Cubase 11 now available

Steinberg's flagship DAW gets major update

The latest version of Cubase has just been announced. The update applies across all editions (Elements, Artist and Pro), and adds a wealth of features and extra content.

Common to all versions are:

• An enhanced Sampler Track, which now features a new slicing mode for working with loops, two global LFOs, and a monophonic legato feature that Steinberg recommend for 303-style bass lines.
• The Key Editor now boasts a Scale Assistant, which you can use to filter out out-of-scale MIDI notes in real time, or display only in-scale notes in the piano roll editor. It also lets you nudge existing performances, or even pitch-bend data, into the key of your choice.
• MIDI editing has also been enhanced, so that you can now delete notes with a simple double-click, and easily copy CC data from one track to another.
• Squasher is a multi-band dynamics processor that combines upward and downward compression for precise control of dynamic range — or extreme crushing effects, should the urge strike.

Both the Pro and Artist versions additionally benefit from a new high-res metering and analysis tool called SuperVision. This provides precise visual feedback over audio levels, spectral content, phase coherence and waveform shape.

Operational enhancements to both Pro and Artist include a new Marker Lines feature for faster project navigation; Pitch Visibility, which shows you the pitch of a clip or sample at a glance; an enhanced Range Selection tool; and improvements to the ARA workflow.

In terms of new tools, those two versions also benefit from a new four-band stereo-width processor called Imager, and also come with a copy of SpectraLayers One, a streamlined version of Steinberg's spectral audio editor.

The flagship edition, Cubase Pro, has yet more new tricks up its sleeve that will doubtless please professional composers who need to work fast. The process of exporting projects and stems has been given a major overhaul, with advanced options now letting you choose exactly what to export — even including aux effects and master-bus processing when exporting a single track or group. You can also set up an export queue, so that all the stems you create and select will be merrily exported, one after the other, at the click of a mouse.

Cubase Pro's Frequency EQ has also been given a boost, and now lets you switch each of its eight bands into dynamic mode, so that the filter nodes will move according to the input signal. It now also supports multiple side-chain inputs, meaning you can trigger different frequency bands according to different input signals.

The Score Editor has been enhanced too, with more notation settings and editing modes, and support for the SMuFL font format, which makes popular Dorico fonts available in Cubase for the first time.

Owners of Avid/Euphonix controllers, meanwhile, will be delighted to learn that EuCon support has been added to Cubase 11 Pro.

The entry level Elements edition now supports audio side-chaining, while the Artist version of Cubase has also been granted a few extremely useful extras, including ARA 2 and VariAudio 3 support and unlimited audio and MIDI tracks.

There are many more additions and features to speak of, which you can find details about at the link below, but we'll leave you with pricing and availability info. Cubase 11 will cost €559 for the Pro version, €329 for the Artist edition, and just €99.99 for Elements (upgrade paths for users of earlier versions are available). Cubase 11 is available to buy now from the Steinberg online shop, and is authorised, as ever, via a Steinberg eLicenser USB key. 

Published 11/11/20