Steinberg Cubase SE 3 review

This is the cut-down version of Steinberg’s all-conquering Cubase SX package that’s used in studios the world over.

Cubase is currently the best sequencer available on the PC, but with this cut-down version has Steinberg thrown the baby out with the bath water?

This is a traditional sequencer, by which we mean that it hasn’t been designed as a loop-construction tool so it doesn’t come with a heap of patterns and samples that you can bolt together to create songs.

In fact Steinberg includes only a few tutorial songs on the discs. Instead you get a hefty package that’s intended for serious multi-track recording use.

Be under no illusion - just because it’s a cut-down version of the professional software, doesn’t mean SE is light on features.

In fact it’s stuffed full of them, and is a bit daunting for the beginner. But if you put in the time to learn the package, you’ll be heavily rewarded.

The program is supplied with a pretty limited range of instruments as standard. You only get the simple LM 7 drum module as well as the CB1 virtual bass guitar and the universal synth module for more general sounds.

However, this isn’t such a major issue because there are lots of free VST instruments available on the Internet that you can download and use from within the software.

Things are a bit better when it comes to effects. There are 24 of them, including compressors, distortion, delay and chorus modules.

Cubase records both Midi and audio data and both appear side by side on a horizontal timeline in the main arrange window. You can record up to 48 tracks of audio in SE and it’s easy to edit the results either directly in the arrange window or by opening the track in the dedicated audio editor.

Similarly, you can edit Midi recordings directly in the arrange window. It’s easy to chop up areas of your recording to move them around on the timeline or quantise parts to fix up dodgy timing in your playing.

For more in-depth editing, Cubase offers a total of four different editors, but mostly you’ll just use the simple piano-roll-style layout of the Key editor.

Once you’ve finished editing your tracks, you’ll find the features for mixing pretty comprehensive, too. The main mixer has space for five insert effects on each channel and you can record the movements of all the knobs and sliders to create automated mixdowns.

In fact the software has so many recording, editing, mixing and mastering features that it offers all the tools you need to put together really professional-sounding tracks.

However, there are some areas where the software could be improved. Its automatic looping tools are poor, so if you’ve used other entry-level programs for building tracks from pre-recorded loops, you’ll find the time-stretching features in Cubase pretty unintuitive.

But despite these failings, the software remains a real winner. No other package offers such an enormous range of features for such a low asking price.

If you’re serious about making music, then this is a great choice that will grow with your needs for years to come. And should you outgrow SE, there’s an upgrade path all the way up to the professional Cubase SX product.

This article is part of a group test of budget audio-sequencing software. Others are:
Intro and Editor's Choice
Arturia Storm 3
Cakewalk Sonar Home Studio 4
Magix Music Studio 11 Deluxe
Image Line FL Studio 6  
Setting up your home studio

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