# What will I lose if I 'crossgrade' from Cubase Pro 9.5 to Nuendo?



## alanb (Mar 14, 2019)

I'm living a relatively happy and stable life with Cubase Pro 9.5.41 on a Win 10 (x64) PC, i7-3930K and 16GB RAM. 

I want to cross-grade to Nuendo, to take advantage of its post-pro features, its more robust surround sound capabilities, _etc._

. . . but the requirement that I relinquish my Cubase license has me worried, and raises a number of questions.

If any of you have already made the switch from Cubase to Nuendo, I would greatly appreciate your insight re some of these questions:

- - - - - - - - - -

I've used Cubase exclusively since the days when I had to have this little bugger connected to my printer's parallel port:








I have some _*very old projects*_, which I still reference with some regularity.

Will Nuendo be able to open and play Cubase project files dating back to *Cubase VST/32*? 

If not that far back... does anyone know how many versions back it will open?

- - - - - - - - - -

It says on the Steinberg website that "_Nuendo 8 will include 'out-of-the-box' all-musical features from Cubase, previously available in the Nuendo Expansion Kit (NEK)_." Does that really mean *ALL* of Cubase 10's 'musical features', or does the NEK only contain a subset of Cubase's 'musical features', and Nuendo only has that subset??

Are there any 'non-musical' Cubase features that are either absent from, or handled differently in, Nuendo? 

*I'm breaking out in a cold sweat just imagining opening up a 50-track project and discovering that (for example) the instrument/plugin automation is all screwy, or missing entirely..... * 

- - - - - - - - - -

Will all of my hand-made drum maps, expression maps and project templates work in Nuendo, right out of the box, or will they need tweaking/reformatting/re-assigning?

- - - - - - - - - -

What (if anything) will I no longer be able to do in Nuendo that I can currently do in Cubase Pro?

- - - - - - - - - -

On a Win 10 (x64) PC, running on an i7-3930K and 16GB RAM, would Nuendo 8's CPU/RAM usage be greater than/less than/generally comparable to that of Cubase Pro 9.5?

- - - - - - - - - -

Thank you for any and all advice, guidance, URLs, _etc._!!

— Alan
 Top


----------



## Bender-offender (Mar 14, 2019)

There’s a trial for Nuendo on Steinberg’s website. Download and test your projects before you decide.


----------



## alanb (Mar 14, 2019)

Thanks, I know that there's a trial version available.

Nevertheless, I'm hoping that someone(s) here can provide _arbitrarily-short-yet-substantively-helpful_ answers to my few questions, rather than my spending the rest of eternity (or until the trial version's expiration date, whichever comes first) trying to figure out which of Cubase's thousands of audio/MIDI/workflow functionalities are either missing or implemented differently in Nuendo — a decidedly complex program with which I am utterly unfamiliar . . .

Even if it's just a pointer to anyplace on The Internets where these questions have already been answered in the last year or so (I've seen lots of threads from 2005 and earlier, which wouldn't necessarily be accurate now), I would be entirely grateful.


----------



## heisenberg (Mar 14, 2019)

Yes it does include what is in Cubase. It used to be that a lot of the MIDI stuff that was in Cubase was part of the NEK extension for Nuendo but that was merged into Nuendo proper over the past couple of years. The Nuendo code base has been merging with Cubase over the past version. The one thing that you do loose is that Cubase is updated approximately 9 months before Nuendi. Steinberg has stated on their forum that they are going to be moving the Nuendo update so it is closer to the release of Cubase but that has not occurred, yet.

I would suggest going over to the Steinberg Nuendo > General Forum and look for recent posts by "Timo W." He is the Lead on the Nuendo Unit of Steinberg. He has stated a lot of what I have just penned and more about the feature set that will be arriving in Nuendo 10 to be released in Q2 of this year.

Edit: Corrected a typo.


----------



## mgpqa1 (Mar 14, 2019)

alanb said:


> ...Even if it's just a pointer to anyplace on The Internets where these questions have already been answered in the last year or so (I've seen lots of threads from 2005 and earlier, which wouldn't necessarily be accurate now), I would be entirely grateful.



This one is from last year and informative:
https://www.steinberg.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=138108


----------



## dzilizzi (Mar 15, 2019)

I'm kind of curious whether the Crossgrade from Cubase includes Elements? I can't find any where that specifies a version of Cubase required for the crossgrade. It might be worth the additional $100 to gab elements and crossgrade and not lose your full version. I'm thinking about trying it.


----------



## jneebz (Mar 15, 2019)

dzilizzi said:


> I'm kind of curious whether the Crossgrade from Cubase includes Elements? I can't find any where that specifies a version of Cubase required for the crossgrade. It might be worth the additional $100 to gab elements and crossgrade and not lose your full version. I'm thinking about trying it.


