Steinberg Cubase has a long and storied history in the music industry, first appearing on the Atari ST in the late 1980s before migrating to Macs and PCs.
The latest version, Cubase Pro 10, is a powerful, ultra-flexible recording environment.
It's particularly well suited for MIDI composition with virtual synthesizers—and is, in our opinion, the smoothest of the major digital audio workforces, or DAWs at this—although it's also a capable audio editing and post-production tool.
Cubase's mix console remains exceptional as well, particularly thanks to a new Snapshot feature (which we'll get to below).
System Requirements and Setup
Cubase comes in three versions: Pro 10 ($559.99), which is the full app; Artist 10 ($309.99), which includes fewer instruments and other plug-ins but is functionally similar; and Elements 10 ($99.99), a stripped-down but still surprisingly useful recording program.
For this review, I tested Cubase Pro 10.0.50 on a quad-core MacBook Pro 15-inch (2017) running macOS Mojave 10.14.6.
Steinberg's copy-protection scheme remains more annoying than it needs to be.
Cubase uses an eLicenser USB dongle, which automatically puts it at a disadvantage next to the Editors' Choice Apple Logic Pro X on the Mac; even Avid has finally implemented a cloud registration feature for using Pro Tools without the iLok key attached.
To run Cubase on a laptop with just USB-C ports, such as with any recent MacBook Pro, you'll also need an adapter cable, which is even more cumbersome.
Cubase 10 received a UI refresh across the board, with a Dark Mode look to the proceedings that I prefer; the program also supports 4K and Retina-class displays better than it did previously.
The refresh extends to most of the bundled plug-ins, which is always welcome—at least as long as all the controls aren't rearranged for no good reason!
Cubase Pro's strong MIDI roots are immediately evident.
The Key Editor is simply wonderful.
You can do just about anything during playback, including switching editing tools, deleting notes, and adjusting other notes.
The Inspector offers transpose, quantize, length, and other useful tools that are easier to access here than in competing sequencers.
A lane across the bottom makes it virtually instantaneous to edit volume or other MIDI control data.
The floating Transport Bar is fully customizable; it's easy to pop in or out individual modules as needed.
The Harmony Generation and Chord Track help you harmonize vocals and assist in putting together chord progressions, something that some other DAWs have yet to implement effectively.
Recording and Mixing
New for version 10 is VariAudio 3, a revamped iteration of the company's tool for manipulating the pitch and time of audio.
VariAudio 3 now includes the ability to edit at a micro-pitch level for more precise control of a vocalist's drifts and transitions, and you can adjust the format shift to adjust the timbre of a voice after the fact.
You still can't manipulate polyphonic arrangements this way, but there's still more on that front.
For building complex vocal harmonies, a new Audio Alignment feature helps you sync them all together to a reference track, not just for the start of the audio but for the timing of each phrase.
If you find fault with its choices, you can still make manual adjustments.
A relatively new addition is the Lower Zone, which lets you lock the Piano Roll editor, Mix console, or anything else you want below the arrange window.
This was something Cubase had needed for a while, and it's a feature that brings the UI more in line with competitors like Logic Pro X.
By switching between cursor tools using the number keys, and by using Cubase's various shortcuts that make workflow more quickly, I find it easier to play in, lay down, edit, and arrange MIDI clips with Cubase more than any other DAW.
Dedicated buttons let you turn scrolling during playback on and off, and even whether you want the view to stop scrolling when you start editing.
Cubase Pro's Score Editor includes enough notation tools that many people won't need separate notation software.
In addition to comprehensive symbol support, it also supports lyrics, drum notes, guitar tabs, and lead sheets, and it can import and export XML files.
The Drum Editor and List Editor make quick work of editing rhythm and MIDI events, respectively, though the main Key Editor is so good that I rarely find myself opening these windows.
Recording audio, either from live instruments or virtual plug-ins, is a pleasure.
The 64-bit audio engine supports 5.1 surround sound and 32-bit, 192KHz recording—still overkill for just about everyone—and has no instrument, MIDI, or audio track limitations, unlike the Editors' Choice Avid Pro Tools.
It's simple to quantize audio material, and even to distribute sound to different musicians with Control Room.
VariAudio is good enough to patch up off-key vocal lines at least via the Sample Editor, if not in real time (like Pitch Correct), which is more accurate anyway.
For comping an audio track, Steinberg includes a dedicated, drag-and-drop-based Comp Tool, which speeds up assembling takes and lets you create new tracks on the fly.
Combine this with Cubase's group editing, and you can quickly execute backing vocal edits or even multitracked drums.
There are separate track and lane solo functions, plus a Cleanup-lanes command to eliminate event overlaps in one shot.
Recording automation moves is equally smooth, with its easily triggered read, touch, write, and latch modes.
PreSonus Studio One is also pretty sweet for fast audio editing workflow, although my preference here will always remain Pro Tools (despite needing additional steps for some tasks).
Instruments and Effects
Cubase includes eight instruments with a total of more than 3,400 patches between them.
Some highlights: Retrologue 2 is a classic subtractive analog synthesizer that now has three oscillators, 24 filter types, eight voices, a sub and noise oscillator, and a modulation matrix and basic effects section.
