Museek
Mag
Cover Story
The MIDI standard was still new and computer technology was still in its infancy when Manfred Rürup
and Karl “Charlie” Steinberg meet each other at a
recording session for a German rock band. Rürup, a
professional keyboard player, and Steinberg, an audio
engineer, quickly realize that they have a common interest: the possibilities of computers in music production. Both see a huge potential for the then emerging
technologies and begin developing the concept for a
revolutionary piece of software: the first “MIDI Multitrack Sequencer”.
The two founders start to turn their dream into a
reality, spurred on by their passion and idealism.
Armed with a Commodore 64 and a self-built MIDI
interface, Charlie Steinberg develops a multi track se-
quencer.
With the advent of the Atari ST, a home computer becomes available that offers both a graphical user
interface and a built-in MIDI interface. Using this new computer as a basis, a new software product is
born: the Pro-24.
In 1987 the company is re-christened Steinberg Soft- und Hardware GmbH, a name that is to become
synonymous with innovation and creativity over the coming years.
Following on from several years of intense research and development, a new product arrives that will define a musical generation.
Cubase 1.0 is significantly more powerful
than its predecessors, with new technologies
allowing a drastically improved graphical display for musical information and a much-simplified, intuitive new way of using the exciting
possibilities of the software. This first version established Cubase as the often copied but never equaled standard for user-friendliness.
In 1990, Cubase becomes available for the highly popular Apple Macintosh, establishing a Steinberg ethos of
cross-platform compatibility that remains to this day.
Birth of Virtual Studio Technology and Wave lab ( 1991-1999)
Cubase Audio represents a new milestone in the development of computer-based music production.
Audio data can now be recorded directly into the computer. With this development, computers become
a real alternative to analog tape machines.
Cubase for Windows completes the Steinberg product family, and Cubase becomes the first sequencer to
be available on all three of the important computer platforms simultaneously.
With the aid of special DSP cards, it becomes possible to compute digital audio effects on a standard
November - December 2016
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