Absolutely NO tech support for Nuendo 6 Freezing at start up

I have already posted a thread about my problems with Nuendo 6 64x freezing at start up in this forum: Nuendo 6 64x Freezes at startup - Nuendo - Steinberg Forums.

I have had several replies from forum members trying to help me resolve it and its very much appreciated. But I feel that I have to let everyone know what I am experiencing with regard to getting technical support from Yamaha and Steinberg for Nuendo 6.

I am based in the UK so I called Steinberg UK last Friday and they told me that they are no longer providing technical support for Nuendo because its been taken over by Yamaha and I have to contact Yamaha instead.

Steinberg gave me Yamaha’s contact details so I sent them an email detailing my problem. I have heard absolutely nothing from them. I even called Yamaha on their support line and gave them my details over the phone explaining the problem. They promised to get a support engineer who is working with the software to get back to me but I am still waiting to hear from them and so far I’ve heard nothing and that was several days ago. Its totally useless support.

This is very frustrating. Not only do I use this software in a professional capacity but I have paid for an update which will not work with my system whereas all previous versions of Nuendo 64x e.g N5.5 and just about everything else that I use with this machine works okay.

So where do I go from here to get professional technical support from the software writers when they don’t bother to answer you and your being completely ignored?

By the time they get round to answering me they will on Nuendo 7.

@Headlands
Yamaha or Steinberg whoever is supposed to be supporting this product are not giving due consideration to their end users and before they know it they’ll be losing their Nuendo customers like flies.
They simply cannot expect a product to survive with so many things going wrong with it and offering no technical support whatsoever or taking far too long to deal with it.

Steinberg/Yamaha have opened the door for me to go and take a look at the competition. Right now, the way that I feel about Nuendo 6, its very possible that I will be “Changing sides” and I’ll put my money into a product which offers real after sales 24/7 professional support because without that you might as well pack it in - its a total non-starter!

This is absolutely not a surprise. Yamaha is notorious for NO PRODUCT SUPPORT. Notice that I did not say poor or sub-standard product support. I said NO product support. They have been like this for as long as I can remember. It’s really frustrating because, clearly they make great products. But with no support system in place, they are no longer a company from which I will purchase products. It’s just not worth it!

Back in the 90’s I was doing a recording session and had a problem with their MIDI drum set. I called product support expecting to talk to a tech. After waiting 10 minutes to get through to anyone, I got an operator telling me that I would be assigned a case number and someone would call back within 48 hours. I explained that this was an emegency! I was in a session right now. I had musicians on the clock right now. I needed to speak to a tech RIGHT NOW. I said you MUST HAVE SOME KIND OF PRO DIVISION set up for these kinds of cases. “I’LL PAY YOU!” She gave me the case number and hung up. I lost the session and a small fortune that day. Needless to say I was furious!

2 days later I went into the studio and found a phone message from Yamaha at 9am calling about the drum set (WTF?). How many recording studios are up and running at 9am? They obviously didn’t want to actually catch me in the studio. The message went on to say that as they had not reached me, they would mark this issue “SUCCESSFULLY RESOLVED!” I kid you not!

On some occasion later, I had a chance to talk to a Yamaha rep and I told him about this incident. I told him that I would never buy anything else from them and would advise all of my associates likewise. He told me he heard stories like mine every single day and reported it to his superiors and they were not phased in the least. He was sorry but there was nothing he could do to help.

Needless to say, when I heard that Yamaha had purchased SB, I freaked! Everybody else was so relieved after the Pinacle Disastor that they thought “The Deliver” had come. I warned everybody then that this would happen and was told that I was exagerating and it didn’t make sense for anybody to continue to do business that way. This was a good thing because Yamaha would poor all of their resources into crushing Pro Tools, now that they had a software platform to work with. Yeah, right!

Within 90 days of Yamaha taking ownership, product support at SB went from talking to a tech to talking to those dammned operators and those freaking case numbers. Within 9 months we lost the operators and got that auto-message telling you to submit an email! Product support was officially D.O.A. from that point on. Next major move from Yamaha? The DM2K desk 96 channels at 96K. All of their ads bragged about how well these desk would work with Pro Tools, Logic & Digital Performer! Nuendo wasn’t even mentioned in the ads!

It was this kind of crap that made me totally pass on Nuendo 5. I was interested enough in Nuendo 6 to do the upgrade. But I did so KNOWING that my only form of support would be from fellow users and, after I saw all of the reports about the non support of the CMC series ( Topics tagged cmc-series ), I knew I was right. Anybody who buys anything from Yamaha and/or their subsidiaries does so at there own peril! You had better know up front everything there is to know about a Yamaha product BEFORE YOU PURCHASE IT. Because, once you do, you are totally on your own!

