Steinberg's dongle alternative coming

Very true on both counts, not very helpful or pragmatic, but I can’t argue with that.

Again though, look at those that have migrated from Cubase, when reading most forums on the reasons, the dongle is USUALLY mentioned. If my business was losing customers because of this, I would address it and quickly, because if you look at where Cubase is in the cost hierarchy of DAW’s, its pretty near the top, and whilst each has their own unique take on doing things (which, as I said earlier, fits in with me as it is where I started), if others start out and want to get into this legitimately, they would look at the cost and also the dongle as being a negative factor, so what else is going to bring them as new customers in?

And don’t bother with the Artist or Elements arguement, people getting into a piece of software these days don’t want to pay for a cut down version, they generally want the full fat product, and I would guess in most cases they would get a cracked version, they learn it and if they make money, they then buy that.

Been around a long time. If I had a nickel for everyone that said they were sick of the Dongle and quitting Cubase and then posted in the next version forum I’d be rich. Anyone running a business, making money, would invest the pittance it costs for Elements for “outside” work. If it were true that the migrants were hurting SB’s bottom line, things would have changed.

As to the risk of damaging the Dongle, SB has a policy of issuing a 100 hr temp license until the Dongle can be replaced so there’s no real issue any way you look at it, is there?

The thing is many users, myself included, use cubase for a hobby, so the extra is a significant amount, and I have 2 dongles as both C7 and WL8 were bought boxed, so it’s not a huge problem.

In this economic climate and with the technological changes developers, like any business, cannot afford to ignore the needs or requests of their customers, and given the amount of posts and views in this thread, it is clearly an important topic.

I don’t mind the dongle in my desktop DAW but if I had to record remotely with a laptop I’d use Reaper on it and transfer the tracks into Cubase. I wouldn’t want to be worrying about the dongle getting stolen, lost or broken.

It is one thing to say, “Hey Steinberg, the dongle is inconvenient and I would be even more interested in your product if I didn’t have to use it.” It is even acceptable to say, “I won’t buy another product that requires it.” This is what the feature request forum is for…

It is another to say, “I can’t believe I have to use a dongle! I am the customer and you have to make me happy. I can’t live by the terms of the transaction I have already agreed to.” This is just whining.

It is so lame to whine about a deal after one has agreed to it.

Never agree to terms that are not acceptable to you. If enough agree, then of course, the vendor will have to make an adjustment. If you give in and buy anyway, then you are just confirming that the terms were reasonable.

That´s the point…

And on that I fully agree, and as a user that is the deal I think most agree with, but as a business it is something I believe steinberg should address BEFORE people vote with their wallets.

RitchieM, maybe I’m misunderstanding your post, but users have been voting with their wallets for years now, and they are saying, “Okay, I’m cool with having to use the dongle.”

Sorry Steve, you’ve misread my ballot. Mine says “I’ll put up with the dongle another year because the pros of sticking with it still outweigh the cons of moving to Logic”

Not quite the same…

Now I’m completely lost. I was responding to RitchieM. :confused:

I don’t mind the dongle …infact I like it :slight_smile:
I just wish everything else used it instead of having to buy an iLok!

This is my point entirely, the feature sets between DAW’s is now so close that it really is down to workflow and other factors that may affect an individuals decision, one of those being the dongle. When PT was the only game in town for reliable track counts, or the Cubase MIDI features (obviously still the best, but others are catching up) then a certain amount of complacency was common, but that just CANNOT be the case in 2013.

$teinberg must be soo pissed that they cant get a dongle working with ipads.

:mrgreen:

Catching up, how?

Does it matter about specifics? All DAWs feature sets are arriving at the same place, they have to in order to compete. Same with cars (want to know what tech will be on the family motor in 3 years, look at the S Class now), there is ultimately homogeny in all competing products, it’s the USP that counts, or, what will stop you buying one over the other.

If the dongle works for you, great, but I doubt that can be said of the whole.

Word! Big time!
{‘-’}

All this threats about the dongle eventually ends in 3 points:

  1. I hate the dongle I will quit from using any software with USB based protection scheme, if you don’t quit too then you are stupid or a Steinberg Fan Boy
  2. I’m never had any problem with the dongle, so, since I represent all the people, the dongle is good and all the people how think different are stupids (and probably I’m a fan boy so?!)
  3. I don’t have any problem with the need of a dongle, but please give me a FSM dammit good dongle hardware instead of that cheap piece of plastic crap. If you don’t agree then you are stupid.

I’m a stupid #3

You made a statement about MIDI in relation to DAW’s in general.

Yeah! Me too! :smiley: