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Some upgrades provide a bunch of bug fixes and afew small additions to distinguish them from astraightforward update release. Others provide a

couple of major new features that the developers havebeen working on for some time. And then there is Cubase4.0. This has new features everywhere you look, and manyof the existing functions have also been re-jigged andenhanced. One of the inherent problems with anyapplication that develops over many years is that it tendsto lose focus. Steinberg have therefore also taken theopportunity to thoroughly re-organise the user interface –new features and old are now presented in a more

streamlined anduser-friendlyfashion.

Cubase 4.0 issupplied on a CD-ROM containingall three versions(Cubase VST 4.0,VST Score 4.0,and VST/24),along with aMaster floppydisk, which onlyhas authorisationfor one of the

three (although twocounts are

provided). A useful tutorial CD-ROM is also included,giving thirty short movies which highlight basic operationand new features. This proved surprising helpful, andlargely makes up for the lack of a printed manual otherthan the Getting Started guide (an extensive electronicmanual is provided in Acrobat format as usual).

Main new featuresThe main new features reflect the fact that Cubase 4.0 is

intended for a Macintosh G3 machine (although it willscrape through with a 601/120MHz processor with 32MbRAM, or preferably a 604 with 64Mb RAM). The resolutionhas been increased to 15360 ppqn, and the maximumnumber of audio tracks has been doubled from 32 to 64.

In keeping with the large increase in the number ofaudio channels, the number of Effect Sends has alsobeen doubled from four to eight – to keep themmanageable on screen, they have been arranged in twocolumns of four. As you might have guessed, you cannow also have up to eight Effects simultaneously. StereoAudio Subgroups have been added (these appear asextra channels on the Audio Channel Mixer beyond thenormal track channels, and are duplicated in their ownAudio Group Mixer). Each has the same facilities as theother channels (including 4-band EQ, four inserts andeight effect sends), and you can route the output of asubgroup to any output bus.

For those who aspire to the heady delights of 24-bit96kHz recording, a high-end version of Cubase 4.0 isalso available – Cubase 4.0/24. With a completely new24-bit engine, Cubase 4.0/24 also features an increasedmaximum number of 96 audio channels. This really doesneed a G3-powered machine, as well as suitablehardware. The Korg 1212 and Sonorus STUDI/O cardsalready support it, and drivers for the Lexicon Studioshould now be available.

The Arrange pageThe menu structure of the Arrange page has beencompletely reorganised to place items in more logicalgroupings, and although long-term users may initially bethrown, it’s surprising how quickly you adapt.

The Inspector now shows the start and end positionsof parts in Partinfo, and adjustments to volume and pancan now be made using pop-up horizontal faders (muchquicker than the previous text boxes), while transpose canbe adjusted from a mini musical keyboard. In the case of

Steinberg Cubase VST 4.0EQUIPMENT

TEST

If scoring and notation is your bag, thenyou’ll be interested in VST’s expandedscoring section. A good number of newscoring features have been added toVST Score and VST/24.

There are new ‘Score Preferences’ inthe Edit menu instead of GlobalSettings. These contain even moreoptions including: bar numbers can bedisplayed above or below lines, while avertical crescendi option makesinserting and moving cresc. symbols

easier.

There is an editable library of guitarchord symbols. These can be draggeddirectly onto a score. Guitar symbolscan have up to 12 frets, and they canbe displayed vertically or horizontally.

There are more lyric and text options.Adding lyrics is as simple as typinglyrics in the Notepad, then ‘copy andpasting’ them directly under the notes.

There are way more symbol options, like:

damper pedal on/off actions aredisplayed on the score, slurs and noterelated symbols can be above or belowthe notes, while a ‘flip stems’ icon swapsthe direction of the note ties.

These along with other new layoutfeatures make creating a score a lot lesstime consuming – with a lot of thesmaller, more tedious tasks now beingperformed automatically by Cubase.

Scoring and notation

New subgroup mixing is available, as well as alternative transport bars.

Cubase VST has just had a major upgrade to version 4.0. Martin Walkerlooks at the new features.

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audio tracks, volume and pan faders are also availablewithin the Inspector, and these mirror the controls in thenormal Audio Channel Mixer.

Clicking on a button at the top right of the Inspectoropens its Extended section, which provides new MultiOut, Randomise, and Dynamics facilities. Multi Out isideal when you want to send the same (or transposed)notes to a selection of sounds on different Midi channelsor interfaces. Randomise adds controllable amounts ofvariation to any two parameters chosen from position,pitch, velocity, or length; while the Dynamics options canlimit or filter the values of both note value or velocity(the note limit option is ideal for orchestral arrangements,to set up instrument note ranges for instance).

Most of the parameters in the Inspector can now alsobe added as extra Track Columns, the two most usefulprobably being volume and pan, which appear as shorthorizontal faders. These columns are available for bothAudio and Midi tracks, and provide a quick way to set upa mix without opening up any Mixing windows at all –you can even attempt automation from them.

Drag and Drop can now be used more extensively.Whole parts, phrases or even individual notes can bedragged onto the desktop, where they appear as Particons. You can then drop them back later at anotherposition in your song. If you are editing inside parts, anddrop Part icons beyond the original end of the part, itwill be automatically re-sized to accommodate them.

Set piecesFor many people, the most welcome new feature will beWindow Sets (aka Screensets, to Emagic Logic users).You can now carefully arrange your mixers, editors,arrange page, audio pool and notepad on screen as youprefer, and then save the entire screen layout as anamed Window Set using a menu option, for easy recalllater. All the Sets you create are saved with thepreferences, and so are available on a global basis toany song you are working on. This feature has been onthe wish list for a long time, but Steinberg have taken itslightly further by also providing Track Views. Since youcan now have a much larger variety of track columns(as mentioned earlier), it is now possible to save

different arrangements of these as well.Part appearance has been enhanced and rationalised

– you can now view both Audio and Midi parts withNames, Events, or both. In addition, an extra trackcolumn can be added, giving you the option of selectingpart appearance individually for each track. Track andPart names can now be up to 26 characters long, andthe track heights can also be adjusted individually – idealfor keeping every track on screen while zooming in on asingle one in more detail.

Folder Tracks are a new class. You can drag intothem any combination of Midi, Drum or Audio tracks,and then edit them in the normal way, or close the folder,which then divides its part display into a series ofhorizontal strips depending on the number of trackscontained within it. This again saves screen space, and isa useful way to gather together things like drum tracks.

Various new tools are available for the differenteditors, but there are quite a few new ones for theArrange page. You can now change volume, pan, ortranspose for individual parts using three new tools, andthe speaker tool provides instant auditions of any partfrom any point. This replaces the magnifying glass,which now more sensibly acts as a zoom tool (drag abox around the area you are interested in, and it expandsto fill the display area).

The most interesting addition is the new SelectionRange tool. This tool allows you to select any portion ofany combinations of parts across any tracks, and thenmove, copy, delete, quantise, or otherwise manipulatethem, without impacting on the remainder of theaffected parts. Previously only complete parts could betreated in this way, so the only way to copy a section toanother part of the song was to add a global cut ateither end of the desired section, copy it across toanother position in the song, and then glue back thepieces of the edited parts afterwards. Using theSelection Range tool, you simply draw a box round thesections you want and get on with it.

For those who have been frustrated at not being able toadd comments (other than in the Notepad), the newMarker Track is available as an extra horizontal stripdirectly above the ruler. You can add Marker Parts in

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various ways, andthen use them tolabel differentsections of the songwith up to 26characters – double-clicking on themopens up a furtherwindow to addcomments ofunlimited size.Clicking on a MarkerPart is a quick way tomove the songposition pointeraround the song, butif you simultane-

ously hold down the Command key, the left and rightlocators are moved either side of the part as well, forcycling. Used in conjunction with the Selection RangeTool, you can even use markers to quickly move or copyentire sections of a song from one place to another – idealto add an extra verse or chorus at a moment’s notice.

Both Logical and Groove presets are now saved ashard disk files, rather than with the individual song, soyou can have unlimited numbers of both. This is a hugeimprovement, since after a lot of hard work creatingpresets, they can now be neatly sorted into folders forfuture use on other projects. A new Quantise Groove boxalso makes groove quantising a lot easier to work with.You can select any combination of Midi parts, cyclethem with a suitable quantise value, and then open upthe Quantise Groove box to hear the effect of any groove‘on the fly’, using the Pre-listen option. Timing, Velocity,and Duration sliders set the amount of effect the groovewill have on the selected data, and, once you have the

perfect feel, you simply click on ‘Do It’ to apply thecurrent values to your data. Groove editing can also beaccessed from here.

