Let’s get straight to it: granular synthesis, and the various processes based on the principle, is one of the coolest things about making music with computers. With the ability to take sounds and stretch, mangle, and reshape them into new textures, it’s one of the fundamental techniques allowing sound software and lots of terrific timbral techniques to work.

Of course, explaining it to lay people is a bit of a trick. So that’s why, even before we get into talking about Steinberg’s upcoming Padshop synth, it’s worth watching the first few minutes. Sound designer Matthias Klag explains that coolness really succinctly (and, I think, accurately).

I’m excited to try Padshop. Now, on its surface, I can’t yet see anything radically new in how it works relative to what you get from some of the better Reaktor patches out there. On the other hand, a lot of people aren’t willing to go buy Reaktor just to use those tools. And it seems Steinberg has built something that brings together a traditional synth’s playability with some of the better tools for dialing in far-out granular textures. We’ll get to see it later this month, and then see if this is as big a breakthrough for granular sounds as Steinberg says. But I think it’s worth an early look, nonetheless – if for no other reason than hearing this nice explanation.

And if I get one great pad for a track out of this, count me in. Time to stock up on some Fritz-Kola, in Hamburg’s honor.

Steinberg this month released a line of control surfaces that the company describes as “modular” and “ultra-portable.” The idea is this: rather than built a monster control surface to try to squeeze in everything (Akai’s APC40 comes to mind), they have little control surfaces you can combine for exactly what you need (Korg’s nano series, while at the lower end, comes to mind).

The CMC line looks like it does just that, and I have to say, it’s just about the best-looking control surfaces I’ve seen apart from the higher-end (and less portable) Euphonix series now sold by Avid. This could be the first hardware from Steinberg that gets people excited.

Sleek, stylish, and white, favoring touch strips over lots of faders, and lit with colored lights… I recall the line by Arthur Dent from Douglas Adams’ The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Instead of rather drab-looking faders and music control surfaces:

“This is my idea of a spaceship! All gleaming white, flashing lights, everything. What happens if I press this button?”

What, indeed:

• CMC-CH “Channel controller”: 16 buttons + one rotary + one touch fader – that is, a channel strip
• CMC-FD “Fader controller”: Four touch faders + LED metering + solo/mute
• CMC-QC “Quick controller”: 13 buttons, 8 rotaries, and “EQ, Quick Control, and MIDI” modes – clever, in that you get EQ or macro controls in Cubase
• CMC-PD “Pad controller”: 16 pad, one rotary, for all your finger drumming needs (will be curious to see how much this lives up to the “highly responsive” claim)
• CMC-TP “Transport controller”: 17 buttons + touch slider for jog/shuttle
• CMC-AI “AI Knob”: highlights the “universal knob” macro function in Steinberg’s software for mousing over a control, then grabbing a knob, and searching and selecting presets.

They’re USB bus-powered, use touch controllers Steinberg describes as “high-resolution,” and in true modular fashion even have joint plates for the connections. And yes, they’re designed to go with Steinberg’s bigger CC121 controller, though I think many people will bite on these little devices who ignored the bigger predecessor.

There’s also a set of frames that house the CMC modules or extension units. Not available: coffee table and chair system. You’ll have to work that out for yourself. The frames are almost the same price as the units, so I’m guessing most of y’all will do without them, but bonus points for design.

Now, clearly, visually and interactively, these are designed to go with Cubase and Nuendo, and a couple of the units really make the most sense with those two tools. (You’ll need the full, latest versions of that software to take advantage of all the features.) But being generally uncomfortable with the idea of buying hardware to go with one piece of software, I’m encouraged by the MIDI possibilities here – particularly with transports that could work with video editors or pads and faders that’d be nice when you take your Cubase-created stems into a DJ set with Ableton Live and so forth.

Stefan Trowbridge of Steinberg tells CDM that these will require separate drivers (compatible with Mac and Windows), but will ship on the CMC-PD and CMC-QC with editor software that will assign MIDI messages to the buttons and knobs.

They’re also designed to “fit in your pocket.” To me, that would have to mean you’re either eight feet tall, or wearing lederhosen, which I generally understand to be out of style in Germany. (Hey, I had a pair as a kid growing up in German-American Louisville, Kentucky. I’m sure we could design a more futuristic version. The kilt made a comeback.)

But they do look pretty portable. Messenger bag, Steinberg, not pockets, okay?

EUR129-199 each, including VAT, so I expect a reasonably low street price back in North America.

CDM bonus completely trivial observation! People who went to Columbia University in New York City for electronic music will find this acronym amusing! (It’s the name of their Computer Music Center.) I didn’t, but it’s just one of the Many Trivial Things I Know!

CMC Series @ Steinberg

Let’s look at more pictures!

Achievement unlocked: You’ve scrolled through all those pictures!

