Cubase VST Review ( YEAH!!! )

[J.R. Rogers]

I've been working with Cubase VST/32 for several days now, and I'm EXTREMELY impressed with this software. I've been painfully working with Cakewalk for years, and finally got to the point where I just didn't want to sit down and mess with recording anymore. I started shopping for standalone multitrack units, even though I have a lot of money invested into my digital recording setup.

Cakewalk
Cakewalk makes it so difficult to do the simplest things, and even to get a good sound, you've got to tweak and re-record several times. I've been unsuccessful at getting a good recording out of Cakewalk's audio recording. Plus, it's a very crash-happy software, and doesn't play nice with other programs or DirectX plug in's. Even my high-end digital interface, rated one of the best available, works funky with Cakewalk. Cake's recording meters are always two seconds behind what you're recording, rendering them totally useless. I've recorded several songs in Cakewalk (Pro Audio), never with much success. In the past, I used MIDI a lot with older versions, and Cakewalk does seem to work well with MIDI... It's only redeeming value.

Cubase VST/32
After playing with this sofware for a few days, I'm sold on it. The interface is exactly what you'd expect it to be - simple to use and effective. The mixer is intuitively laid out, and simple to understand even your first time working with the software. The VST plug-in's are soooooo much better than DirectX. They seem to use a lot less CPU overhead and aren't crash-prone like most of the DirectX plug-ins I've used. CubaseVST is compatible with the old DirectX plug-ins, but I wouldn't use them. Cubase has a CPU meter, and DX plug-ins seem to use about 3 times the overhead of the VST plug-ins.

VST Effects
The VST effects are very easy to use and appear in a stackable rack. You can set the order and levels for each effect on the Mixer panel. Effects are available as MONO channel inserts or stereo sends. There are also Master effects. The VST effects use very little CPU overhead, even if multiple effects are stacked. Of course the better your system, the better the performance. I've downloaded a bunch of freeware and shareware VST effects - there's a ton of stuff out there. One of my favorite is this vintage tape delay effect that sounds sooooooo nice! (more on this later)

VST instruments
There are a number of VST instruments available that can be plugged in. Most of these are software synths - usually vintage synths and stuff. These look like fun but I haven't messed with them too much. One of the things I do like is the VST Virtual Bass. You can pick from all sorts of virtual basses, and move the pickup around and even move the picking position around. The bass sounds are quite realistic!

Mixer
This is where the VST really excels. The mixer function are very simple to use and understand. Everything works like it should. There is a master mixer and track mixers which allow you a lot of flexibility when working with effects, etc. The level indicators are accurate and quick.

Lately I've mainly been playing around with Cubase's features and trying everything out. I haven't done much real recording yet - mostly editing stuff I've done on Cakewalk. I have a VST drum sessions demo disc that loads some sampled drum sessions by real drummers, professionally recorded. These sound great, and you can customize them to your liking. Say goodbye to your cheezy sounding Alesis SR16!

Cubase has an Analog True Tape recording mode that I'm anxious to try. The sterile digital sound from Cakewalk just makes me cringe. To put Cubase to the test, I loaded one of my Cakewalk-created Acoustic guitar songs into Channels 1&2 on Cubase. This was a song that I had created a while back, but wasn't happy with the outcome. The recording sounded okay through my studio system monitors and reference amplifier, but play it through any other (lower quality) system, and it sounds terrible. There is a boomyness from the bass, and some audible distortion and noise, as well as a sterile "home made recording" sound.

Loaded into Cubase, I immediately went to work on the boom. Clicking on the track mixer, I pulled up the individual EQ/effects windows for the tracks. There is a flexible parametric EQ that gives you a ton of control over your sound, and shows you a graph of the frequency control. This made it very easy to set, because I usually have trouble visualizing what I'm doing on a parametric EQ. I clicked on the high-pass button and immediately the slope on the graph fell off at about 500hz. I adjusted the frequency and level of roll-off while listening to the song, until the boomyness was gone. Then I made some minor midrange tweaks and some high frequency tweaks which got rid of a lot of the noise I was hearing. It was already sounding better!

Next, I went to the effects section and started playing around with all different types of effects. I settled on some modest compression which seemed to really make the tune a lot more "listenable". Next I started playing around with this WONDERFUL vintage tape delay emulator. I was so impressed by the warm sound of this beautiful plug in. I've never messed with a real tape delay before, so I wasn't sure what to expect. The sound had a pleasant warm delay sound that even with the heaviest settings sounded like butter... Very nice! I settled on a modest delay setting with about 35% wet, and it sounded incredibly transparent. Suddenly my hack recording was sounding professional! (I'll have to re-record it anyway, because there is some digital clipping in places, but it will give me a chance to play around with the recording features on Cubase.)

Overall, after just a few days of playing around with Cubase, I'm very impressed to say the least. I'm so impressed that I'm actually excited about recording again. If you're currently using Cakewalk or any other package, I strongly recommend looking at Cubase. I'll followup with more info after I've played with it some more, and possibly post some sound clips, etc.

Website: www.steinberg.net

Free VST Plug-ins: http://www.castlex.com/modplug/tracker_plugins2.php3
http://www.sonicspot.com/daplugins.html

J.R. Rogers

[ 05-22-2001: Message edited by: J.R. Rogers ]

[Admiral]

Any words of comparison with ProTools 5.1 LE on a MAC?