STUDIO
STEINBERG CUBASE 6 In our series exploring DAW software Martin Jerram explores the latest (version 6) generation of
Steinberg’s hugely popular Cubase program.
anything you throw at it. Whether you are an acoustic performer, rock band, classical composer, DJ, or beats producer Cubase contains the tools you need to do the job. It is also worth noting that for such an in-depth piece of software, Cubase has a very neutral learning curve, you could probably spend years learning every single feature but in reality you can get recording, editing and mixing in a very short space of time and just learn new things as you need to.
Steinberg’s latest Cubase 6 improves on the industry standard DAW
In the world of PC based DAWs Steinberg’s Cubase is arguably the most well-established and popular, at least in Europe. Steinberg has been making computer music software in some form for around 25 years, starting off with MIDI recording software for the Commodore 64, followed by the venerable Atari ST, however it was the rise in power of home PCs that meant that Steinberg could start to include native audio recording which at the time started a revolution which ultimately changed the way all of us record at home. Steinberg website suggests
that Cubase 6 will only run on the very latest operating systems (Windows 7 & Mac OSX 10.6), whilst we can’t confi rm backwards compatibility with earlier windows incarnations it seems a brave move on Steinberg’s part if they have forgone compatibility with the ageing but still popular Windows XP.
What makes Cubase so popular?
Those who haven’t yet tried Cubase should fi nd that even a cursory glance at the specifi cations will convince that Cubase can to handle
New Features One of the great new features of Cubase 6 are the Transient Detection and Tempo Detection algorithms: Transient detection analyses where beats or hits fall within a drum performance and slices the performances up allowing you to quantise a real acoustic drum performance or else mangle an existing loop into something completely different. Whilst there are other DAWs that can perform similar, the Cubase 6 method is very elegant and in addition to this allows you to create identical cuts across multiple tracks, meaning you can quantise a full set of drum kit microphones in one go! Cubase 6 has also had a spruce up when it comes to comping different takes together: The Lane Track concept makes for super quick multi-take comping. When recording several takes, Cubase instantly creates a Lane Track for each take, swipe across the best parts of a take and Cubase automatically creates a master take that contains all selected parts. To make sure you don’t miss anything, each Lane Track sports a solo button and full editing functionality it really is very easy to use.
MIDI I have always thought that Cubase offered the very best handling of MIDI data on any PC based DAW but with version 6 Steinberg have
continued to push the envelope of MIDI expressionism. The new Note Expression feature draws data on at note level, while the facility to add ‘piano’ and ‘forte’ to the grid editor should please classical programmers. Those of a more urban bent should enjoy Loop Mash 2, which offers some great ways to remix loops and create tons of new fresh variations of your music while giving you total control over the process.
Plug-ins & VSTi iI’s worth mentioning that the VST format was actually invented by Steinberg so we can probably presume they’ll be pretty decent. Cubase’s plug-ins have occasionally come in for a bit of a bashing, predominately because Steinberg have been a little tardy when updating them. Thankfully, however, the included plug-in set with
catered with the aforementioned Loop Mash 2 and Groove Agent ONE, which is an MPC style drum machine. The VSTi count is completed by HALion Sonic SE, which is designed to cover your instrument needs with hundreds of sounds covering Pianos, organs, brass etc. In fact, this could be considered one area where Cubase falls behind some of it’s competition, in that it doesn’t have any large multi gigabyte sized libraries included, therefore out of the box you will struggle to program a drum performance that could compete with that of say Cakewalk’s Sonar. However, I must clarify that by saying that in practise there isn’t a DAW included library yet that can compete with some of the dedicated libraries out there, so if you do want to get serious you’d probably need to factor-in some extra libraries anyway. What Cubase
Steinberg started the revolution that ultimately changed how all of us record at home…
Cubase 6 is pretty strong: Equalisers, dynamics, modulations are all there and the last couple of versions have also given Cubase some pretty decent reverbs (which had always been the most wanting). The quality and quantity of audio plug-ins is certainly suffi cient to produce master quality mixes, although if you are looking for something with a little more character you may have to look at adding to your plug-in arsenal. Cubase 6 also supports the newer VST3 plug-in format, which will undoubtedly be more exploited as time goes on. When it comes to VSTi’s Cubase 6 is Synth City! Plenty of excellent- sounding analogue synths are on hand and whether you need phat bass-lines or dreamy synth washes you will fi nd them here. Drums are
does have though will be adequate for many and certainly serviceable until you can get hold of some more specifi c libraries. There are now so many features
in Cubase 6 that it is impossible to cover them all here, but it is simple to see why it has become an industry standard, with its full feature set combined with an elegant user interface. I cannot think of any genre where Cubase could not come up with the goods and produce a track of releasable quality. Of course there may well be other DAWs that fi t your way of working more appropriately but Cubase certainly seems to work for most of us. Steinberg are currently offering a 30 day demo of Cubase on their website... Check it out!
www.steinberg.net PM
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