It would seem I am on the “other side” so to speak, as I do like Nuendo 6, and the new mixer GUI is fine with me. I used to be intrigued with the hardware emulation GUI concept, but at this point I will take ergonomics over visuals any day.
To me the new mixer design seems to be about quite a bit more than compatibility with Nuage (though that is a very significant advantage with Nuendo 6 and Nuage). I would venture a guess it is a step towards a dockable, flexible GUI that isn’t tied to the old internal windowing system. That is worth more to me than 3D knobs and faders. I despised the previous mixer, and avoided using it because it never recalled my layouts of inserts, sends and EQs correctly, and I could never get screen layouts looking right within the old window system.
Being able to simply assign the new mixers to a dedicated 2nd or 3rd monitor, and have each recall exactly the setup I assigned it, with multiple layout options for each, is worth it’s weight in gold. It does feel like a work in progress, but I see the path a bit differently than some others here seem to - giving up some graphics now for better functionality moving forward is the right approach in my opinion.
And yes, it does fit with the touch screen future much better than anything else out there, but I see that as a bonus, not the main goal. I will eventually move my studio to touch screens and Windows 8. While I don’t plan to replace a hardware mixer-controller with touch screens, I do plan to integrate them into my work where they make life easier - and I can see a lot of ways for that to happen.
Disclaimer - I don’t own a Nuage system, yet - but I am very impressed with the design and capabilities. And I do use ProTools as well, but after several years with both, and as much as I like ProTools for what it is, I find myself being faster with Nuendo 6 and enjoying it more.