dmbaer
But I kept hearing how Cubase had the best MIDI capabilities and the thought of becoming a Cubaser did cross my mind from time to time.

 
The Midi stuff, great notation, Colours, handling of video [any where on the time line] are worth the investment of C7 [for me]
Have a good nose around the preferences, plenty going on. If you use notation, the zoom/page % sizes are there - had me stumped
for a while.
Having used Cakewalk for such a long time, I thought it might be hard work learning Cubase.
But with the tutorial videos you get, and of course good old Youtube videos - It did not take long to get into the groove.
Enjoy.
 
 
Garry
 
 

jimusic

lowdown

dmbaer
But I kept hearing how Cubase had the best MIDI capabilities and the thought of becoming a Cubaser did cross my mind from time to time.

 
But with the tutorial videos you get, and of course good old Youtube videos - It did not take long to get into the groove.
Enjoy.
 
Garry
 

@ dmbaer - Speaking of getting into the groove - for those who have an all access pass at Groove3, I just watched the whole Cubase 7 - Tips & Tricks Vol. 1 today, so there's even more there to see & learn quickly from. I'll watch Vol. 2 tomorrow.
 
They even have a 30 day fee of $15 for all access now, if you don't want to pay for the full year. 
 
I thought I get started & watch as my version of Q7 arrives in the next day or 2. 
 
I also saw a large set HALion 4 videos there as well.

The groove 3 stuff is excellent. I've been using it over the past month too and its good value.

Yeah pretty sure they are on YouTube

The Steinberg YouTube channel
 
http://www.youtube.com/user/SteinbergSoftware
 

I do not see how this is, "a leap of faith."  Perhaps a, "change of daw."

1 month in. No crashes at all. No drop outs. So far everything has been stable, predictable and productive. Really enjoying it so far. 7.0.5 installed without a hitch and running smoothly. The only things I miss from Sonar are the docking windows and smart tools.

dmbaer
Hope you're right, because I pulled the trigger on this one.  The Halion 4 was just frosting on the cake, but I'm looking forward to exploring that as well.  But even without it, $369 seems like a fine price for Cubase 7. 

I wasn't sure if the HALion 4 was just going to be a trial version or if we'd get HALion Sonic SE, 
but I opened my Q software box today, and it had 2 'HALion 4' disks in it as well as 2 other Trial Version disks for other things. So I'm thinking that HAL 4 isn't the trial version but IS the full version included.
 
Now last time I checked, which was just a week ago, HALion 4 costs $350 alone - so one way to look at this super deal is $350 for full HALion 4 and just $20 more for Q6 with the upgrade to 7 for free.  
  
 
I think I just wet myself. 

I just installed an Amazon Basics USB2 hub for my iLok and Waves... I have some slots left. :-)

jimusic
I wasn't sure if the HALion 4 was just going to be a trial version or if we'd get HALion Sonic SE, 
but I opened my Q software box today, and it had 2 'HALion 4' disks in it as well as 2 other Trial Version disks for other things. So I'm thinking that HAL 4 isn't the trial version but IS the full version included.
 

My package arrived on Thurs. and I installed a day later.  I'm happy to say everything was as advertised (even though the box said "free upgrade to 6.5", which gave me pause).  Somehow I was nervous that this was just too good of a price to be real.
 
The install goes mostly pretty smoothly, but not without some incidents that cause concern.  For example, to register your dongle thingee, you have to establish an account.  In setting that up, you are asked for a user ID and an email address and of course a password.  OK, easy enough.  I used my usual music password and it comes back and says "must be at least eight characters".  OK, so you couldn't have said that up front?  Once the account is set up, it's time to log in ... "Enter user ID and password".  Login fails.  WTF?  Send emails to get back what they think my user ID and password are (meaning I have to turn on my non-DAW machine to do the email retrieval).  Turns out that the login screen says "User ID" but they mean email address.  Sheeesh!
 
But once past all that, the stuff seems to install cleanly.  Have had little time to exercise it yet, however.

So far so good here.
I've been transferring X2 projects into C7 for several days now. Along with VEPro5 / 12G of samples loaded I haven't a crash or the ever popular white screen yet.
 
I have to say I'm really liking Expression Maps, nested folders. Perfect for my large orchestral projects. I can finally start using all my VST3 compatible plugins now too.
I'm finding the engine & performance is very snappy too.
 

carl
So far so good here.
I've been transferring X2 projects into C7 for several days now. Along with VEPro5 / 12G of samples loaded I haven't a crash or the ever popular white screen yet.

Sounds good so far!  When you say "transferring X2 projects into C7", do you mean transferring raw audio/midi data and manually recreating/rerouting/remixing/etc the projects in Cubase?  I assume there is no compatability other than OMF import?
 
I expect to keep Sonar X2 to finish any current projects.  But any new projects, or those still in early stages, will be created in Cubase.

Wow, you really intend to convert 40 projects!?  My strategy was going to be: finish Sonar projects in Sonar, and go with Cubase for everything new/young for a fresh start.  Maybe I can transfer more than I initially though.  Thank you for the input.

carl
I've done about dozen already.
The time consuming part is redoing the template between the DAW & VEPro making sure everything jives when creating a new project.

For me the most time-consuming part would be the mix itself.  So you've helped me see that I can probably convert over everything with little hassle, except for projects close to being fully mixed.

Studious

vintagevibe
This is a superb example of company interaction and communication.  This is from the KVR forum - not even on the Steinberg forum!
...

Yes indeed!  I even saw a Steinberg rep specifically mention 7.0.6 in the 7.0.5 release thread!  I love it. I'm so done with what is happening here with the secrecy and black-out.  It's a bad feeling.  I really look forward to being on board with a company doing the full opposite, respecting and communicating with their customers.

As a former Cubase user of many years and a current Wavelab owner, I would just advise to not let that one example fool you into thinking that it's somehow representative of how Steinberg interacts with customers on their own forums.  If you think the support here on the X2 forum has gotten bad (and it has), you're in for a big surprise - Steinberg is still far worse IMO.