There are 700 presets, with plenty of thick pads, five distortion modes, analog-style detuning, and fat bass and lead sounds.
There's not enough room here to go into too much depth, but Replicant Pad is straight out of Blade Runner-era Vangelis, while Warming Fireplace has smooth, gradual attacks and decays for a thick layer of analog.
There are some great saw wave patches, too, including Rock Monster Saws and Poly Saws, in case you want to cheese out on the 1980s, which I always do.
Padshop is a 400-preset granular synth dedicated to atmospheric and evolving pad sounds, with two layers of up to eight grain streams each, plus built-in distortion, modulation, and decay.
Spector is another synth with some serious kick.
The built-in delay in Contemplate lets you create instant Sasha textures with the right chords, while Assault sounds like several 1970-era analog oscillators are exploding in your speakers with each key press.
In addition to the usual loop editing and slicing LoopMash offers, it comes with a library of presliced loops and lets you fiddle with the random and intensity sliders.
This is a lot of fun right out of the box, and unlike with some other tone generators, you can just set this one, trigger it, and forget it.
Cubase picked up direct sampling capabilities with Sampler Track, which offers plenty of editing tools and a library of several hundred pieces of audio to get you started.
Halion Sonic SE 3, Steinberg's bundled workstation synth plug-in, is packed with realistic acoustic instrument samples, fat basses, smooth pads, and useful leads.
It's a solid do-it-all sample playback plug-in for anyone who needs something to get started with.
It even has its own built-in virtual analog synth called Trip.
Even the venerable Groove Agent SE got an upgrade; it now includes a new 'The Kit' acoustic drum kit and 20 Beat Agent kits.
More than 80 plug-in effects come with Cubase Pro.
There are plenty of included reverb, compression, EQ, delay, and mastering tools.
A DJ-EQ plug-in offers three bands with kill switches for breaks and twists, while MorphFilter models low and high-pass resonant filters and morphs between them—throw this one on a weak synth preset and watch the fireworks.
Guitar players may love VST Amp Rack, which includes dozens of presets across the board, plus Maximizer and Limiter stompbox effects for adding punch and definition, complete with oversize input and output level meters.
All told, Cubase's plug-ins are at least up to snuff for serious composition and mixing work.
Mixing
Cubase Pro's MixConsole features VCA faders and its flexible Control Link Groups setup for larger projects.
The revamped channel strip offers improved metering and can handle just about any EQ or compression task right from the console.
There's a noise gate; a compressor with standard, vintage, and tube modes; a 4-band EQ with a spectrum analyzer, a transient shaper for percussive material, tube drive and tape saturation; and a brick wall limiter and level maximizer.
It comes with 150 track presets set up by Allen Morgan, who has produced NIN and Taylor Swift.
You also get Voxengo's CurveEQ for matching spectrum plots with other tracks.
For the first time, you can now create Snapshots for alternate mixes and compare them within moments thanks to an impressive tabbed interface, the first time I've ever seen this feature.
You can't save automation data within effects this way, but you can mix up effects plug-ins and settings and generally try out different mixes without having to branch the project off into different alternative files.
The new, built-in mixer channel compression sounds smooth and punchy as you turn up the ratio and pull down the threshold.
On a new project, I was able to achieve a nice mix glue across the master bus with the ratio set to 1.4 and the threshold low enough to grab everything (roughly -35dB).
The Vintage Compressor, Tube Compressor, and Magneto III plug-ins recently received a UI makeover that did wonders for their usability.
Maximizer also got a newish overhaul with a significant upgrade in sound quality, meaning that you may be able to skate by without a third-party mastering package as well.
Cubase Gets Even Better
It's easy to see why Cubase has such a loyal fan base after all these years.
Our Editors' Choice for PC-based recording software remains Avid Pro Tools, which is slightly more expensive than Cubase Pro but features the smoothest audio recording, mixing, and post-production in the business, plus the ability to scale to the largest of professional studios in terms of integrated hardware and service and support policies.
Apple Logic Pro X, our Editors' Choice on the Mac side, is an unbelievable value at just $199.99.
And if what you're looking for is to record podcasts, you may be better served by an audio-only-focused app like Adobe Audition.
Despite those options, Steinberg Cubase Pro remains a compelling prospect.
Existing 9.5 users may not feel a pressing need to pull the trigger for a $99.95 upgrade, thanks to the dearth of headlining new instruments, but we usually find UI and workflow improvements worth it in the end.
We'll always balk at intrusive hardware dongle copy protection, because most competing DAWs get by without, not to mention almost the entire rest of the PC and Mac software industry.
And the competition has become incredibly strong, including powerful programs at much lower prices like Reaper and the aforementioned Logic Pro X.
But Cubase has always been a powerhouse digital audio workstation, even before the latest round of welcome improvements.
Now, fans have even fewer reasons to switch away.
The Bottom Line
Steinberg Cubase Pro is a top-notch digital audio workstation particularly suited to MIDI and virtual instrument composers.
Steinberg Cubase Pro Specs
| Free Version | No |
| Subscription Plan | No |
| Audio Tracks | Unlimited |
| Instruments | 8 |
| Effects | 90 |
| Bundled Content | 18 GB |
| Notation | Yes |
| Pitch Correction | Yes |
| Mixer View | Yes |
