Product Reviews

As Cubase SX became simply 4 and SL became Studio, now it's the turn of the entry-level version of this venerable audio title to undergo the periodic nip/tuck of feature upgrade, image overhaul and name change. So it's goodbye Cubase SE 3, hello Cubase Essential 4.

This 'personal music production system' is aimed squarely at those users who want to go beyond GarageBand (or Sequel, as Steinberg would prefer), but who either have only modest ambitions or are too short of cash to make the jump immediately to the full bells-and-whistles version.

This being 2008 and the flagship Cubase 4, from which Essential's features are drawn, being the most comprehensive, fully stocked version of Cubase ever, what's on board this Essential edition is a heck of a lot more than you might expect for £100, and is way more than was offered by SE 3.

Satisfying attractions include 64 audio tracks, unlimited Midi tracks, 44 plug-ins incorporating Steinberg's new VST3 protocol (although, sadly, not Cubase's Vintage Compressor nor Studio EQ), 16 VST instrument slots, the Halion One sample player, plus full latency compensation throughout the signal path.

There's also the new Amp Simulator, with 14 amps and 10 cabinets to mix and match to create the perfect guitar sound. Amp Sim also lets you save amp, effect and EQ settings as Track Presets for instant recall. It's no rival for Guitar Rig 3, but it does sound good and sees Cubase parry the thrust of Logic Express 8's Guitar Amp Pro.

Essential also enjoys Cubase's AudioWarp capability, whereby audio files and loops can follow the project's tempo or a tempo track, using a selection of optimised playback modes and algorithms, all of which can be set independently for each audio track. AudioWarp is also compatible with Acid files.

There's

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also Cubase's Arranger track concept, where the linear multitrack recording can be split up into sections and rearranged at will on the fly. It's great for working out musical transitions and trying out different arrangements for a song - for example, jumping from colour-coded chorus to the bridge to the verse to the intro to the solo and back to the chorus again. All experiments can be saved.

Essential 4 also has Instrument Tracks for easy setup of VST instruments, and Track Presets to preserve an entire channel strip. Insert effects can also be rearranged across mixer channels, while the inclusion of Track Freeze is a godsend for temporarily flattening CPU-sapping channels. The software also intelligently distributes the entire CPU load of your session across multiple processor cores.

As with all entry-level software, though, some things are missing that you maybe wish weren't. Omitted are score editing, the flexibility of the Control Room's signal routing, the Mystic, Prologue and Spector synths, some of Cubase's more advanced editing tools, and an in-place Midi editor. The Halion One player can't import sounds (although the supplied waveforms can be edited) and the program won't open projects saved in superior versions of Cubase. And you're also still obliged to use the supplied Steinberg Key every time you run Cubase Essential 4.

Crucially, though, Essential uses exactly the same audio engine as Cubase 4 (and, as it happens, the even-higher-end Nuendo 4) as well as the same user interface, so you know that - if nothing else - it's going to at least sound good and look good.

Is all this enough to make a hit record? Most definitely. In fact, most users don't need much more functionality than that offered by products such as Cubase Essential, Logic Express, Live 7 LE or Pro Tools LE. Most of us simply want to record something and then mix it into a palatable form, possibly incorporating some virtual instruments and effects plug-ins. So does Cubase Essential 4 achieve this with the minimum of fuss?

The answer here is a resounding yes. Cubase Essential 4 might not be the clear winner at this price point - in fact, making a choice between all viable contenders will be the hardest decision for the sequencer shopper - but Cubase Essential 4 is undeniably equipped with more than enough recording and mixing features to sate the desires of its target market.