Sampler? Synth? Workstation? Or just big bucket of sound? There are some impressive rabbit holes for sound designers out there, and Steinberg’s offering just got a big refresh.

While looking at the latest flagship from a music hardware giant (Roland’s Jupiter-80), it’s revealing to compare the software side of the fence. Computer software instruments may not be directly equivalent to all-in-one keyboards, but they do each embody the latest thinking in how to build expressive instruments and new sounds. German maker Steinberg is at home at this week’s giant Messe trade show, and they’ve taken the wraps off the upcoming landmark release of their own flagship synthesizer sampler workstation. It does … a lot.

HALion is really two instruments combined, both a virtual analog synthesizer and a sampler and sample playback workstation. The new version has dockable, movable, and resizable windows, function tabs, and screen sets – UI features generally associated with hosts, but necessary here to navigate HALion’s complex interface. There’s even a full-blown mixer desk inside.

The big change, though, is an expected one, bringing HALion in line with Steinberg’s latest ideas on what to do with VST plug-ins and sequencing. I looked at these features in my preview of Cubase 6′s note-by-note expression editing and VST 3.5. New features for adding expression to individual musical notes and sequences require updates to the associated plug-in software and sound content, so that’s where HALion comes in. Put the two together, and you have a better way of coupling stored sequence information with musical-style expression, whether modeling real instruments or storing transformations of sound parameters with synth sounds. The idea is to give sequenced music the same sorts of information about how sounds change across a note that a musical score might.

With or without those features, HALion 4 is full of sound design tools:

• A mixing engine with unlimited buses per program and layer and free routing – think DAW-like mixing inside each sound patch. Then route those to 32 stereo output channels or 6-channel surround. (Ow! My head!)
• Some 44 effect processors – this is before you drop HALion inside a DAW and add effects – including convolution reverbs, studio EQs, rotary cabinet emulation, morphing filters.
• Internal phrase arpeggiator.
• A new version of MegaTrig, which allows you to create series of conditions for triggers – basically, a graphical interface in place of the textual scripting in tools like rival sampler Kontakt.
• “Quick Controls” for mapping parameters to macro knobs, as we’ve seen in … well, many places. Your brain can keep track of 8 things more easily than it can 80.
• 15 GB of sound content.
• 32-bit and 64-bit versions for both Windows 7 and Mac OS X 10.6.

More images (click any of these for larger versions), all courtesy Steinberg:

And all of this costs you EUR349/GBP295, including VAT. US$329.99 retail in the US. (It’s cheaper because we’re less tax-y, folks.)

And that’s, really, kind of ridiculously cheap for a synth, a sampler, a mixer, a sound design toolset, and gigs of sounds, if you think about it. Lots more HALion here:
http://www.steinberg.net/en/products/vst/preview_halion_4.htm

Updated: Here’s a photo of MegaTrig – think Kontakt’s KSP scripting environment as a GUI. Which is more powerful? We’ll find out when HALion ships.

Users of Cubase seem to be a kind of silent majority. Web data suggests this may be the most popular DAW on the planet, thanks to Windows and Mac support, over 25 years in the business, and the absence of any particular hardware requirements. But the Cubase users I know, while fiercely loyal, just aren’t as evangelical about their choice. “Oh, yeah, I use Cubase.”

One basic problem is that Digital Audio Workstations have been locked for years in leapfrog-style, me-too feature battles. These mature, do-everything, kitchen-sink products add tweaks that evidently matter to their users but are hard to make exciting for anyone else. Digital Music Doctor, echoed by Synthtopia, went so far as to ask if the DAW was dead. Some might wish as much, but I doubt it. DAWs in the last decade were engaged in feature-for-feature competition, but the same was true in the 90s and even, particularly on the Atari ST, in the 80s. Perhaps fueled by an overabundance of smart audio programmers, certainly by the inexhaustible potential of music’s complexities, we’ll never reach the DAW singularity.

Case in point: Cubase 6. There are new features here, but they could only be termed, as Steinberg PR does, “new and revolutionary” if you hadn’t seen nearly-identical features crop up in rivals like Apple’s Logic and Cakewalk’s SONAR. You get automagical features by which audio drum recordings are supposed to be as easy to edit as MIDI, new comping that’s supposed to save you time, and countless “workflow” enhancements. In the never-ending quest to attract more guitarists to music production, you get some built-in amp models and stompbox effects. There’s a tiered set of offerings allowing different features at different prices (here reduced, at last, to two basic choices, a EUR600 full edition or slimmed-down EUR300 “artist” version).

In fact, I’m tempted to copy and paste ad copy from recent updates to some of Cubase’s competitors and see if you can tell the difference.

