Steinberg Cubase Artist 9.5 with Free Upgrade to 10

The box contains a Steinberg USB authenticator and a sheet of paper with a product code. You go to the website, enter the code, and download the software.Cubase Pro 9.5 has been reviewed exhaustively by major music tech publications--Google or Youtube to learn whether this is the DAW for you.

Problems with customer support but that's not the fault of the software

Make sure your C: drive has enough space for both Windows 10 and Cubase 9.5. I recommend a minimum of 0.5 TB C: Drive and 16 GB of RAM, a minimum of 6 hard-core Intel i7 processors (with 6 virtual cores) and a 4 TB additional drive for your music tracks and mixes.

Terrible.

it was excellent

Excellent.

The license scheme prevents cubase from launching just when you need it most. Days of email and purchase verification are required to get it running again. Cubase licensing is just too much trouble as makes the product unusable. I have several LE version which fail to launch most of the time. That’s why I tried the paid version. Cubase is a terrible waste of both time and money. I regret all the time I spent learning to use it.

Buggy! Takes up huge amounts of disk space. With windows 10 it constantly crashes on startup and freezes. Now the license deactivated after a windows update and I have spent hours following their instructions. I used the free version for years without these problems. Elements 9.5 has a lot more features and is pretty good IF and WHEN it works.