Cubase 8 is out

FINALLY!!!! This is the update I've been waiting for (assuming they've actually improved window handling). That plus Render in Place and VCA Faders are pretty much the stuff everyone has been asking for since I can remember...  I'm still on 6, and I'm tempted to upgrade now, but I'll probably wait for the early adopters (ie beta testers) to work out the inevitable bugs. 

I love Cubase. Had to get Pro Tools 11 for the studio and am trying to work with it. If you're a mouse person instead of a key command person, I find Cubase much easier to use to get to editing tools and make edits. I also like the lanes concept better than the playlist for comping. I've also had problems with Pro Tools 11 adapting to changes in sample rates. Often it doesn't recognize a new sample rate. I've found a workaround, but it seems like the software should be able to work with my Aurora16/RME HDSP setup. Cubase 6 does. If it wasn't for the perception that lingers that Pro Tools is the professional standard, I wouldn't ever use Pro Tools. As it I use is the software, but I suspect many of the clients don't realize that its just the software for many people the conversion and interfaces are no longer Avid.

Thanks for the heads up on this.  I just downloaded 8 (had a free upgrade because I bought 7.5 in Nov.)  The efficiency upgrade is most welcome and I'm intrigued to try the multi band envelope shaper.  I could care less that they now call it "Pro."  I've been using Cubase to make a living for years.

Let us know if it's stable for you -- I've seen mixed reviews so far.

Also, are you mac or pc?

I'm intrigued...I started on Cubase, and used it for years, but now I've used PT's for so long, I'm super slow with Cubase. I think I have C7...which would be $199 upgrade. Just don't know if I want to make the switch at this age...

It's shiny?

The only adjustment you'd have to make is working much more from the edit window than the mix window JK.  I seldom (if ever) use the mix window unless it's doing something to the master fader.  Everything in Cubase is right there at your fingertips from the edit window.  

Here's the three main differences..

Auxes are called either FX Channel or Group Channel in Cubase but work exactly the same

Automation, channel windows, I/O etc. are all right there on each channel and easily accessible in CB

Midi editors look different in CB but are SOOO much more intuitive and faster than PT

It's a win all the way around workflow wise EXCEPT!!!!.... the fact that you live and work in Nashville and transfer so many sessions back and forth between studios.

There, PT has it because so many studios are using it.  They are still using it because that's what they all got use to years ago.  Cubase lapped PT a long time ago but pros didn't have time (or patience) to learn a new platform.

Give it 5 mixes with Cubase front to end and you'll throw rocks at PT.

It's so easy to use.  I used PT for years and it feels clunky as shit to me now.  I despise using it.

I want to point out about the "VCA faders"....that while I don't use it....but, fact is, if you want that functionality and simply don't want to use audio groups, which offer MORE flexibility--you can create a track--call it "VCA drums" if you want....and link it to all the drum faders. Now, when you move the "VCA Drums" they all move proportionally. one fader moves them all as he put it "relative to one and other". Technically, of course you don't need the extra fader--but, if you WANT it....go for it.

The "virgin space" in automation is one of those things where again--the fader (or whatever paraemter) HAS to be SOMEWHERE--all they've done was hide the straight line between two places. Which is a visual thing....it's actually a visual lie. As long as you're in "touch" mode--you can always grab automated parameters and change it.

It really seems to me that for years, they've stayed strong and "german" with the "We're not implementing that--because you can already do that if you'd learn to use the app"....and now they're simply going "you want to not see a line? Line's gone!" "You want a feature called VCA faders that works like they do in ProTools so you can follow step by step instructions from Dave Pensado without understanding you can do the same thing with different nomenclature? Done." "You want to not wait while your old magnetic drives load 16gb of sample instruments into RAM? Sure--we'll let you interact....even though it will sound wrong and the system will stumble until they're fully loaded!"