The reason the DAW isn’t dead – or even this number of DAWs – is that I suspect a lot of these features do work pretty well. And while they look the same on paper, in practice, using Cubase, Logic, or SONAR doesn’t feel quite the same. Music producers are so loyal because they are tuned into those subtleties and naturally creatures of habit, eager to satisfy their creative appetite. So, the cycle of DAW life continues, and the circle is unbroken (so long as something catastrophic doesn’t happen, like Gibson buying Opcode and Studio Vision).

Familiar features, done Steinberg-style

The features, while not unfamiliar in competing DAWs, do look impressive, and they could be good news for Cubase users:

• Enhanced transient and tempo detection for easier, glitch-free drum editing and more musical detection
• Phase-accurate audio quantization and drum replacement. (Actually, a key point here – without phase accuracy, you can create some nasty artifacts quantizing audio.)
• Track edit groups turn comps quickly into tracks. That we’ve seen before, but Cubase does have a nice feature for editing those groups simultaneously.
• A built-in set of guitar effects called VST Amp Rack.
• 64-bit support on both Mac and Windows.
• New time-stretching algorithms. (These seem to crop up in every version upgrade, too.)

Don’t get me wrong – implementation is everything. It’s really impossible to cover a DAW just based on a product announcement. In fact, I think it’s difficult to cover a DAW without spending some weeks in production actually using it, even in terms of an upgrade, which is part of why it’s hard to write DAW reviews.

To Steinberg’s credit, in the promo video included here, they do make an effort to contextualize these features in an actual recording session. While comping is unquestionably terrific, I’m not entirely convinced everyone wants to quantize audio drum recordings. But otherwise, these are fair points, and you can bet the reason these features show up in so many DAWs is in part because users ask for them. User needs are complex, challenging, but also very often similar. DAW developers have little time to analyze their competitors, so I don’t think copying features is commonplace. More likely, users keep asking for the same things.

LoopMash, now fleshed-out and performance-ready

Now we know Cubase has features similar to its competitors, and why that might be, there are additions in Cubase 6 that are unique.

One feature I’d even go as far as calling “weird,” and that’s Cubase’s LoopMash. It’s a really unusual approach to loop editing and slicing. Slicing and looping and new file drop and such isn’t new in and of itself, but Steinberg’s interface is genuinely different. Performance controls mean you really could use LoopMash in a performance for stuttering, sliced-up loop triggering. “Hey, what were you using? Was that Ableton?” “No, that was LoopMash in Cubase 6.” “What? I couldn’t hear you. I’m going to get a vodka and Red Bull.”

Seriously, if anyone does try using LoopMash, I’d love to hear about it. Ableton Live is a great product, but having every laptop musician on the planet use the same software is boring.

A revolution in MIDI editing?

Buried among these other features, though, is a new approach to editing notes. It’s called VST Expression 2 and Note Expression. Normally, in MIDI editing, you have a lane of note events and then a separate lane of controller data that determines how those notes are played. The issue with this is that it’s more in line with how a synthesizer works than how anyone thinks musically. In fact, if the two lanes get out of sync, you can easily wind up with a pitch bend happening in the middle of a note instead of the beginning, or the wrong note.

The basic notion of Note Expression is to make expression happen on a note-per-note basis. Cubase even has a nice interface by which you can click a note and edit the controller data for just that note.

Aside from making editing easier, this is really a big deal as far as how Cubase’s editing interface interacts with samples libraries and scores. (That, in turn, may explain why Hans Zimmer is quoted as being so excited on the Steinberg website.) In the old MIDI editing paradigm, you wind up having to do some complex acrobatics in order to get extensive sample libraries to behave the way you want. With some help from VST 3.5 and VST Expression 2, this note-by-note editing can be extended to making MIDI events in the sequencer work better with those big choral and orchestral sample libraries.

Scoring should also be vastly easier, since notation also assumes note-by-note expressions of various kinds. In the past, translating a MIDI sequence to a score has required thinking in two different ways; this helps change that. Accordingly, Steinberg has also added a “Dynamics Lane” so that you can see dynamics (forte!) alongside your MIDI events while sequencing.

Not all composers really want to work this way with scores, period, but for those who do, Cubase 6 is a big advancement.

The question I have is whether this new-fangled editing approach will take place outside of Steinberg. The narration in their promo video attempts to answer this:

“The only limitation is your imagination. Well, that and you do need a VST-compatible instrument. But remember, we invented VST, so we’ve got you covered.”

Actually, the problem is just that – Steinberg invented VST. It’s a de facto standard, one controlled entirely by one developer. It competes with other standards (AU, Avid’s TDM and RTAS, and Linux’s rising star LV2). Third-party VST developers often don’t invest in the latest plug-in standards, especially because other VST hosts that aren’t Cubase often don’t support them. (Cue ranting developers here with more reasons they don’t like VST.) And we’re still communicating with plug-ins not only with VST, but with another de facto standard, albeit one with the input of more than one vendor, MIDI. Phew.

