To install all of the content, you need to use Steinberg Download Assistant, a separate program with a long, messy list of updates and little clue of what they contain (examples: "Padshop 2 - Content" and "Padshop 2.1.0 - Content").
(Opens in a new window) Read Our Adobe Audition Review But we've had the means to do online verification for more than a decade now. No one likes copy protection, and Steinberg is fully justified in ensuring that people pay for its products. You no longer have to lose a USB port to Cubase on your desktop machine, worry about leaving the dongle somewhere by accident, or resign yourself to breaking it off by accident while carrying your laptop between rooms. The company was the last major holdout in the DAW market for hardware copy-protection schemes, but thankfully that's now history. Perhaps the biggest news in the known music-recording universe is that Steinberg has finally abandoned its reliance on a dongle for authentication. With version 12, Cubase can now automatically detect your MIDI device and map its controls so that you can then connect various parameters to them with the built-in Mapping Assistant. For this review, I tested Cubase Pro 12.0.20 on a MacBook Pro 16-inch (Late 2021, M1 Pro) running macOS Monterey 12.3.1. All versions of Cubase 12 add native Apple silicon support, although they still work as Rosetta 2 apps.
Since 1982, PCMag has tested and rated thousands of products to help you make better buying decisions. ( Read our editorial mission (Opens in a new window) & see how we test everything we review (Opens in a new window).)Ĭubase requires either a Mac running macOS version 11 (Big Sur) or above or a 64-bit Windows 10 or 11 PC with at least four CPU cores, 8GB RAM, and up to 70GB free space for the Pro version. It also comes with more sounds for the instrument plug-ins.
Pro 12 ($579.99), which is the full app, adds 256 VCA tracks, Dolby Atmos support with native integration of the Atmos renderer, Control Room for more flexible monitoring, a more advanced score editor, and plenty of mixing and mastering upgrades such as the ability to measure loudness and export stems. Artist also adds some audio and MIDI editing features. Artist 12 ($329.99) upgrades the track counts to unlimited it also adds Retrologue 2 and Padshop 2, two nice-sounding synthesizer instruments, and brings the total to 2,600 sounds and 59 effects plug-ins. It comes with Halion Sonic SE 3 and Groove Agent SE 5, two instruments that together offer 1,000 sounds, plus 45 mix and effects plug-ins. The stripped-down Elements 12 ($99.99) offers 64 MIDI tracks, 48 audio tracks, and 24 instrument tracks of recording. How Much Does Cubase Cost?Ĭubase comes in three versions. It's particularly well suited for MIDI composition with virtual synthesizers-and is, in our opinion, the smoothest of the major digital audio workforces, or DAWs at this-although it's also a capable audio editing and post-production tool, with its exceptional MixConsole and flexible editing facilities.
The latest version, Cubase Pro 12, is a powerful, ultra-flexible recording and production environment. Steinberg Cubase has a long and storied history in the music industry, first appearing on the Atari ST (Opens in a new window) in the late 1980s before migrating to Macs and PCs.
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