@Keyplayer

Thank you for sharing your experiences about Yamaha support. I for one can say that I do not doubt a single word of what you say, I have had and am having my own problems with them right NOW what more proof do you need?

I also believe that Nuendo is a great product and like you, I say that Yamaha make some great gear BUT, as you rightly say, you need to know everything about a Yamaha product before you invest in it because your going to have to become your own technical support or get what support you can from the experiences and help of forum members.
Software packages that do not work properly and are riddled with bugs are an unprecedented nightmare and without support your completely on your own.

I have now decided not to spend a single dime more on Nuendo or any other software product from Yamaha because if you need help which isn’t there then the way is paved with misery and endless frustrations and your going to be pulling your hair out. Frankly life is too short to get involved with all that aggravation. I’ve been there before with a different brand of software and the same non-existent technical support and its a horror story… AVOID, AVOID, AVOID.

My advice is to thoroughly check out a manufacturers technical support before investing in their product and find out if they hold up to their claims by going on to forums like this and reading through other people’s experiences.

Saddest thing of all is that I am now going to drop Nuendo 6 and return to N5.5 until I find something better as a replacement. N6 64x doesn’t work with my system so I’ve bought myself a Red Herring. Its no longer supported by Steinberg which at least gave you support.

Now my dilemma? Do I ask Yamaha or Steinberg back for my money for the update? Or am I supposed to swallow it and keep the useless software which doesn’t work and shut up? This is a truly regrettable situation.

Certainly a regrettable situation.

I think Steinberg should do what they can, within a reasonable amount of time.

It sounds like they have a lot on their plate. This isn’t an excuse, but far be it for us to assume that there aren’t tons of users out there experiencing problems with their systems. It’s the 20th, your original post is from the 16th - it’s been a few days and that sucks. Company in crazy re-org perhaps? Unfortunate timing.

What about a reinstall? I can’t imagine that N6 simply won’t work on your PC - there is an issue here. Whether it is Nuendo or your PC, who knows. Tech support might not even know.

IMO this forum is still your best bet. Real people using vastly different systems every single day.

I run N6 on a Mac in a pro post facility. Took less than 15 min to get updated from 5.5 and running again. Ran N6/64 in 32-bit enviro with no problem opening old files. Been running N6/64 in 64-bit, hangs on opening old sessions.

Hope we can find you some relief here soon.

Best -

kp

I agree with Phonetical. It’s a little early to throw in the towel. I’m sure there is a fix to your problem. You’re just not going to find it through Yamaha. If 5.5 was working for you, keep using it until you get the problem with N6 sorted out. This is a clear PITA, but it’s not a crisis. You’re not losing work (like I did) as a result of this. Hang in there. With so many others having similar problems, a solution is bound to pop up between here and, perhaps, the PC manufacturer. Good luck!

@Phonetical
The only reason that I feel inclined to hold off dropping Nuendo is because of this forum and people like you, and what if Yamaha are actually taking advantage of this fact?

I have tried reinstalling Nuendo 6 64x several times without any success. There is obviously something in the start up process which is causing this particular version of Nuendo to fail but unfortunately without the software writer’s to point the way I haven’t got a clue of what I should be looking for.
I have tried removing Plugin’s and even complete folder plugins. I have removed the 5.5 preferences folder and allowed the program to create a new preferences folder. I have checked my audio firmware and software drivers and everything is up to date its a real drag. I am not loading a project because the project selection window appears without an input field and the software freezes at this point. Somehow its getting confused perhaps its a ‘path’ thing? I just don’t know.
I have installed Nuendo 6 32bit and that works fine but I need the 64x bit version. Why one works and the 64x doesn’t is a complete mystery.

@Keyboard
Thanks for the encouragement I have cooled down a bit but still feel quite angry with all of this. And your right about my not losing any work because of Nuendo 6, fortunately I can still function with Nuendo 5.5 64x.

Thanks to you all.

UPDATE

Its now the 26th March and I have had no answer from either Steinberg or Yamaha about this problem. So everything that has been said about support for N6 is absolutely true - don’t waste your time you’ll get no where.

Awful.

I waited a long time as well for a response from support.

This is why there should be more of a presence here in the forum.

Hello,

I’m sorry to hear that you haven’t been contacted yet. Please PM me your email/phone contact details.
I will take care of the problem and check directly with development/testing department.

Thanks,
Timo