New Gear Review: Steinberg Cubase Pro 8.5 and Cubase Artist 8.5

Steinberg adds significant updates to their popular Cubase Pro and Artist DAW software products. One is VST Transit, Steinberg’s cloud collaboration service where users can share and synchronize their projects together. Start with the included 500 MB of cloud storage and 1 GB throughput and then upgrade to 5 GB/20 GB.

Retrologue 2 virtual analog synthesizer has enhancements to the synth section, new presets and five new effects including the three-band Resonator. MixConsole now has an improved dynamic hover mode and the option to show all inserts, sends and EQs simultaneously.

The Key and Drum Editors have a new look and editing capabilities; Chord Pads supports custom chord symbols and allows for control of arpeggiated and overlapping chords.

Audiowarp has improved audio quality when time stretching because of zplane’s élastique v3 algorithm and the new MediaBay project rack expedites the location of instruments, presets and audio/MIDI files. Exclusive to Cubase 8.5 is the Profile Manager, and it allows for storing and recalling program settings and preferences that can be transferred to any studio environment running Cubase.

Cubase Pro 8.5 sells for $699.99 MSRP and Cubase Artist 8.5 is $399.99.

steinberg.net/cubase

Barry Rudolph is a recording engineer/mixer who has worked on over 30 gold and platinum records. He has recorded and/or mixed Lynyrd Skynyrd, Hall & Oates, Pat Benatar, Rod Stewart, the Corrs and more. Barry has his own futuristic music mixing facility and loves teaching audio engineering at Musician’s Institute, Hollywood, CA. He is a lifetime Grammy-voting member of NARAS and a contributing editor for Mix Magazine. barryrudolph.com