Sorry don’t have a link but a Steinberg Forum Mod did say that it’s a Cubase Pro crossgrade and that Elements is not eligible.


----------



## jules (Mar 16, 2019)

If i understood the thing correctly, you'll loose the ability to upgrade cubase in the future, and you'll stick with nuendo to the grave !


----------



## JonSolo (Mar 16, 2019)

Yup.


----------



## dzilizzi (Mar 16, 2019)

How often do you need to update Nuendo? 

I've heard (maybe incorrectly) that Cubase isn't that good with video and you need Nuendo if you want to do video? I'm thinking they were talking more than a basic YouTube video? I haven't tried video in Cubase, I normally use ProTools. But it has been a bit of a pain to move it all over. I like the ease of the markers in ProTools, but I would like to be able to actually do everything in the same DAW. Otherwise, I'm guessing Nuendo isn't worth it for hobby musiscians?

Nevermind. Found a post on the Nuendo forum that kind of answers this.


----------



## JonSolo (Mar 17, 2019)

First, it appears Cubase is incredibly better with video than it has ever been. Recently I watched this video and was impressed with what my Cubase Pro 10 could do!



However, as my needs expand I am hoping that Nuendo fits the bill a little tighter. The only thing I have struggled with in Nuendo is that it hates my Scarlett 6i6 drivers. No matter the latency I choose (up into the thousands) I get crackling. Of course it could be related to my Nvidia video.

Cubase could be like that, but after some tweaking it works...running same tweaks in Nuendo does not resolve the issues like it did in Cubase. Using ASIO4ALL (blech, I prefer native drivers) works however so I can probably live with that...for now.


----------



## jneebz (Mar 17, 2019)

Video Render (Nuendo v10.2, apparently) and Reconform Tools are the deal-makers for me. The 2nd Video Track will also come in handy for sure....think I'm going to pull the trigger soon...


----------



## dzilizzi (Mar 17, 2019)

JonSolo said:


> First, it appears Cubase is incredibly better with video than it has ever been. Recently I watched this video and was impressed with what my Cubase Pro 10 could do!
> 
> However, as my needs expand I am hoping that Nuendo fits the bill a little tighter. The only thing I have struggled with in Nuendo is that it hates my Scarlett 6i6 drivers. No matter the latency I choose (up into the thousands) I get crackling. Of course it could be related to my Nvidia video.
> 
> Cubase could be like that, but after some tweaking it works...running same tweaks in Nuendo does not resolve the issues like it did in Cubase. Using ASIO4ALL (blech, I prefer native drivers) works however so I can probably live with that...for now.


So maybe I don't actually need Nuendo. The bargain hunter in me wants to grab it. And I also use a 6i6 on my studio computer. I could probably switch it out for my old Mbox2, but that uses the ASIO4ALL which I've been trying to avoid. 

My biggest issues with Cubase, coming from ProTools and Sonar, has been trying to figure out what to actually call what I need help in. There are a lot of help videos out there, but Google doesn't translate ProTools/Cubase. It's getting better though.


----------



## IvanP (Mar 17, 2019)

The only explanation I Find on this nice but definitely tricky crossgrade (I almost did it!) is that it might be part of a future Steinberg Plan to get rid of Cubase and merge it into a single ProAudio Production package. 

Otherwise, I don't get the need to cancel the license. I have done cross grades before (Finale-Sibelius, etc) and you don't lose the other license. 
Given that we already paid a full version of Cubase, the Crossgrade, which 70% is great, of course, is making you lose the initial Cubase investment. 

On another side...upgrades to Next Nuendo versions are more than 3x the price of Cubase's...so there's another string attached to it as well.


----------



## dzilizzi (Mar 17, 2019)

IvanP said:


> The only explanation I Find on this nice but definitely tricky crossgrade (I almost did it!) is that it might be part of a future Steinberg Plan to get rid of Cubase and merge it into a single ProAudio Production package.
> 
> Otherwise, I don't get the need to cancel the license. I have done cross grades before (Finale-Sibelius, etc) and you don't lose the other license.
> Given that we already paid a full version of Cubase, the Crossgrade, which 70% is great, of course, is making you lose the initial Cubase investment.
> ...


Well, they don't own the other product - i.e. Finale. I think in their mind it is similar to an upgrade. Though I still am able to run Cubase 8, 9 and 10 on my computer, even though technically, I only have a 10 license. If the Nuendo allows you to still run Cubase, but not upgrade it, it would make sense. I'm curious as to if anyone has tried.