So, “we’ve got you covered” can either mean that Steinberg makes this easy for other vendors to adopt, or that it instead becomes their way of driving more sample library business to their HALion sampler engine and not competitors like Kontakt.

Whether it’s “revolutionary” or not, though, it is a truly new idea in editing. And as should be plainly obvious by now, new ideas in MIDI editing – for better or for worse – don’t come alone that often. So I do look forward to seeing more of this editing concept. It is news, after all.

And I hope some of my Cubase-using friends stop being so silent, and tell us how this all works in practice as they get Cubase 6 in-hand in the near future. Since the DAW isn’t dead, I’ll wager that will be useful information. What would happen if we got past the marketing descriptions and really learned from users? That might well be revolutionary.

All photos courtesy Steinberg.

Cubase 6: What’s new [Steinberg]

Let’s get this out of the way right at the beginning: dedicated audio editors are important. For sound design, for tweaking audio assets, and for just getting close to your sounds, editing waveforms in a DAW often doesn’t cut it.

That’s made a lot of Mac users unhappy, because it’s one of the few areas where the Mac platform lags seriously behind Windows in available choice. Windows users have been spoiled by choices like Sound Forge (now Sony), Adobe Audition, and Steinberg WaveLab, all three excellent editors that are functional and fast to work with. The Mac, meanwhile, has been all about BIAS Peak. And Peak has been divisive: some users love it, but others want an alternative. Possible choices like Adobe Soundbooth and Apple Soundtrack Pro, while useful in their own workflows, haven’t caught on with audio editors. (One notable “underground” choice is the favorite of many CDM readers – Audiofile Engineering’s Wave Editor – a smaller name, but I doubt WaveLab will shake the loyalty of its devoted users.) Clarification: okay, it depends on who you ask. See comments for some intelligent debate of my thesis here – yes, there are many options, including DSP Quattro and some lightweight choices like Amadeus. So, perhaps the real issue is Windows users migrating to the Mac (or cross-platform users with favored Windows editors) who don’t find something with which they’re comfortable. And yes, whether you really need a dedicated editor is all about how you work with assets – see comments.

Steinberg bringing WaveLab to the Mac is already turning a few heads, particularly among recent PC-to-Mac converts. (Even on Windows, with Adobe Audition having fallen behind, WaveLab may gain some ground.)

Don’t think it’s big news? Have a look at recent Facebook and Twitter activity and other chatter over the announcement. Amongst the elite sound design lovers, WaveLab is the news of the week. That’s a small group of people (as any of the developers of these apps will readily tell you), but they also have a big impact on the sound of media today.

The reworked interface still has a last-generation feel, but on the other hand, it’s functionality over form that defines this category. I’m still waiting to see some more material details, but Steinberg at least has a preview of what’s new in 7. Wading through their PR materials, I translate that to include:

• A new workspace UI built around dockable, scalable multiple windows and customizable toolbar. (I hate toolbars, so I may customize it by … turning it off. To each their own, though.)
• “Ground-up” re-engineering effort to support cross-platform Mac and Windows code (based on past experience, that may benefit the engineering on the Windows side, too)
• New VST3 restoration tools developed by Sonnox, including DeNoizer, DeBuzzer, DeClicker, and plug-ins gathered from Steinberg’s pro audio line, including the Nuendo Post Filter.
• New CD and DVD-A burning engine.

The inclusion of mastering and burning materials really puts this right opposite Peak – and for those of you who didn’t even bother with Peak, could fill in some key gaps in suites like Logic Studio (in case you aren’t a fan of Apple’s editor and burning tools).

I’m not a WaveLab user, though it’s always been a program I respected from a distance. So if you are an old-hat WaveLab lover, do get in touch; we may need to you to review the new release when it ships.

WaveLab 7 preview at Steinberg

Steinberg announced today that their Cubase iC controller app for iPhone and iPod touch is now available. If you’re a Cubase 5 user, this app gives you loads of control over your set wirelessly. It looks great, even if you have an existing controller – it’s just like having an extra, more pocket-able remote control. Control features:

• Position: Check out the clever position displays and feedback
• Transport: You can jump to markers, toggle the metronome and precount and cycle, and punch in recording.
• Arranger: Turn arranger on and off, play, and jump within an arrangement. You even get interactive buttons with labels for arrangement points, as pictured below.

If you’re a Cubase user, go enjoy:

Cubase iC

If not, I know what you’re thinking – how can I do stuff like this with other software?

OSC

Of course, imagine if we had a universal, networkable communications protocol that was open enough to adapt to whatever music software might do? You could use messages labeled with functions (like cubase/arrange/stop in this case) and easily communicate between any of your devices.

Yep: we’ve got that already. It’s called OpenSoundControl. Unfortunately, many developers seem to think it requires specialized hardware (not true), or simply don’t understand what it’s for and how to implement it. Hopefully we can work to correct some of those misconceptions over the coming months.

