Yamaha buys Steinberg

[Mr. Dipity]

Steinberg sold to Yamaha.

I, for one, welcome our new motorcycle riding, FM synthesizing masters.

[chetatkinsdiet]

At first it sounds like great news....a large company purchasing a software company gives them the financial backing that they need to stay in business and be able to afford even more engineering. But, there are too many that this has backfired on:

Gibson buys Opcode....RIP SVP
Apple buys Logic...RIP Logic for Win
Pinnacle buys Stein...sells it 1 year later
Adobe buys Cool Edit Pro...TBD...

The thing that scares me is that Yamaha might be purchasing them to more closely integrate the software into their own crappy hardware boxes. That was harsh...not that they're crappy, but the last thing I want is proprietary devices that work great with Yammy gear and so-so with Roland, Tascam, etc....

Steinberg have always been the leaders in creating and working with industry standards...VST, ASIO, etc. I would hate it if they started favoring plugs that are only created by Yammy, or work with MIDI boxes designed by them as well.

I gotta admit, as a longtime Cubase/Nuendo user, I'm scared.

later,
m

[Vartan K.]

i didnt see this one coming

[Mr. Dipity]

i didnt see this one coming

Funnily enough, I did. Not the Yamaha part, but the Steinberg part. They've been very strangely quiet lately - ever since the 3.0 release. PErhaps it's just a conicidence.

[apropos of nothing]

You know why they did it?

http://www.mlancentral.com/mlan_info/mlan_ppf.php
http://www.yamahasynth.com/products/mlan/index.html

mLAN is actually not a bad spec, but they've been having a bad time getting adoptance. They''re most likely going to leverage the Nuendo/Cubase name to gain acceptance in the marketplace.

It's also not as if MIDI hasn't needed replacing since... Well, since it was introduced, really, but certainly since the advent of speeds >33kbaud -- say ten years ago.

Still it would be nice if its replacement didn't have a brand-name stamped all over it like Roland's GM spec.

[b3groover]

I've always liked Yamaha. They make great instruments (love their saxes, I own a set of their drums, and I've been an ardent supporter and buyer of their keyboards for a long time... oh and their acoustic pianos rule, too) and they come up with some great innovations. mLan, although I don't use it, is actually a really cool spec. Like the above poster said, MIDI has needed a replacement almost since the first day it was introduced.

It'll be interesting to see what Yammy does with Steinberg. I love Cubase SX 2.0 (haven't upgraded to 3.0 yet... don't see the need). I think this will be a good thing.

[hammertime]

I don't know. I remember pinnacle bought Steinberg for a measly figure, probably because pro audio users are such a tiny portion of the market as a whole . If they see an opportunity to make more money by devoting all of their resources to producing something like, e.g., DVD authoring (which is what happened to Sonic Solutions), that has a huge market potential, you might see the end of Cubase/Nuendo/Wavelab.

[ScienceOne]

Ok, I've got a somewhat silly question that doesn't warrant a new thread, and you fellow Cubase/Nuendo users would probably be able to answer it. Why, when I read magazines, etc, do I only hear about Nuendo from most of the "pros?" How many times have I heard mention of a nice, large studio running on Nuendo? I don't think I've ever heard about ones that are Cubase systems. Am I just not keeping my ear to the ground or is this a commonality? It seems like more project studios run on Cubase.

[Mr. Dipity]

Ok, I've got a somewhat silly question that doesn't warrant a new thread, and you fellow Cubase/Nuendo users would probably be able to answer it. Why, when I read magazines, etc, do I only hear about Nuendo from most of the "pros?" How many times have I heard mention of a nice, large studio running on Nuendo? I don't think I've ever heard about ones that are Cubase systems. Am I just not keeping my ear to the ground or is this a commonality? It seems like more project studios run on Cubase.

Cubase is Nuendo with a few features missing.

[chetatkinsdiet]

well, those few missing pieces are very important to a professional, post house. Things like advanced surround mixing, tons of import/export file options. I use both and think the actual sound of the apps is indistinguishable.
Later,
m

[b3groover]

So Nuendo has more features than Cubase?! I always thought it was the other way around.

Damn. If I would've known that I would've bought Nuendo.

[chetatkinsdiet]

but nuendo is about 1300, cubase is half that.
later,
m

[b3groover]

Really!? Damn! Well... Cubase is suiting me well. I thought they were about the same price. Wow.

I got a really good deal on my version of Cubase. It's actually going to cost me almost as much to upgrade to SX 3.0 as it did to buy this copy of 2.0 I have right now!

[pscottm]

I've always liked Yamaha. They make great instruments (love their saxes, I own a set of their drums, and I've been an ardent supporter and buyer of their keyboards for a long time... oh and their acoustic pianos rule, too) and they come up with some great innovations. mLan, although I don't use it, is actually a really cool spec. Like the above poster said, MIDI has needed a replacement almost since the first day it was introduced.

i read recently that yamaha is trying to sell mlan to apple. apple nearly bought a similar protocal from roland but yamaha caught word of the deal and in turn is making apple a deal they can't refuse. no word on the outcome..

[pscottm]

oh yeah, here's whee i read that..

http://www.futuremusic.com/news/november2004/mlan.html