----------



## VinRice (Mar 18, 2019)

IvanP said:


> The only explanation I Find on this nice but definitely tricky crossgrade (I almost did it!) is that it might be part of a future Steinberg Plan to get rid of Cubase and merge it into a single ProAudio Production package.



I don't see why that would be the case at all, There are three tiers of Cubase already why would they want to get rid of it? You need products at a range of price points and Nuendo is aimed squarely at ProTools users.

I think they are very confident of the quality of the upcoming 10 so want to tempt as many 'waverers' as possible and get them on board before it is released. I use Logic everyday since it's quick and easy and I know it well. I have Cubase and appreciate a lot of the 'power features' but it's not worth the effort to switch. Nuendo however, is very tempting...


----------



## JonSolo (Mar 18, 2019)

Cubase licenses run previous versions of Cubase. Nuendo licenses run previous version of Nuendo...but they never cross paths. A Nuendo license cannot run Cubase or vice versa.


----------



## IvanP (Mar 18, 2019)

JonSolo said:


> Cubase licenses run previous versions of Cubase. Nuendo licenses run previous version of Nuendo...but they never cross paths. A Nuendo license cannot run Cubase or vice versa.



Exactly. That's why losing the Cubase license is nonsense.


----------



## dzilizzi (Mar 18, 2019)

IvanP said:


> Exactly. That's why losing the Cubase license is nonsense.


No, really, from their point of view, you are giving up the option for inexpensive Cubase updates to get the privilege of much more expensive Nuendo updates. They can't let you have both. It affects their bottom line. Or so they see it. That is why the price is so good. 

Now, if they let you keep what you have but don't let you update it anymore? That would be fair. Especially as they are allowing those with Cubase 4 to get the same discount as Cubase 10. 

Personally, I think they see how users regularly update their Cubase versions and are hoping to move them to Nuendo and get them to update at a higher price more regularly.


----------



## IvanP (Mar 18, 2019)

dzilizzi said:


> Personally, I think they see how users regularly update their Cubase versions and are hoping to move them to Nuendo and get them to update at a higher price more regularly.



Yep...


----------



## JonSolo (Mar 18, 2019)

I mean on the surface it would sound like a good business strategy, but even on their own forums they have encouraged users who find no use for Nuendo to NOT crossgrade.

This is NOT a crossgrade sale. This is a Nuendo sale, that just so happens to include a crossgrade from Cubase in the sale. So reasoning in the direction that there is some special lure they have setup to trick Cubase users into the Nuendo fold is absolutely ridiculous.

You don't keep your Cubase license, because really, Nuendo is Cubase with extra features. Their video features have always been ahead of Cubase, while bells and whistles associated with audio have hit Cubase ahead of Nuendo (and according to them they are trying to narrow this gap). The crossgrade has NEVER allowed you to keep your Cubase license...this is nothing new here guys!

The upgrade price is 70% off. If you need Nuendo, now is the best time to get it if you are coming from Cubase. If not, stick with what you have. But no need for any weird drama around this sale.


----------



## dzilizzi (Mar 18, 2019)

JonSolo said:


> I mean on the surface it would sound like a good business strategy, but even on their own forums they have encouraged users who find no use for Nuendo to NOT crossgrade.
> 
> This is NOT a crossgrade sale. This is a Nuendo sale, that just so happens to include a crossgrade from Cubase in the sale. So reasoning in the direction that there is some special lure they have setup to trick Cubase users into the Nuendo fold is absolutely ridiculous.
> 
> ...


But where will I get excitement if there is no weird drama!!!! 

Okay, that makes sense. I am not over on their forum much. I tend to get better help at forums like this and the things I am reading makes you wonder if they aren't trying to mesh them a little more. I don't think I've ever seen Nuendo this low before. Is this a normal sales price for them? Or maybe they are planning on lowering the price permanently to somewhere in between? Kind of like ProTools did once you no longer needed the TDM console. Mostly just curious.


----------



## Fab (Mar 19, 2019)

What will you lose?

Money, lots of it! hehe.


----------



## alanb (May 10, 2019)

Belated thanks to @heisenberg and *mgpqa1* for the Steinberg Forum thread pointers/link, and to @jneebz, @JonSolo and the rest for your input.

Particularly in light of the depth of the discount and free upgrade to N10, I decided that Nuendo's additional video, post, and surround capabilities made the crossgrade a necessity.

Plus, I was just able to make a 'Competitive Crossgrade' to Cubase 10 from another DAW on my system, so I'll now have the best of both worlds. And if it turns out at some point that Nuendo handles one of my older Cubase projects differently, I'll always have a Cubase license (and various installed versions of the program) on hand...........


----------