There are, of course, lots of great OSC apps for iPhone like OSCemote, TouchOSC, and MrMr. And that means, vendors, there’s a now 30-million+ installed user based on this device alone. Think about it, won’t you?

Mackie Control

While we wait for the Coming of OSC, a decent function in the meantime is Mackie Control Universal, which maps standard functions to MIDI messages. iTouchMIDI (iTM) MCU, seen here in the fall, implements the protocol for iPhone. You do need an app at the other end for Mac or (recently added) Windows. But you get some decent functions. It’s a bit Ableton Live-centric, as you can see from the Scene, Clip, Loop, and Back to Arrangement buttons. But the faders and transport should still work with other tools, like Reason, Logic, Tracktion, and Reaper. (In fact, with Reaper’s custom controller layouts, you might be able to put those specialized Live buttons to use, with the right scripts – I’ll have to try that.)

iTouchMIDI MCU

If you put any of these solutions to work in your studio or on the road, we’d love to hear about it!

Touchscreens are often compared to the ground-breaking – if imaginary – designs of Star Trek: The Next Generation. But Brazilian Paulo Egidio Silva must be a real Trekker. His elaborate touchscreen panel configuration really looks like the LCARS
computer system simulated on the TV show.

Of course, that isn’t to say this isn’t a practical system. By making extensive use of the MIDI SDK for Cubase, the Dragon MIDI rig controls every element of a Cubase session, from mixing to routing to adjusting plug-in parameters. It actually has three elements:

1. A multi-screen touchscreen for selecting mix and send settings and changing routings
2. A conventional motorized control surface (the Yamaha 01V96) for mixing on real faders
3. A hybrid of screen and physical gear, by which plug-in instruments get both an interactive screen and physical encoders

If Geordi LaForge happens to be your mix engineer, you’ll be ready. Here’s my understanding of how it breaks down. (I couldn’t find additional documentation beyond the video, so Paulo, if you’re out there, we’d love to hear from you!)

Touchscreen Panel: 16-strip mixer, controlling up to 128 tracks. The idea is to use the motorized mixer for physical mixer control, but jump between and record-arm tracks, sends, and the like using the touchscreen.

Virtual patch points: An additional screen provides sends and buses and a virtual patch bay for connecting them.

Panning: A graphical display lets you select pan position – apparently stereo only for now, but surround would be an obvious application.

Windows, shortcuts, zoom, etc.: Button shortcuts along the side of the screen and zoom encoders let you easily navigate your set and zoom around.

Screen with actual physical controllers: Plug-in parameters are mapped to a screen that has physical controllers on it. You see the parameters and position on the screen, but you actually tweak a real encoder. Look about four minutes into the video — the effect is really striking.

Special Liquid Mix shortcuts: The appeal of Focusrite’s Liquid Mix is virtualizing beloved vintage gear. But these guys take it quite a few steps further, with shortcut screens decorated with photos of the real gear.

A big thanks to Primus Luta (via Twitter) for finding this!

As seen on the SOUND ON SOUND forums.

Side note: just to illustrate how incredible the fake computer displays on the 1980s Star Trek series were, the “touch displays” were originally just backlit Plexiglass. And I think that, in turn, illustrates the value of doing design in the physical world before the virtual one – if they hadn’t had to work as real-world lighting displays before being translated to virtual animations, they might not have been as distinctive. Michael Okuda, the LCARS designer, likely had no idea he would influence later thinking about how real, functional touchscreens could work.

Update: Interview, specs, photos on Paulo’s studio (translated from Portuguese)

The big traditional DAW announcement at this NAMM show was Steinberg’s Cubase 5. Cubase as a music software brand is now older than some people who read this blog, but never mind: Cubase 5 certainly doesn’t want for new stuff. And Cubase still claims to be the world’s most popular computer DAW.

Computer Music Magazine has the best coverage I saw of the new release (admittedly, I think Cubase is bigger on their side of the pond than it is here in the US):

Computer Music’s first look at Cubase RC for iPhone

Computer Music on Steinberg Cubase 5

The iPhone app, Cubase RC, is just the sort of thing I expected other developers to do, though they didn’t. It offers basic remote control functionality and even triggers arrangements, both of which ought to be pretty useful, since you can sit an iPhone or iPod touch next to / atop whatever you’re controlling or recording. And major kudos to Steinberg for making this free rather than trying to squeeze extra cash out of it.

So, what do you get out of Cubase 5 itself? Just about every area of the program has seen improvement, with the major selling points being optimized performance, vocal editing, and new beat creation tools.

