance".

[Guy Rowland]

well with 12.10 I even gain 15% of CPU.... With my Old 6800k & 32 Go Memory, one project take 80% (not running) & 95% (running) with Cubase 11, now with Cubase 12.10 same project take 50% (not Running) & 60/65 % (running) (talking about the Cubase Asio meter) !!! Very impress of the work they do on "Performance".

Oh that’s very promising news, thanks - you may have just convinced me to give it a try. Our specs aren’t a million miles apart.