I attended the Cubase 5 launch event somewhere in the SMU building here in Singapore, last weekend, Saturday. I mean, I really was not expecting a mega happening with paparazzi and rainbow press and so on. But I was a little surprised about how cozy this was. I think I spotted around 80 others besides me in a mini auditorium on the 4th floor.
The first 45 minutes or so (I arrived a bit belated) was all about giving awards and decorations to distributors, dealers and partners which actually revealed that among those estimated 80-something attendees at least 20 – maybe 30 – where not end users like me.
There was this guy; I think his name was Ivan. He did the first part of the product presentations and I guess he was Australian telling from his comments. He used many audio examples from the movie ‘Kung Fu Panda’ which was one of his last big projects (I hope I got this right).
Boy! He really knew the product in and out! Not an employee to Steinberg or Yamaha (which now owns Steinberg), but a freelancer and top expert.
After the break with poor catering a Steinberg support engineer took the stage, well I should rather say he took the table. And then the show began! It started with a music project that simply wouldn’t load. The 8 to 10 minutes felt like ages! And then the notebook denied any further interaction with hardware, software or human --> reboot!
Meanwhile Ivan stood up and asked for questions. I asked if Steinberg is sticking to the dongle protection or if end users like me (and the few others) could finally enjoy a new, more modern, method of copy protection. The answer was, in something I think to have identified as an Aussie accent, a ‘no’ followed by the advice to pore it in concrete so I don’t lose it otherwise your screwed. Thanks Ivan!
A few more questions from dealers about Edu-versions and stuff and the notebook was up and running again. Cubase and the project loaded smoothly. What then happened was a Déjà-vu of 1000 times before. But instead of me I see this professional from Steinberg talking half to himself and half to the spectators: “why can’t I hear anything?”. A live ‘demonstration’ of all possible drop down menus followed. Then again a click on the play button: “Man, nothing is coming out, but everything is fine!” (Exactly what I use to say). “It worked fine yesterday in Malaysia” (I also say that a lot) ? I was thinking “Ivan, where are you?”
I decided to leave the event and took a CD on my way out. No, no demo version or trial (dissapointed!). The most interesting document on that CD, “What’s New on Cubase5”, is now on my Skydrive