There are some good bits here, but – realizing I’m biased as I’ve never been a big Cubase user – I can’t help but notice they’re lagging behind some of their competitors with some of the items. I was always impressed with the basic editing environment in Cubase, and the way it handles MIDI and soft synths. My disappointment here is that, while there are some nice-looking performance and workflow tweaks, much of the functionality comes in the form of add-ons. That means Cubase has to compete with similar efforts by other tools and (particularly) plug-ins. If you’re using Cubase, this may be great news, but if not, I just wonder if it’s capable of even inspiring an twinge of envy from anyone else. (And, hey, while you can’t convert all other users, it is nice to at least make them a bit jealous.)

The good: optimized performance for existing users, some nice monophonic vocal editing integrated with the program, and an innovative, really musical way of dealing with expressions for instruments.

Less impressive: Tacked-on features for mixing grooves I suspect a lot of loyal Cubase users may simply ignore.

I’m happy to be frank over this just to see if people generally agree or disagree – particularly Cubase users. This is all basically on paper, as well, so if there is a loyal Cubase user who wants to review these features when available, we’d love to hear from you. Here’s my (slightly uneducated) take:

Vocal editing is a big push, in the form of integrated vocal editing and pitch alteration and a pitch correction plug-in. The competition: Celemony just unveiled their incredible Melodyne editor. Cubase works with monophonic vocals, but Melodyne can do other instruments, even polyphonic lines on a single instrument. Still, Steinberg’s offering looks as though it may be more impressive than what comes bundled in other DAWs, and Melodyne is impressive enough that it makes me believe integration in DAWs is the future. (It’s too bad Steinberg couldn’t just license Melodyne for use in Cubase, however.)

Beat creation is the other story, though oddly it’s spread between three included instruments. They’re supposed to work with each other, but they seem to take slightly different approaches, and they’re not fully integrated with the host. The most interesting of the three is something called LoopMash. The idea: mix up different loop lines, intelligently analyzed and sliced up, as an instrument. Aside from that, you get a more conventional (and possibly more widely useful) step sequencer / pattern editor and drum sampler. The competition: Drum racks in Live, built-in tools in software like FL Studio, trackers like Renoise, plus the likes of fxpansion GURU,Spectrasonics Stylus RMX, Digidesign Transfuser, and the upcoming Native Instruments Maschine and MOTU’s new bpm.

Other features:

• Better performance: Version 5 has been rebuilt on the Cocoa framework on Mac, adds WASAPI and low-latency support on Vista, and 64-bit support. Of course, Steinberg is at a disadvantage as a cross-platform entrant here: Apple and MOTU have led on native support for the Mac, as Cakewalk has on Windows (with this very features). It certainly will be welcome to existing Cubase users, and interestingly lays the groundwork for a future, 64-bit Cubase on Mac and not just 64-bit Windows.
• VST Expression for scoring: This one’s more unique – Cubase adds sophisticated instrumental articulations to the Score and Key Editors in Cubase. For people working on better mock-ups of orchestral scores or composing for sophisticated sample libraries, that should be great. The problem is, Pro Tools just added the entire Sibelius notation engine to their editor – so you may have to choose between either easier instrumental editing in Cubase or (arguably) more robust notation in Pro Tools.
• A convolution reverb: You know, like the ones that have been sitting in SONAR, DP, and Logic Studio (for years, in the case of Logic). Nice to have, I’m sure, but not really news.
• A drum sampling device: Would likewise be big news if people didn’t already have their choice of plug-ins, or built-in features like Ableton Live’s Drum Racks or a nearly identical-looking plug-in that ships with SONAR 8.
• A virtual MIDI keyboard. You’ve got to be kidding me – Cubase didn’t have this before? It’s in GarageBand, for crying out loud. Couldn’t there have been something more distinctive about Steinberg’s implementation?

If you like Cubase, I’d imagine the performance improvements alone could be reason to upgrade. But if you like Cubase, wouldn’t you want more tight integration of new functionality, rather than just features as add-ons? (VST Expression being one notable exception, and I am curious how people use that. To me, it’s actually the most compelling feature in the new release, as I can’t think of any direct equivalent elsewhere.)

I write frankly on this blog to trigger discussion and learn something, so I’m happy to hear what you think – including friendly disagreement.

From Steinberg:

Watch the press conference

iPhone Controller Announcement

New Cubase 5 Features

Cubase 4.5 is here, with CC121 controller and MR816 audio I/O hardware integration, some new sample content, and a mysterious new “media management” format called VST Sound. It is nice to see the hardware/software integration we’ve been clamoring for. But will developers actually start supporting VST Sound and VST3? Will I manage to find a way to get excited about Cubase? We can only wonder… and it’s time for some Steinberg advocates to speak up.

Cubase 4.5 was released last week as a free update for 4.x users. The main story is that it integrates with the CC121 hardware controller. You may recall the CC121 as the hardware controller I just didn’t get, because it requires mousing over the parameter you want to control so you can tweak it with the hardware knob. Well, now here’s a rather lame marketing video from Steinberg, which doesn’t help. (Video via AudioPorn Central. Not sure why companies insist on making things like this, but they do.)

