Do not buy Steinberg Media Technologies products.

Posted by: Noah Antwiler in Rant on Aug 08, 2008 Print PDF

Noah Antwiler
I refer specifically to the Cubase software made by Steinberg, but all of their software involves a heinous, and I mean truly excruciating registration and activation procedure that has taken me a full ninety minutes to complete. You have to install the software, create a website account, respond to a confirmation e-mail, open the software, then open a separate license control software to discover your license key. You have to type this key (which is 16 scattered alphanumeric characters into the website twice to get your ACTIVATION KEY number. Once you have the activation key number, you have to go BACK into the license control software, open the license download software, copy the e-mailed activation key (which is 32 alphanumeric characters), and then DOWNLOAD the activation files for your software.

You have no options if you're not connected to the Internet, and you must activate the software or it will stop functioning after a set number of uses. This is truly ridiculous. I can't believe the number of hoops I've had to jump through to use their piece-of-shit software, which I can't even transfer to other computers without repeating a similar process akin to withstanding the tender mercies of the Spanish Inquisition. I can't even find a decent phone number to complain to on their website. Do they really think I have nothing better to do than dick around on their website, creating accounts I'll never revisit and copying arcane license keys and activation codes for software I'll rarely use?

Suck it, Steinberg. If I ever meet anyone with a passing interest in music, I am going to make it my mission in life to tell them never to purchase your products.

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written by Mike_Industries , August 10, 2008
Ugh,

I know the pain Noah. I recently discovered the same problem... It's crazy all the crap you have to go through to get the products to work. Really, if anyone wants some good music studio software, get Fruity Loops. Hell, you get to try that out for free before spending money is needed.
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written by Coldguy , August 13, 2008
You and Armake21 should do a comedic PSA about why piracy blockers are genuinely a bad idea, and what companies should do to keep the consumer happy. Now I think that would be really interesting to watch to see how you two would collibrate on it.
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Cubase - Pro Tools
written by Toby , October 30, 2008
I'd recommend Digidesign's Pro Tools for all musical endeavors, I've been using it for a few years now and it's far superior in basically everything compared to Cubase. And get this, it uses a dongle. No activation keys, no cryptic decyphering of ancient languages just to use software you've bought, just plug in a red dildo in one of your USB-ports and get started.

But there is the thing that you have to relearn how to use the editing tools and plug-ins, but it's actually not that hard and Pro Tools usually ships with a very nice, and thorough, manual. There's also plenty of good how-to's on the internet.

I would like to mention that I have also used Cubase on some occasions and I do like it in some ways, like how it's quite easy to use and it has a wide variety of combatible software and plug-ins, but so does every other software on the market nowadays and Pro Tools might even be superior on some accounts. Pro Tools on the other hand is a huge power-hog in comparison to Cubase's software but it really isn't that much of a problem with today's computers.

I hope this is in any way useful (I got out of hand again with this, but that's just me.)
-toby The Positively Negative Realist
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written by Guitarhero1000 , December 07, 2008
Which is why I use cakewalks sonar products. Oh and its also the reason that stienbergs software is so widely pirated. Actually I think the H20 hacked version installs and works pretty nicely. lol. Anyway, I would go cakewalk all the way bro.
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written by SaviourSeph , December 15, 2008
This is why I like Logic: no messing around, just a serial - they don't even have the dongle with the most recent version.
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