That's why I bought a Dongle even though I don't need it for Wave Lab Elements and Cubase 5 LE. The Dongle always works.. That said I have a glitch in mine right now-- when ever I open Wave Lab it say's I need to run the elicence software and authorize, Wav Lab still opens and runs. Running the E licence software goes so far and tells me there was an issue and to contact the vendor.
I spent all last night downloading demos, Cubase 8.5 is 9 GB so It's still grinding away. I passed on the Demo for 9 after reading about potential bugs in the Demo somewhere n this thread.
Anyhow for those interested so far my observations
Mix Buss - Probably a cool program for people who work in audio only, Midi editing is crude. GUI is also very undeveloped and feels like freeware. I never did figure out how to insert a 3rd party vst. Might as well go back to Sonar 5. Let's just say, you get what you pay for at only $100 regular price. There's the Mix Bus 32 but all you get is better EQ and more Busses. I failed to grasp the value in that for more like $350. One can get by with 8 sub busses and EQ is easily added with Plug ins.
Oh, and it crashed on me for no apparent reason. A visit to the user forum and seems Mr Harrison himself answers questions, most are about bugs found and he seemed to promise immediate action.
Mix Craft- GUI and Midi editing is on par with Sonar 8.5. Probably a cheaper replacement for Studio 1.
But over all it is logical and without reading any instructions I made a song and inserted a few 3rd party VST's.
I like it but I have Sonar 8.5 and X3 so it would be a waste of $100.
Which really nails it for me. I think you'll find only Cubase is up to our standards. I am not even going to bother downloading Studio 1 demo because so far everything I've read say's I will be disappointed with the MIDI editing. I feel sorry for those who panicked and did not take the time to research the options first. As said somewhere above. There is no reason to panic.