This is a major inconvenience. This problem has been discussed on numerous threads on this forum over a period of several years, so why hasn’t Steinberg fixed it? Steinberg’s unresponsiveness on this issue has made me hesitant to buy Cubase Pro 9 – whenever it becomes available.
This issue has caused all kinds of trouble and confusion for me, with the demo version of Cubase 8 that I’ve been trying out.
I know this is not a Windows issue, because my demo copy of Sonar Platinum reliably detects external midi gear whenever it is plugged in.
For example, if Cakewalk Sonar is already running, I can turn on an external keyboard which is connected via USB, and Sonar will recognize it. In contrast, if Cubase 8 is already running, and I turn on the external keyboard, Cubase will not recognize it. The keyboard is recognized only after I shut down Cubase and restart it. In other words, the keyboard must be turned on and physically connected before I start Cubase, or Cubase will not recognize it.
Here are the disadvantages:
- When I restart Cubase, I lose my undo history.
- Having to restart Cubase is a waste of time, and it disturbs my train of thought.
- Generally, when I’m using fussy, unreliable software, I end up wasting a lot more time on troubleshooting.
The only reason I care is that Cubase has some functions that Sonar lacks – including better tempo editing – so I’d prefer to buy Cubase. But I do think Steinberg should be more responsive to its customers’ concerns, and I do think Steinberg should have fixed this USB hotplugging issue long ago.