Product Reviews

Sequel is A brand new audio production program from Steinberg, best known for its heavyweight professional music software, Cubase. There are hints of a pedigree from Cubase here, but most of Sequel's features are brand new, and - for the first time in Steinberg's history - designed specifically for home users rather than pro musicians.

Even so, there's little that's revolutionary about Sequel. Audio recordings, MIDI performances and sample loops are arranged on a central timeline display. The bottom tabbed area displays mixer settings, either as a bank of faders for all tracks or detailed mix settings for a specific track. Alternatively, the bottom panel can be switched to show a MIDI or audio editor for the selected clip, a browser for the bundled samples and instruments or a set of buttons to trigger different parts of your composition as a live performance.

The key to Sequel's success is not what it does, but how simply and effectively it does it. Pretty much everything is accessible via the mouse, and there aren't multiple tools for different tasks to worry about. Audio and MIDI objects snap to the grid, and we like the way that as you zoom in more, the grid resolution becomes finer, allowing more precise edits without having to grapple with complex snapping options.

Our favourite feature is the browser for Sequel's bundled samples and MIDI instruments. There are over 5,000 of the former and 600 of the latter, and the quality is generally excellent. Each one is categorised by instrument type, musical genre and acoustic character, and you can also rate them from one to five stars, then filter the display to show only your favourites. There's a wide range of MIDI musical phrases on tap,

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so you don't necessarily need a MIDI keyboard plugged in to use the MIDI instruments.

This system is much better than sifting through folders of samples, although you can do that too if you have any other sample libraries on your PC. However, Sequel doesn't support standard VST instrument plug-ins, so if you want to play a MIDI keyboard you're stuck with the bundled instruments, which don't offer much scope for editing. The same goes for the built-in effects, in that they're high-quality but not particularly adventurous and can't be augmented with VST plug-ins. However, you can automate changes to effects or any other mix settings by recording controller movements or drawing envelopes on the screen, giving you good control over how your music sounds.

Easy listening

Sound card settings and file management - often headaches with music production software - are handled sensibly and transparently, although both can be customised reasonably easily should the need arise. You can export your music to WAV, Ogg Vorbis and various other file formats, and tracks can also be sent directly to Apple iTunes for conversion to MP3 or AAC format and burning to CD - a smart trick, since iTunes is free and handles these tasks well.

There are a few annoyances. Adjusting tempo during playback makes the software lose its place on the timeline (a habit inherited from Cubase), and trying to drag a note in the MIDI editor can make it fly way off course. The minimum PC requirements are pretty demanding, and we don't like Steinberg's heavy-handed copy protection, which forces you to activate the software online before use and also register it in case you ever need to re-install it. But for a first version, there's very little to criticise.

It's clear that Steinberg has looked at the competition and cherry-picked the best bits: Sony Acid's tabbed interface, automatic sample looping and tuning, and dynamic snap-to-grid feature; Apple GarageBand's audio quantise and sophisticated sound library browser; and Ableton Live's sample warping and live event triggering. The non-expandable instrument and effects library and the lack of an upgrade path will put off aspiring pros, but if you're looking for a fun, easy way to start making music, everything you're likely to need is here.