Help! Our band is caught in THX 1138! Hint to Steinberg: this is what a marketing video should look like. Okay, maybe you didn’t want to dump paint on your CC121.

Lest Steinberg think I’m just picking on them, I guess I feel this way: if I have a control surface, I’d want it to do more. Control over a single parameter is something you already get with the mouse (and here, you have to point with the mouse to get control with the knob anyway). Conversely, the mouse + knob arrangement might work, but then I’d want the controller to be much smaller, so I could do my knob tweaking with one hand and mousing with another. Then again, I find a given piece of gear probably makes sense to someone, somewhere, so if you’re that someone, do speak up.

Computer Music magazine unboxes one of these units. CM also talks to the creators about their prototyping process.

The Yamaha FireWire interface has onboard DSP-based reverb and channel strip, though we’ve seen that idea of combining a little DSP with audio interfaces from others (like Focusrite, TC Electronic). What’s really peculiar here is that Cubase, the most iconic native DAW, is here touting integration with hardware DSP for effects — normally Pro Tools’ bag. I don’t think that a single reverb and channel strip plug-in is really going to impress anyone, and it’s not clear why else we need “integration” with an audio interface, given how well everything else works. The whole appeal of systems like Cubase, and its competitors Logic, Live, SONAR, and the rest, is the ability to use whatever plug-ins and hardware you like. So it seems Steinberg is getting a bit off message here — but then, maybe it’s just about selling you some extra gear, which I suppose is fine.

Also in Cubase 4.5 — and perhaps more important to Cubase users if you’re as lukewarm on the CC121 as I am:

• 1.6GB of content, including Yamaha’s S90ES Grand, Sonic Reality instrument, Big Fish audio loops
• More VST3 support, with support for VSTsound, which appears to be a media metadata/management standard for VST
• Sequel 2 compatibility (Steinberg’s entry-level GarageBand killer for Mac and Windows)

If you missed 4.1, that was actually arguably a bigger update, with VST3 sidechaining (’bout time), global transpose track, music XML support (the interchange format for notation software), and free routing.

I have to admit a bias: Cubase is one of those things I could never get excited about. Music tools are personal, and some just don’t hit you on the right wavelength; Cubase is one of those for me, and the fact that most of the circle of people I know feel the same way means I don’t really have anyone else to explain to me what the appeal is. If you’re out there, let us know; heck, you’re welcome to a Cubase Column for CDM if you like. But anyone who’s telling you they can appreciate all DAWs equally is probably lying.

Things are worse these days, as what we hear from a lot of readers is that newer, more lightweight hosts like Reaper can easily steal Cubase’s thunder in people’s actual work.

The one element of this that does seem to have some potential is the idea of embedding metadata and media management into VST. That’s a bit like what NI has done with its KoreSound format, but with the potential to appeal to all VST developers and not just NI and their soundware providers. The only problem is, I haven’t seen much support for VST3, and I couldn’t even find documentation of what VST Sound is on Steinberg’s developer site. If Steinberg wants anyone to adopt this, they need to dramatically improve developer relations and go out and actually communicate and evangelize this stuff. Developers, if you’ve managed to sort out what this is or plan to use it, let us know.

But that’s not the only odd thing about the CC 121. There’s a little light that goes on to say it’s “Cubase Ready.” (The marketing materials say this gives it “instant plug and play.” I’m not entirely sure why you need an LED for that, but I guess it’s comforting or something.) Then there’s the control layout, which has so much blank space that it looks a little like someone dropped a stack of encoders and buttons on a piece of paper and glued everything where it fell.

But the oddest thing about the CC 121 is the controller choices themselves. The whole point of previous single-fader control surfaces — at least, so I thought — was creating a compact device that can sit by your mouse. The point of the CC 121 seems to be, well, EQ. There are a full twelve dedicated EQ encoders. For everything else, there’s … uh … one knob. (It’s the one that says “VALUE” on the right side.) It is supposed to be a really smart knob, at least. Here’s how Steinberg describes it:

“Ultra-precision Advanced Integration controller knob with ‘point and control’ support: controls any visual Cubase 4 parameter, internal FX setting or VSTi parameter using mouse pointer selection”

Translation: you can click on any setting in Cubase and control it with our encoder, one setting at a time. Want to control more than one setting at a time? Say, delay time and wet/dry mix? Sorry. There are four buttons so you can change the function of the one value knob, but not the obvious solution of having any more than one knob. I know what you’re thinking. There’s blank space all over this unit, so why couldn’t you just have four “Advanced Integration Controller Knobs”? I think I have the answer: if you did that, you wouldn’t have room for the “Cubase Ready” light.

