Professional Sound - April 2020 | Page 22

PRODUCT TESTS Steinberg Cubase Pro 10.5 Music Creation Software By Eric Price I t’s that time of the year again where we get to have a look at the latest Cubase Pro upgrade. This time around, Stein- berg bumps Cubase 10 Pro up to 10.5 Pro. Though this update skews heavily towards small refinements and enhance- ments, it still adds many new and worthwhile features. Features At the top of my list of new favourites is the overhauled channel EQ, which now includes a Spectral Comparison option whereby you can compare the EQ curves of two different tracks at the same time. For example, choose a kick drum and a bass instrument and you can visually and aurally make sure the two are not walking over each other’s sonic footprint. The feature allows you to switch instantly between the two channels’ EQs for quick tweaking – a great way to easily help clean up your mixes and something I made use of straight away. Under the “cool” heading, we find a new multi-tap delay. This effect allows for up to eight separate delay taps! You can then add other effects to any of the delay taps or to the output of the entire plug-in. This effect allows you to get very creative with sound manipulation with minimal effort and is also on my “thumbs up” list. Next up is one of the handiest updates, the new video export option. You can now render MP4 files with both the video and the audio combined. This is great for content creators as you can finally complete your videos with only one stop! Export allows for H.264 video compression with 16-bit stereo audio at either 44.1 or 48 kHz. You also have the option of adding timecode for reference and exporting only a portion or range of the video. The VST instrument Padshop, Steinberg’s granular synthesizer, got an overhaul as well. The newly-christened Padshop2 takes some features from Retrologue (mainly the arpeggiator) and incorporates them into this retooled VST. Samples can now be dragged- and-dropped into Padshop2 and then edited using the synthesizer's controls. They have also included 100 new presets for you to work with. Also, under most requested features, Steinberg has added more options in the Import Tracks from Projects menu. They have also greatly increased the number of track types you can import, such as Folder tracks, Group tracks, and FX tracks. Plus, you can 22 PROFESSIONAL SOUND choose which attributes from a track to im- port. This enhancement now brings Cubase more in-line with other major DAWs’ abilities. Lastly, in the overhaul department, the Retrospective MIDI Record feature gets expanded. For those unaware, this feature allows you to capture MIDI data even if you are not recording, making sure you never miss a creative moment. Though this feature has existed for some time now, Steinberg has made it stronger by capturing looped cycles on separate tracks as well as continu- ous recording. Workflow On to workflow improvements. First and foremost, on my wish list was the ability to combine the select tool with another tool and Steinberg has now delivered. They have added an option on the tools menu for you to be able to merge both the Range tool and the Object Select tool into one without the need to go back and forth between the two. You will need to have the track height a mini- mum size to use the tool but basically, when in combined mode, the cursor, if located in the lower half of the track window, acts as the Object Select tool; however, when placed in the top half of the track window, the Range tool becomes active. It took me very little practice to get used to working that way and what a time-saver once I got the hang of it! Yet another regular feature request from users was the ability to colourize each of the mixer channels. With many projects now us- ing high channel counts, it’s getting tougher to tell tracks apart quickly and easily in the MixConsole. Now that you can choose a track’s colour and brightness, it goes a long way to helping you visually sort tracks on the fly. A few last items to mention: you now have the ability to open Cubase in Safe Mode. This is where Cubase will disable all third-party plug-ins in an effort to help you diagnose annoying start up issues. There have also been improvements made to the scoring section of the program and there is a new track picker window with more choices available, making your initial track selection easier. Summary Steinberg remains a leader in the DAW world by continually raising the bar. The latest workflow enhancements and new features in Cubase Pro 10.5 make it a worthwhile purchase, even to version 10 users. Note that this review covers the fully- featured Pro version of Cubase and not the Artist or Elements editions, meaning that some of the features, options, and enhance- ments mentioned here may not be available in either of those versions. When in doubt (or to see in-depth videos and descriptions of the new features), visit www.steinberg.net. Eric Price wrote this review with unwanted assistance from his cat Chico, who made countless contributions to both grammar and spelling that Eric certainly could have done without. You can reach Eric or Chico at [email protected].