Channelling your effortsTo bring Midi and Audio features more in line with eachother, Midi tracks now have their own Midi Track Mixer,which looks quite similar to the audio one. Each Miditrack in the arrangement gets a channel strip featuring afader (controlling Midi volume), and associated meter(which indicates Midi velocity values exactly like theactivity displays in the Inspector), along with Pan, Mute,and Solo controls.

An expand button at the top right of each channelopens up an additional panel, and this provides aselection of Roland GS and Yamaha XG controls(which send out Midi sysex data when adjusted) –

there are Effect Sends, Attack and Release, Cut-off and Resonance, among others. If you have synths thatconform to these standards this is a perfect way tocontrol them in real time, since full Automation of every control is also provided, just as it is for the Audio channels.

The only thing to watch out for is that the Midi Mixerand Automation mirror the values in the InspectorTrackinfo, but not Partinfo (this could get confusing).Steinberg recommend setting all Partinfo boxes to Off,stripping out any existing controller data inside the Parts,and then instead using the read/write automationfacilities for all real-time changes.

When you enable Midi automation, a new Track Mixtrack appears in the arrange page, and for audio an AudioMix equivalent appears, both for storing automation data.Coping with all this automation data was tricky inprevious versions of Cubase, since there was no way toedit it directly (you could only change existingautomation data by grabbing the appropriate control atthe correct time and overriding it). In Cubase 4.0 a newController Editor has been added, and this is perfect notonly for editing automation data such as volume and panupdates, but also any existing Midi controller data thatyou choose to leave inside Parts.

The left hand side of the editor displays every possiblecontroller (volume, pan, pitch bend, aftertouch, and so

If you’re a fan of Steinberg’s ReBirth RB383 digitalTB303/TR808 package, but wished you could more easilyintegrate it into your Midi set-up, wish no longer. WithReBirth 2.0 the two applications can run side-by-sidewithout any additional syncing connections. The ‘ReWire’menu inside Cubase opens a dialogue that allows access tothe main output of ReBirth, and the individual instrument

ReBirth ReWired

Midi data now has its own mixer, which includes GS and XG parameters.

on), and you can select any combination for simulta-neous viewing by holding down the shift key duringselection. The data then appears on the right hand sideof the editor, and in the case of audio automation, thewaveforms appear as well, which makes it easier toassociate the data with the music. In the case of Midiautomation, the notes don’t appear, but velocity is one ofthe display options, and choosing this helps you to relatecontroller ramps to the Midi music.

CustomisationApart from the many features already mentioned thatenable you to customise Cubase 4.0 to your way ofworking, there is a huge new Preferences menu. There isa wide selection of options for basic things likebackground bitmaps; what Midi data shows up as Eventsin the Part displays, and so on; and a completely newsection devoted to Key Commands. Every item fromevery menu is present here, along with all the functionsnormally found on the Transport bar. You can assignkeyboard shortcuts to any of these to suit the way youwork, or assign them to Midi notes, controllers, orprogram changes, and create Icons for them that appearon the new Toolbar.

The Toolbar does not replace the Transport bar(although you can give it transport control icons if youlike), but it is an ideal way to provide quick one-clickaccess to a huge variety of commands, set up in just theway that suits you. The Transport Bar itself now has five

variations – apart from the traditional one, there is asmaller horizontal version, and a vertical one with threeoptions displaying differing controls.

Step forwardThere are a huge number of new features in this release,and I can’t possibly cover them all in the space of thisreview. The majority of them have at least beenmentioned here, but others just keep popping up tosurprise you (like the Optimise Arrangement functionwhich strips out empty parts, and re-sizes any parts withempty areas of a bar or more). It’s the little touches likethese that make working with Cubase 4.0 such a pleasure.

Overall this is a huge leap forward on previous versions,and should make many existing users happy, as well asencouraging others to take the plunge. It was a brave moveto tamper with the interface of an already very successfulproduct, but the results speak for themselves.

AT

Distributed by• Music TechnologyPhone: +61 (0)2 9369 49900 Fax: +61 (0)2 9387 8676Music Technology on WWW: ‘www.musictechnology.com.au’Steinberg on WWW: ‘www.Steinberg-us.com’

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