Since the foundation of the company, Steinberg has constantly pushed back the boundaries of what is possible in digital audio. The advanced technologies included in Cubase 6 offer flexible, cost-effective and intuitive ways of realizing the artist's full creative and professional potential. Steinberg’s experience in developing highly performing cross-platform applications gives Mac and Windows PC users the option to enjoy Cubase on the hardware of choice. Perfect for singer/songwriters, composers, beat makers, electronic musicians, or just about any type of producer out there, Cubase 6 offers up anything you need to get your ideas out.
Whats New in Cubase 6
Drum Editing Deluxe
Developed in conjunction with recording professionals and top-flight studio drummers, Cubase 6 raises the bar for multitrack drum editing tasks on all levels. Incorporating an entire new transient and tempo detection, phase stable audio quantization and drum replacement functions, Cubase 6 offers a complete toolset to perfect the rhythm, feel and flavor of live-recorded drum tracks. Whether it is about non-destructively correct timing issues or changing the tempo of a drum performance seamlessly — a tight groove is just a few clicks away.
A new transient detection — to slice them all
Based on a state-of-the-art algorithm, Cubase 6 introduces a straightforward and intelligent transient detection function. Finding all drum hits is a breeze now, thanks to the intuitive preview feature and two specialized filters, called Peak and Beats. With this powerful tool on hand, you can detect single hits, rolls and ghost notes faster and more accurate than ever before. After the transients have been detected they are merged across multiple tracks by taking user definable priority of individual tracks into account. The drumhits are then cut up and grouped together ready for detailed tweaking. In this way, copying that great fill from verse 2 to verse 1 is solved with minimum effort: select one, move them all.
Multitrack Audio Quantization
In Cubase 6 rhythmic audio material can be quantized just like any MIDI material, offering numerous possibilities to fix timing issues and to change the groove of live-recorded drums. To preserve phase relationships between tracks, the individual slices on all tracks are still grouped and moved at once. Cubase automatically creates cross-fades between slices to ensure seamless transitions between them and fill gaps that might be introduced during quantization. A few clicks, and all drum tracks are matched to the bass drum, snare or whatever source or sources are desired. With the Slice Rules you can decide which sources will get a higher priority during slicing.
VST Expression 2
With the simultaneous release of Cubase 6 and VST 3.5, Steinberg is taking MIDI editing to a whole new level. Note Expression is the new smart way to assign, create and edit multiple controller values directly on single note-level — all in a single handy graphical interface.
The perfect choice for demanding orchestral arrangements and creating unique sound effects, Note Expression allows controller values to be drawn directly onto single note events in the Key Editor. Because each individual note event contains its own set of controller data, even polyphonic sounding notes can now be dynamically controlled — fully independent from each other. This way, composers can access controller information such as volume or pitch bend in one place, making it easy to scale, shift or delete several values at once.
Best of all, when moving or copying a note event, the associated controller data will follow as well. Each single note event and controllers are treated as one unit, which makes working with instrument articulations faster and more intuitive than ever before. Breaking the traditional MIDI limitations opens up entirely new creative possibilities: Imagine a chord containing different filter sweeps, volume curves or dynamic expressions for every single note!
From ultra-realistic instrument sounds to the most unexpected sonic spheres, VST 3.5 and Note Expression enable a whole new creative approach to composition and sound design. And it doesn’t stop here. Use VariAudio together with Note Expression to bring lifeless MIDI recordings to life. With the Extract MIDI feature inside the Sample Editor you can make snapshots of the pitch and volume curves of monophonic audio recordings and paste that information into MIDI notes!
Updated Instrument and Effect Palette
- VST Amp Rack is the new reference virtual guitar amplifier and effects suite, featuring the best in convolution technology. With the push of a button, VST Amp Rack delivers a comprehensive collection of outstanding guitar tones across an array of genres and styles from vintage to modern.
- HALion Sonic SE is a streamlined version of HALion Sonic, Steinberg’s premier VST workstation. Incorporating the same pristine audio and synth engine as its award-winning brother, HALion SonicSE offers tight integration with Cubase 6 and more than 900 production-ready sounds and instruments. Intuitive handling, instant playability and VST 3.5 support make this new instrument the perfect choice for creative songwriting or just playing along.
- The highly evolved LoopMash 2 offers even more cool ways to remix loops and create tons of new fresh variations of your music while giving you total control over the process. Over 20 new MIDI-controllable live and slice-based effects such as scratches, stutters and tape stops will get your beats onto the dancefloors. LoopMash 2 now sports twice the amount of scenes — a total of 24 — to inject more variety into your performances.
- Cubase 6 includes redesigned and extended VST 3 versions of some of Steinberg’s most popular, first-class VST 2 plug-ins: the powerful De-esser, the greatly enhanced Surround Panner, Mixer Delay, SMPTE Generator, Mix 6 to 2 and the really useful Test Generator.
Cleaner, More Intuitive User Interface
Cubase 6 features a significantly redesigned graphical user interface that not only looks good but also makes the huge Cubase 6 feature set even more accessible. Color and contrast optimization minimize eye strain and viewing fatigue during extended viewing sessions — this is pivotal when working long hours to meet project deadlines.
The brand-new look for Parts, Events, Arranger and Marker tracks helps you to distinguish between what’s important and what may not be so important in the Project window, while the revised Inspector and the overall new color scheme round out the fresh new design.