Steinberg releases Cubase 9 today. Steinberg has always been the world leading DAW on all platforms, and this releases cements their dominance in the DAW space.
Steinberg has today announced Cubase 9, a substantial update to their DAW. The three new versions of Cubase — Cubase Pro, Cubase Artist and Cubase Elements — all feature a new layout with an Ableton/Logic Pro-rescue ‘Lower Zone’. The Cubase 9 screen display functionality devotes a dedicated and context-sensitive area at the bottom of the screen that can show either your mixer, MIDI note data or another one of the new features: Sampler Track. The Sampler Track does look rather useful, allowing users to drag and drop samples from the library or the arranger onto a sampler instrument and have them automatically mapped across the keyboard.
Third up is a Cubase Pro only feature: Frequency is the new EQ processor with eight bands, each with the new Linear Phase mode to preserve the band’s signal phase. There is also M/S support, Auto Listen to monitor adjustments, Spectrum Display and reference keyboard. Cubase Pro 9 also comes with up to ten marker tracks, providing users with even more freedom to specify ranges within music projects and to use these to export single stem tracks and group mixes.
Cubase has always had an Undo feature, but until now, this hasn’t extended to the mixer. In Cubase 9 Mix Console History is introduced — a Photoshop-style undo history which logs every change to your mix, including any third-party plug-in tweaks. This way, if you accidentally nudge a fader or just plain hate what you’ve done to the mix in the last 10 minutes, you can roll back.Cubase 9 is here, and Steinberg are touting improved stability and performance, and lots of user-requested features. That includes new goodies like a built-in Sample Track for manipulating audio, plus history in the mixer.
Cubase 9 is here, and Steinberg are touting improved stability and performance, and lots of user-requested features. That includes new goodies like a built-in Sample Track for manipulating audio, plus history in the mixer.
At last, all the Cubase releases come out at the same time – Elements, Artist, and Pro. (Steinberg says it’s the first time that’s happened.)
But this is also intended to be a clean break. 32-bit plug-in support is out – 64-bit only. There’s also meant to be improved compatibility as a result, and a scanner tool will hunt out plug-ins you’ve got that may require a 64-bit installer or update. (There’s also expanded plug-and-play USB support on Windows, which I need to research.)
The whole package looks promising. Take what’s essentially a complete DAW platform available today, and add stuff like multiple marker tracks and Sample Tracks for sample manipulation, and you have a workflow winner. There are simpler, lighter DAWs; there are environments more focused on production and live performance like Ableton Live and FL Studio and Reason. But Cubase remains one of the standards for the sheer power of doing absolutely everything.