Which is really my shark jumping comment. I hope they just pander and don't break the under the hood superior function. Which is cross platform...important to me. I own both. I use both. My main rig right now is Windows....but, when it goes, I have 3 or 4 Macs in the house that can backfill it. I run it on the MacBook when I do midi stuff with the Kronos....but, it's a PIA due to the dongle and crawling behind the PC to get it....but, it runs the same on OSX and Windows, IME. Means that I can use whatever machine is around. Which is good being the starving artist I am.

All good points -- but assuming they actually fixed the PC window handling, it'll still be worth it to me (even though it's not so much a feature as a bug fix). 

I also do think I'll use VCA faders... for example if I have two electric guitar tracks and two acoustic guitar tracks that are layered on a chorus, I'll probably have each of those going to separate group tracks already, each with different processing. But if I want to have an 'all guitars' fader, the VCA fader would be a clean way to do it, and it's very easy to execute from the mix window (select each group, right-click, add to vca group, done). Certainly not a critical feature like some make it out to be, but nice to have.

I'm going to update from 6 to 8 this week. Since the move a few months ago to Mac Cubase has been a dismal failure, set me behind and kept me away from the board a lot. I've had to do an OS reinstall once and I've had a hard drive fail. Not fun but at least Antelope updated their firmware to not add 10db at the Mic Pre. Fucked I tell you. Hopefully this fixes some of the crashes. Yosemite update and Slate plugs aren't playing nice over here as well.

Which I would also point out, to JK....not only should he stay with what he's comfortable with....but, with these deep and large tools, it's in how you use them. Case in point--not .01% of my time is spent editing in a given production. So, the efficiency with which I do it, measured in mouse clicks or seconds is not important to me. I certainly wouldn't choose a package because it had the best editing. Meanwhile--external hardware integration was NECCESSARY for me--and as of a few years ago, ONLY Cubase implemented it well (in native land). Meanwhile I asked on the Cubase forum and that was something like .0001% of the population there who used that feature at all--most didn't even know what it did...or couldn't understand why I might want to insert my analog something when Cubase "has a vintage compressor plug in". Right.

People working with all or majority audio have very different needs than people working with a majority MIDI/VIs. People recording bands different from people overdubbing themselves. People who expect to take some seed idea like "I have an idea for a guitar riff"--record that into an app and actually manipulate and add to that in order to make a finished shareable full arrangement will value all sorts of different tools than people who view a writing demo and a finished recording as two separate processes all together.

I use MCUs....the most supported controller in history....and Cubase's (prior to v7) support was HUGELY better....and by better I mean functionally better. When they changed removed the hardwired MCU support in v7 and reworked the mixer views (which were part of said hardwired support)....I knew upgrading wasn't going to be trivial for my set up. People driving with a mouse sure love the new mixer, though. People with "other" remote controls probably like the more generic controller support of v7....but, it means extra work for someone with an MCU--which was up to v6, plug and play wonderfully supported by Cubendo.

My point simply being that when dealing with this who Turing machine, configure it fro ma kit, one box does "it all"--there literally can BE no "best", because "it all" isn't the same for anyone. If you love PT....you absolutely use PT until you feasibly can't. Then you investigate and switch. There's no sense in arguing what's "best", because it's a flawed assumption that there is one.

I downloaded Cubase 8 64-bit today, it installed no problem on Win 7 64-bit, but it hung up during start-up. Apparently it was loading FabFilter Pro-Q2, so I removed the FabFilter plugins and restarted. This time it hung up while loading Broomstick Bass, so I removed that plugin and restarted. Then it hung up while loading Amplitube 3, so I removed that plugin. It then started successfully.

All these plugins worked fine with Cubase 7.5, though Broomstick Bass took a fair bit of massaging to work (Sven Bornemark had given up and was pleasantly surprised when I got it to work).

I haven't found a pattern to these non-compatible plugins, there is a mix of 32 and 64-bit and VST2 and VST3. Yet my dozens and dozens of other plugins seem fine. I haven't tried any real trouble-shooting yet, but this has been the most troublesome Cubase upgrade in many years (for me).