Steinberg Cubasis VST 3

You have to hand it to the Germans - not only did bands like Kraftwerk instigate an electronic music revolution, but Steinberg's Cubase has cornered the music production software market. Cubase has evolved to add audio recording, effects and VST plug-ins to create the ultimate digital music creation tool for anyone with a PC. There's just one problem with this musical power to the people - Cubase VST 5 (see Reviews, issue 73, p196) currently costs £234. But there's help at hand - for £51 you can now buy Cubasis VST 3.

The big question is: what's the difference? Well, first there's the number of audio tracks - Cubasis will support up to 48 compared to 72 in Cubase, and Cubasis is limited to 16-bit 48kHz sampling, while Cubase goes up to 24-bit 96kHz. So you could argue that Cubase is the professional's choice, although I've never needed more than 24 tracks, and 48kHz will be enough for anyone bar Pete Waterman.

The bigger differences pop up when you look at the advanced options. Audio setup, for example, lacks Cubase's options for file cache setup, sync reference and the memory assigned to each channel. Cubasis also lacks the MIDI setup menu for mapping your MIDI ports - you can do without this by using the separate Setup MME applet, but it's inconvenient.

Most of the essential sequencing elements are thankfully still intact, with stave and piano roll editors and options for quantize and delete double available. There's one major component lacking, though, and that's a drum editor. This lists all the drum names down the side instead of just a string of piano keys, and it's incredibly useful for writing MIDI drum tracks. The drum editor can be found in Cubase, and its absence in Cubasis is annoying. It's not as though it's an advanced professional's tool; it's simply useful and should be present.

On the other hand, you can use the Lm-9 VST drum machine to create drum tracks, which provides all the basics. There's also the Neon VST analog synth and vb-1 virtual bass guitar instruments. Plus, the main advantage Cubasis VST 3 has over the cheaper Cubasis Go 3 is the ability to expand this selection with more VST instruments and plug-ins later.

So at £51, Cubasis VST 3 is still a bargain as it not only includes VST functionality, but a host of other software has also been thrown into the deal since Cubasis VST 2. Version 3 includes WaveLab Lite 2 for more advanced wave editing, which lets you adjust the EQ, add effects and convert sample rates. There's also a basic movie-editing package in the form of AIST MovieXone, working on the theory that you can create a movie, and then synchronise it with your audio and MIDI tracks in Cubasis.

Surround-sound functionality has been added as well as, supposedly, simple handling. That said, Cubasis' main issue is still user friendliness: warnings and error messages cheerfully tell you something has 'crashed', rather than using overly technical terms, and you're politely told 'No stereo tracks on mono tracks or vice versa, please'. However, it still lacks Cakewalk's instant simplicity and XGworks' explanatory visuals. The latter, for example, has drum blobs in the editor that get bigger as the velocity increases, and all the MIDI controls can be selected and tweaked in up to three control panels. In Cubasis, you can only have one panel and it's not nearly as easy to use, with essentials like brightness hidden behind a second menu. There are also niggles like having to drag a marker across your project in order to record more than a five-second track. Why is five seconds the default? All this simply makes Cubasis harder to use from the outset.