Operation
Cubase can be used to edit and sequence audio signals coming from an external sound source and MIDI and can host VST instruments and effects. It includes features such as:
- Chord Tracks: Helps the user keep track of chord changes, and can optionally be used to harmonize audio and MIDI tracks automatically, as well as trigger arpeggios and chords with basic voicings or voicings for piano and guitar. Chords can be either entered manually or detected automatically.
- Expression Maps: Adds a lane to the Key Editor (Cubase's piano roll) that allows the user to define changes to the instrument's articulations and dynamics.
- Note Expression: Allows MIDI controllers such as pitch bend, volume, pan, and filters to be applied only to the selected notes. This overcomes one of the limitations of MIDI, where such controllers normally affect the entire channel (For example, all notes of a chord are equally affected by a pitch bend message).
- Key Editor Inspector: Provides precise control over chord drawing, chord inversions, quantization, transpositions, scale correction, note lengths, and legato. Changes can be applied either to only the selected notes or the entire MIDI part being edited.
- Audio Warp Quantize: Create warp markers straight from hitpoints, both single audio loops as well as the entire arrangement can be non-destructively quantized.
MIDI parts can be edited using a piano roll, a dedicated drum editor, a score editor, or as a filterable complete list of MIDI events.
The user can also mix the various tracks down into a stereo .wav file ready to be burned to a compact disc (CD) in Red Book format, or .mp3 burned to CD or DVD as files, or to be published on the Web.
VST instruments
Cubase VST 3.7 in 1999 introduced a virtual instrument interface for software synthesizers known as VSTi. This made it possible for third-party software programmers to create and sell virtual instruments for Cubase. This technology has become a de facto standard for other DAW software, when integrating software based instruments on the Macintosh and Windows platforms. A new version of VST, VST3, was introduced with Steinberg's Cubase 4 which introduced improved handling of automation and audio output, native sidechaining, and many other features. Cubase 6 included VSTs such as HALion Sonic SE, Groove Agent ONE, LoopMash 2 and VST Amp Rack.
Editions
When Cubase 6 was released in 2011, Steinberg introduced 5 different editions for different levels of use. While they all run on the same audio engine, the lower tiers have limits on the number of certain types of tracks.
In 2013, Steinberg introduced Cubasis for iPad, a Cubase for iOS. This version was a full rewrite and supports MIDI and audio tracks, audiobus and virtual MIDI to work with external music apps from the first versions. In 2016, Cubasis 2 was released as a free update.
In late 2019, Cubasis 3 followed as a new app and introduced iPhone support. In mid-2020, Cubasis 3 was released for Android tablets and smartphones.
History
Cubase has existed in three main incarnations. Initially Cubase, which featured only MIDI. The first version of Cubase was for Atari ST, and the Macintosh and Windows versions followed later. Cubase was visualized by Wolfgang Kundrus, and implemented by a team including Werner Kracht, Stefan Scheffler, Michael Michaelis and Karl Steinberg who mainly contributed the run-time system M-ROS.
The next version, Cubase VST, featured fully integrated audio recording and mixing along with effects. It added Virtual Studio Technology (VST) support, a standard for audio plug-ins. Cubase VST was only for Macintosh and Windows.
Cubase SX (based on Steinberg's flagship post-production software Nuendo) dramatically altered the way the program ran. Cubase SX featured real-time time-stretching and adjustment of audio tempo, much like Sonic Foundry's ACID.
In January 2003, Steinberg was acquired by Pinnacle Systems, within which it operated as an independent company before being sold to Yamaha Corporation in December, 2004.
In September 2006 Steinberg announced Cubase 4, the successor to Cubase SX3. Cubase 4 includes a 'control room', a feature designed to help create monitor mixes.
In 2017, Steinberg received the MIPA (Musikmesse International Press Award) for Cubasis 2 in the Mobile Music App category at the Musikmesse in Frankfurt.