You may think I’m just using this opportunity to beat up on Steinberg and be snarky, but I’m not.

The Magic of Third Parties and Broad Compatibility

No, on the contrary, this illustrates something I’ve suspected for a long time. Just as most screenwriters shouldn’t direct their own films, software developers shouldn’t necessarily make hardware controllers for their own software. Sometimes the magic works; sometimes it doesn’t. Either way, having choices beyond those the software vendor chose is a good thing. Third-party hardware can work with more than one app (in case you ever use something other than Cubase), it can provide more choices (in case your needs are different than someone else), and it provides the much-needed perspective beyond the folks who built the software. You may not get the brand name of your DAW on the unit, but smart software can still make the out-of-box experience just as integrated. That doesn’t mean I think the software vendors shouldn’t try — as Alan Kay is often attributed as saying, “People who are really serious about software should make their own hardware.” But, even assuming he did actually say that, and assuming we should all listen to him, he didn’t say that you had to make that hardware for your own software, or that you’d be successful all of the time.

Someone out there I’m sure really, really loves tweaking EQ. Congratulations: the CC 121 is for you. For everyone else, you have not one but four excellent choices: Novation’s SL line, Frontier’s AlphaTrack and TranzPort, and PreSonus’ FaderPort. They all integrate fairly automatically with Cubase (even older versions which are incompatible with the CC 121), and give you lots of control. And that’s just compact control surfaces.

Not only that, but Novation, Frontier, and PreSonus all make hardware that works with other stuff not from Steinberg. The AlphaTrack, for instance, just added extensive support for GarageBand 4 (adding to a long list of other supported software), plus software you probably haven’t even heard of — SAWStudio by RML Labs and MultitrackStudio from Bremmers Audio Design. SAWStudio support didn’t grab the Messe headlines the way a Steinberg control surface did, but I’ll bet if you’re a SAWStudio user, you’re really excited. And that’s the point: we choose our software personally, so we should choose our hardware the same way.

Here’s a quick review of the other compact control surfaces available — not only for Cubase, but a lot of other software, as well:

The PreSonus FaderPort does a lot less than the new Steinberg piece — but it also takes up a fraction of the space, meaning you could put this right by your mouse and keyboard and put a full-sized control surface somewhere else if you like. And it has a dedicated punch button, which it looks like the Steinberg unit may actually lack. (I hope I’m wrong about that.)

Works with: Cubase SX 3 / Nuendo 2, SONAR 5, DP 4, Pro Tools 6, Logic Pro 7/8, Logic Express 7 and later versions of each of those. (So, ironically, if you’re a Cubase user who hasn’t upgraded from version 3, you want this instead of the Steinberg-branded unit.)

The Frontier AlphaTrack is currently my favorite one-fader piece, for three simple reasons: it’s got knobs and a ribbon for more control, it has a screen so you can see what you’re doing, and it works with Ableton Live. That easily makes it worth sacrificing some additional space to me. Meanwhile, while you can click stuff and control it with the Steinberg unit, the Frontier has dedicated buttons for its EQ, plug-in modes, and so on, so you don’t have to click at all.

Frontier also makes a wireless unit called the Tranzport — no fader, but jog, shuttle, and key record buttons, plus a screen. It works with a huge array of software (even FL Studio), and since it’s wireless can be ideal for using when you’re recording.

Works with: Audition, Logic, Cubase, DP, Live, Final Cut, Guitar Tracks Pro, Nuendo, Pro Tools, REAPER, Reason, SONAR, Soundtrack Pro, Tracktion, GarageBand, and now SAWStudio and MultitrackStudio, and maybe more by the time you’re reading this.

It’s got quite a lot more than one fader, but the ReMOTE ZeRO SL (and the rest of the SL line) is worth a mention here, because a) it’s relatively compact (if bigger than the other options here) and b) it can automatically map to software parameters and plug-ins in the software. Like the Frontier, there’s a screen, which means you can use this without being glued to your computer monitor — or, via a new update, you can get even oversized screen feedback that you don’t have to squint at. It lacks a jog wheel, and the faders aren’t motorized and have a throw that’s too short for extended use. But for plug-in tweaking, it wins handily — and aren’t a lot of Cubase users VST nuts, anyway? (As I was saying, the point isn’t One Control Surface To Rule Them All, it’s One Control Surface That Fits You.)

Works with: Via Automap Universal, Pro Tools, Logic, DP, Ableton — and, yes, Cubase and Nuendo

What Will You Use?

With all of those choices, you can see one reason why you might get the Steinberg unit when it comes out: the jog wheel is nice. But you have a much broader array of choices. Heck, if you really like that Steinberg logo, print it out and tape it to your unit of choice.

Are you a Cubase user? Is the CC 121 what you want? What are you using to control your DAW of choice? Let us know in comments.