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Cubase Digital Audio Workstation Software Clinton Wilkinson MUSC 1500 Stephen Sue

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I have enjoyed music since my early teenage years. Initially, I was content to just listen and enjoy it. As I got older though, my interests in music evolved into singing music, and much later to actually creating it. I havent had any real or extensive training into musical language, instruments, or creation, so my hobby has always been a dream rather than a reality. I never knew that there were programs out there that would allow someone without musical knowledge to be able to write and compose music simply by inputting the notes, and listening to the playback to see if what was written made sense and sounded good. I stumbled onto Cubase by accident last year, and it is simply amazing. Over the course of this semester I learned that Cubase was a type of digital audio workstation (DAW) that when learned and used can help anyone to write music, even if they didnt have any experience or training. With that in mind, I decided to write about Cubase as a program, to include its history, its features, and how it has shaped and is still shaping my young musical mind. Cubase itself didnt exist until 1989, and its original name was Cubit, which had to be changed due to legal issues (Ramage, 2010). The idea of computer based music production related to Cubase actually began in 1984 when Karl Steinberg and Manfred Rrup formed the company Steinberg Media Technologies which developed and launched a MIDI sequencer for the Commodore 64 home computer (Future Music, 2011). It wasnt particularly easy to use and required separate hardware to be installed in order to interface with the computer. Fortunately, these were just hurdles to be overcome, and with the advent of the Atari ST computer, with its built in MIDI ports and mouse controlled interface, Karl Steinberg and Manfred Rrup recognized quickly the potential. If the computers sold, then musicians would need to buy software to be able to manipulate the midi data they inputted, and the grandparents of Cubase were born (Ramage, 2010).

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Pro16 and Pro 24 allowed for manipulation of MIDI data from 16 and 24 inputs respectively, a very impressive feat for the time. Pro 24 ended in 1989 with the birth of Cubase. Cubase was originally named Cubit, but it had to change its name due to legal threats from another software company. Cubase overhauled Pro 24 and added the timeline feature which is still used today, along with additional features to make it more attractive (Future Music, 2011). Cubase has since progressed through many versions. By version 3.0, in 1996, it had matured into a very powerful sequencer. Additionally, around this same time, it also began to be offered for other computer platforms such as Apple Macintosh and Windows PC, significantly broadening its reach in the music software industry (Ramage, 2010). The most recent version of Cubase is Cubase Version 6.5, which was released on February 29th, 2012. I currently own Cubase Artist 6.0, and it has been more than adequate to suit the needs of my hobby and my curiosity. I am not an incredibly tech savvy person. I learn different features of different software as I need to use that particular feature. Because of this I am still trying to figure out many of the different tools and features which I currently use in Cubase, as well as learn about some of the other features that I am unfamiliar with. Cubase has many tools which fall into the category of Virtual Studio Technology (VST). This can range from plug-ins, to connected MIDI instruments, and virtual music libraries. Virtual music libraries are extensive databases which contain the full range of musical notes as played on a particular instrument. Each instrument has a different sound and timbre. Even different models of the same instrument have different timbres. These sounds are recorded one at a time into a library. If you have MIDI notes that you recorded using a MIDI instrument, let us say a MIDI keyboard, each of the notes played will be recorded as MIDI data. From there you can select from the different instruments in your virtual

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music library to play that MIDI data with. In essence, what you played on a keyboard can be played back as a guitar, violin, flute, saxophone, or any instrument located in the library. There are also many different types of plug-ins to select from as well. Virtual libraries are actually a type of plug-in themselves, but I mentioned them separately because I felt they warranted description separately from the others. Plug-ins have several different categories. There are audio effects, and there are mixing effects. Mixing effects are just as the name suggests. They deal with mixing the sound of the different tracks to create different feels for the music. One of these effects is called equalization (EQ), and another is called panorama (pan). Equalization deals with balancing the amplitude or volume of each different track so that tracks which were recorded separately can be blended without overpowering each other. Panorama is designed shift the sounds of various tracks to the left or right side of our hearing. This creates the feeling of live music. Every instrument is in a different place in live performances, and pan allows you to recreate this effect when you are mixing your tracks. (Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH, 2010) Another category of plug-in is the audio plug-in. These types of plug-ins allow you to do a plethora of different manipulations to the sound of a particular track. You can also choose to manipulate each track or none of the tracks. An example of an audio effect is a delay. A delay is a set amount of time designated by the user, at which point the same track will begin to play again on top of the original. Another effect is that of reverberation, or reverb. Reverb creates a type of echo effect (Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH, 2010). There are many other effects as well, some of which I understand, and others I have yet to use or understand. To name just a few there is distortion, pitch shift, filtering, surround, and modulation. Each has its own unique

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effect on the music, creating an almost infinite number of ways to personalize the music that someone writes. Finally, I want to briefly discuss the various actions that Cubase allows a user to do. First and foremost, is that Cubase makes it possible to record a track from an MIDI equipped device. This means that a musician can directly record their own written music, or even just improvised musical pieces from an instrument into a Cubase track. From there they can use the different effects to modify it in whatever way they want. Another benefit of this is that a musician can record a piece of music with an instrument that they are familiar with, and then replay it with an instrument in the virtual library, which they may not know how to play. They could even create complex music consisting of several instruments at once, even though they themselves might only know how to play one instrument. Not only can Cubase record from MIDI instruments, but they can also record audio directly, when configured properly with recording hardware. Hence, a musician doesnt even need an instrument to create music. You could record any type of sounds you want, and replay it as recorded, or use the pitches of the recording to play it back as any instrument in the virtual library. The best feature about Cubase though is that you can export your project in many different formats, depending on your needs. You can export it as a MIDI file if you need to work with it elsewhere, or you could export it as any one of several types of audio files. Cubase will use the virtual instruments to render an audio file that you can play for friends, family, potential employers, or even submit it to record companies for their consideration. I have only had Cubase for a short while, and I know that it will benefit me in my hobby for hobby for years to come. I might one day even go so far as to transition into a career writing and producing music. Cubase has given me that start. I have learned a great deal about the

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fundamentals of digital music this year in class and look forward to continuing to educate myself through trial and error, and research using Cubase as the platform to work from.

Works Cited
Future Music. (2011, May 24). A Brief History of Steinberg Cubase. Retrieved from Music Radar: http://www.musicradar.com/tuition/tech/a-brief-history-of-steinberg-cubase-406132 Ramage, M. (2010, September 12). History of Cubase. Retrieved from Atari Music Network: http://www.atarimusic.net/featured-articles/atari-music-software/245-history-of-cubase Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH. (2010). Cubase Artist 6 Quick-Start Guide. Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH.