Cubase 9.5.20 broke Virtual Keyboard display

Yeah, same here on Windows 7. Which OS are you using?

Windows 7 Professional 64-bit

Here on Win 10 it’s broken in the same way. I suppose it’ll be the same everywhere, I imagine. Since the element was rewritten for C9.5. I imagine this aspect of the feature will return. I has been reported to SB.

Update: It seems to work -sparsely-, -some- of the time, but only if you’ve got active playback going on (Cubase is playing). It’s not reliable, and what indicators do light, stay stuck on. :b~~~

How they managed to break this in a minor maintenance release is beyond me, but I’m quite put out. I rely on those indicators.

Why was it rewritten for 9.5? I had 9.0, and don’t remember any differences. Actually, why did they break it in 9.5.20, when it was fine in 9.5.10? It literally just broke for me when I updated last week, and first fired up the DAW today to work on a project after a week away.

As to ‘why’, I dunno… I just observed that it’s no longer part of the transport panel. Since I don’t use it regularly, I just saw what you described in 9.5.20 today. In any case, the bug’s reported, hopefully swatted soon. (wouldn’t hurt to report it in your my steinberg support account too)

Submitted a ticket with the details. Thanks! Hope it’s soon… I kinda rely on that when I don’t have a MIDI keyboard up.

Patched to 9.5.21 today, and it’s still an issue. What the hell?

Please note that there have been no major updates since you started this thread. 9.5.21 is a small hotfix that only fixed serious oversights found in the 9.5.20 update.

Same thing here. After I updated to 9.5.21 my on-screen keyboard stopped working in the same way as you mentioned. I am using Windows 10 Pro 64-bit and since people with Windows 7 are having same issues I think it’s not windows related? I also submitted a ticket few days ago for the issue. I hope it gets fixed because I use lots of on-screen keyboard when I try out different sounds etc. Good to know I am not the only one with the issue.

Works here.

I hover the mouse over a key and it changes shade. I click a key and it blinks to white, then quickly back to it’s normal colour. And it also plays a note.

First time I actually try it. Cool.

The bug happens when you use your computer keyboard’s keys (qwerty, etc) to play the Virtual Keyboard.

You’re right.

No visual feedback from the virtual keyboard.

This has a bugbase number: CAN-14220

How do you look it up in the bugbase? Obviously we have the number. Where’s the access to the database?

I’d like to know when they plan on getting in gear and fixing it. It’s been what, two months? Seriously, this is ridiculous.

Again, there have been no major maintenance updates since you posted this thread, and they’re most certainly not going to rush the 9.5.30 update just because of something this minor.

.30 updates need to be as stable and bug free as possible so they can focus on the next version of Cubase and the free .40 maintenance update, which is released way later. Please be patient.

Commercial software companies don’t make their bug report databases public, and SB is no exception.

Sometimes a bug report number is shared here to give users assurance that the developers do know about it, the hope is that users see this as

Cubase is a vast program, with many functions, (and that’s an understatement! :laughing: ) and it is must be constantly updated not only to provide new features, but to operate properly when Mac and Windows OSes are updated. Also to take advantage of new OS features on Mac and Windows. the devs have to research, test code, write new functions, etc., etc., etc.

So if my ‘pet feature’ gets broken in an update, I might have to wait a while for it to get fixed, and find a workaround in the mean time. After many years of using software for music and other stuff, I learned to accept accept this, and when things go haywire, I try to find another way to do it.

Finally, you might have the option of going back to a previous build if the feature in question it that vital to you.

Okay, the white knights can stop now. I’m a software developer and systems administrator by vocation.

The virtual keyboard is -not- a ‘pet feature’. It’s a major feature of the DAW, with a bloody hotkey (not exactly hidden or obscure). They broke it themselves after it was working correctly for as long as I had Cubase Pro 9, all the way through 9.5.10. Yes, they -can- fix it. Yes, they -should- fix it, considering it’s impeding people’s workflows.

Considering some of the bugs and stability issues the patch notes indicate were addressed in 9.5.20, going back to 9.5.10 doesn’t seem particularly wise, especially if they only bother to release patches when something is serious that they have to move faster than UPS (have you ever -seen- the -actual- speed of business?).

I’ve been coding professionally for 25+ years. There is nothing you can say which will convince me something that blatantly broken should have made it past alpha regression testing, much less release QA. Anyone who is making excuses for Steinberg to the contrary has obviously never worked in the corporate world, where enterprise-level software is expected to function consistently, 24/7/365, even after upgrades, or money is lost. Your arguments are those of a layman who has zero real-world experience with corporate commercial software, not someone who actually understands software development past whatever they ‘teach’ people in university these days. I see flimsy defenses like this on a regular basis, and they never hold any weight for old-school developers.

The only reason things like this are acceptable to anyone and become normalised is that people keep making excuses for companies who don’t do proper QA. The downloadable patch is arguably one of the worst things to happen to the software industry, as suddenly nobody had to bother getting things correct the first time. Prior to that, if you released something with bugs, you had to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to redistribute a new version. The difference in the game industry, especially, is a great example of stability in the old days where replacing cabinet EPROMs worldwide was a major undertaking, versus now where companies can put out patches day after day until they eventually luck upon the correct fix.

It’s down to lazy and unacceptable QA, period, regardless of which vendor it is. I’ve nothing against Steinberg in general, but stop defending the indefensible, for Pete’s sake. They screwed up, full stop. Nothing changes that. What they need to do is expediently make it right.

You’re setting up false equivalences, and you are also misinformed. Also it was I who went to the trouble myself of entering the bug you reported. I post this as an fyi.

Considering the tone and content I’ll lock this now.