Cubase SE is
an entry level music creation package from Steinberg. It supports up to 48 tracks of
digital audio recording, unlimited midi tracks, has full VST support, recording of audio
up to 24 bit/96 khz, realtime midi and audio effects, video support, score
printing/editing and works on a Mac or PC.
It runs on a Apple G4 450 MHz or faster with 256 mb of ram (512 or more recommended) and
on a PC it requires a Pentium III 500MHz or faster with 256 mb of ram (512 or more
recommended). Steinberg has provided a great installer CD Rom that works efficiently and
includes an online manual in Acrobat format.
I started with the manual in book format but soon found the PDF document the only way to
navigate around the program. The manual gives you easy step by step instructions to
follow. This makes setup and understanding of the basic program very easy. Once the
program is booted up, it becomes apparent that a template for startup is the next step.
This saves under the file menu as a template. Choose between Midi and Audio, Audio only,
Midi only , Stereo mastering or make your own.
A great way to start.
The next step for me was to get into the virtual instruments. Steinberg provides you with
a general midi sound module they call the Universal Sound Module, an electronic drum kit
called LM-7 and a group of synth bass sounds in the VB-1.
The Universal Sound Module comes with 128 sounds based on the General Midi Specification.
Good Pianos , acoustic and electric basses, dynamic brass, strings, drums and almost
anything else you could imagine are included as you basic sound set.
The next step is to select a Midi Track, assign the output of the track to the Virtual
Module of choice "say the Universal Sound Module" and set the track to record or
monitor. It easy to figure out any button in Cubase SE. Set the mouse over the button of
choice, wait a few seconds and your computer pops up the name of the button. You are ready
to record or just select different sounds for your track.
It doesn't get any easier than this for so little money. The first thing I thought I would
try was the realtime midi effects. Cubase SE has 13 midi effects including an arpeggiator,
an auto panner, a chord player, a compressor, a micro tuner and a midi echo. These work
great and can be assigned to any instrument to help better your performance. Once in the
sequencer, you can see blocks of your midi or audio data and start using the tools (laid
out across the top) to edit your song.
Cubase SE comes with the basic tools you would expect from a professional sequencer - an
arrow select tool, a range selector, a pair of scissors, a glue tube, an eraser, a
magnifying glass zoom tool, a mute "X tool, a pencil draw tool, and a waveform scrub
tool . Each track has a set of controls referred to as an inspector. This gives you
realtime control of the inputs, outputs, program changes, volume , pan, transpose,
velocity, dynamics, effects, record, muting, editor windows and drum mapping.
Cubase SE has several ways to edit your song. The tools provide the basics to your editing
needs but the editor windows let you really dissect your performances. There are 4 windows
for editing. They are the List Editor, the Key Editor, the Score Editor and the Drum
Editor. The List Editor provides you with all the technical or numerical data to be edited
in a list form. This gives you bar, beat and tick information for the placement of your
notes or other midi data to be edited.
The List Editor gives you access to the standard set of tools - arrow select tool, pencil
draw tool, magnifying glass zoom and "X" mute tool. The Solo button is also in
each of the editor's in case you decide to isolate your data. The Key Editor is a visual
representation of your midi date. Much like a piano roll bar with a bar graph on the
bottom to display midi controllers like aftertouch, pitchbend, volume and velocity. All
data can be edited while your song plays in realtime.
The Drum Editor gives each drum sound a separate midi note number to let you edit each
sound separately. You can also solo individual sound within the editor. The Score Editor
is a simple notation page with basic tools for editing. If you want more score editing
Cubase SL or SX would be a better choice. Cubase SE is a great piece of software for a
very reasonable price. I found it to have more than enough great options to create great
sounding songs.
Rick Waye Steinberg Cubase SE
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