Mark F.

I first bought a version of Cubase when Gibson bought out Opcodes Studio Vision Pro many years ago. I believe it was Cubase 3, just prior to the SX 1 version. I like that theyve always been on the leading edge of development. I mean hey, they created the VST format.

When my friend, an avid hobbiest recording engineer and a guitarist of 50 years got burned recently by Cakewalks sell-out of Sonar, my empathy for him found the extra cash to buy him the DAW that I loved so much.

Cubase has a full load of features. The included instruments like HALion Sonic LE and the Retrolog synth are incredible. The drag-and-drop ease of moving tracks and samples in Cubase are a breeze< including the Sampler. If you work on a laptop (I dont, I work on two 27 side screens and a 40 main), youll appreciate that you can place all your project screens on a single monitor all at once (well, youll have one button to push between the mixer, the sampler and the chord keyboard). Of coarse theres full screens of the mixer and the scroll, the drum track and other screens too. Comping is easy and comp assembly is easier. Cubase has a feature that allows you to go back as many steps of editing and hanging as you desire, with one click. It a; lows you to do multiple edits (you know, the original and the clean versions) from the same tracks with full alternate mixes. Cubase 9.5 Pro is 64 bit processing for the voices and the VSTs, but it is also 64 bit processing in the operations of the DAW.

As expected, thered a full compliment of professional tools for sheet music notation. Steinberg now has a dedicated sheet music writers program, but I cant see me ever needing more than Cubase provides.

Cubase is set up so that you can have a recording session with anyone else with a computer and the internet, anywhere in the world. They record as you monitor them live. They dont even require Cubase as their DAW, all they need to do is download a free interfacing program.

Ive toyed with Pro Tools, and if you just want to record but not create your own music, I think Pro Tools could be considered. I have Logic Pro in my computer (its a Mac Pro) and usually, I use it to entertain the teens that come over to learn the basics of making music. I also have Ableton Live. If all I ever wanted to create was hip hop, that might be all I ever needed.

But Cubase 9.5 fills my every need and foes it seamlessly. I recommend it. For years I was trying to get my friend to buy Cubase, particularly after his Sonar fiasco. Finally, I put my money where my mouth was and I bought him his copy. Hes very excited about it.