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.

Ever since Apple’s Logic Pro bundled a huge library of synthesizers and effects into a DAW, its competitors have been gradually adding more instruments and sound processors. Even without Logic, the step is a pretty obvious one: there are only so many DAW features you can add from year to year to try to compel people to upgrade, so bundling extra sound toys is the other alternative.

Cubase SX4 hasn’t been officially announced, but while I was vacationing this weekend some SX4 screenshots were leaked online. Music thing has the story with convenient links to the images. Tom says the knobs look like Ableton, because he sees some two-dimensional knobs. (Here’s a tip: those knobs look more like Max/MSP, which in turn may have inspired Ableton to opt for 2D controls.)

Mostly, though, SX4 looks inspired by Logic Pro. Internal audio mixing is remiscent of Logic’s Environment, though it may be easier to use. The interface for Prologue looks just like the ES2 to me, and the visual style resembles instruments like Sculpture, sometimes approaching a direct rip-off. (Then again, sometimes software looks alike because UI services are outsourced to third parties; I don’t know whether that’s happened here or not.) The synthesizers themselves look interesting, with some spectral processing and synthesis options. I don’t imagine it’ll make you switch to SX4, but it could keep Cubase loyalists from switching to something else.

It’s just a glimpse, of course — it’s funny watching Cubase users pre-judge the entire SX4 upgrade based on some leaked, unofficial screen shots. I’d say take them as a small taste, and wait for the official stuff. Don’t expect the competition to stay still, either; aside from the imminent Ableton Live 6, I would expect Logic Pro to get a large update some time soon. Stay tuned.

Novation’s SL series seeks to finally liberate us from manually assigning MIDI controllers to software, by automatically assigning its generous set of controls and displaying parameters on a lovely high-contrast onboard display. It could be just the thing for laptop-based performers, but a lot of us already have more keyboards than we need.

If it’s just more control you want, the ZeRO SL, announced today, might appeal. It has the LED displays, transport controls, faders, knobs, rotary encoders, and trigger pads from the SL series, but it’s ultra-compact — no keyboard attached. That means it fits nicely by your computer, as pictured here, or serves as a controller for your favorite MIDI keyboard. (Apparently there’s a stand included for angling it up — sounds brilliant, and why don’t other makers do that?) The lack of X/Y pad might seem an obstacle at first, but that keeps the size small and focuses the hardware on the basic controls.

The only potential issue here might be the price: GBP229 may make would-be ZeRO customers simply opt for a Novation keyboard with the same features. That said, Novation’s build quality is first-rate, and for those of us with limited space, ZeRO looks appealing. Novation promises shipment this month or next, so keep your eye out for street prices.

I’m also personally interested to see how the SL series might compliment the KORE from Native, since the SL supports the built-in instruments, effects, and mixing capabilities of Cubase, Nuendo, Reason, Live, and Logic, filling in where the KORE leaves off. More on that soon.

Novation Music

Okay, I’m behind on Steinberg. But the summer lineup from them is just making me yawn, I’m afraid:

Steinberg Studio Case II: Status: just announced. US$299, Windows/Mac September, watered-down versions of everything Steinberg makes. For entry level users, this could be a decent deal: Reason, by comparison, costs $450 and has a lousy sequencer and no audio recording. Ableton Live costs around $400 and doesn’t have as many instruments. But there’s nothing here to write home about: stripped-down versions of everything? Spend the extra couple of hundred bucks and get what you really need.

HALion String Edition: Status: just started shipping. This one appeals a little more to the snob in me: 9 GB, nothing but strings. Haven’t heard it yet, but it sounds like it could be first-rate. Of course, you’ll be missing several sections of the orchestra, but . . . wait . . . that’s kind of a problem, isn’t it? Then again, strings are usually the hardest to sample, so if you need some violins to supplement your existing sample library, maybe this is for you.

The Grand 2: Status: shipped in July. I missed this because I was busy with Native’s new product, Akoustik Piano. The Grand has a strong reputation, but also a lot of competition: aside from Native’s virtual piano, there’s the renowned PMI libraries, cheap offerings from M-Audio, Ivory, and basically a zillion sampled pianos everywhere from Logic to Kontakt to MOTU Mach Five. What’s cool here: key click, pedal and hammer sounds and four-channel surround implementation. Upgrades are just US$99, and the whole thing runs US$299, so it’s bargain priced, and unlike some Steinberg products, it supports VST, DXi and AU (though Digi fans, you’re stuck with ReWire — no TDM/RTAS). Only time will tell: I want to get The Grand and Akoustik Piano and others together and see which sounds best.

Bottom line:

Studio Case II: Diet Steinberg? Ho-hum.

HALion String Edition: Why not a full orchestral edition?

The Grand 2: Verdict reserved until the Akoustik Piano shootout.

Remember when people singing bad covers of rock songs was called karaoke and didn’t involve a national television audience? Oh, for those more innocent times. Now we’re subjected to one musical reality TV show after another. The latest combines The Apprentice and Survivor (same producer), with American Idol; bands compete to be the lead singer of INXS — amusing, because I had no idea that band was still together. (I think they should have gone with Menudo, but what do I know?) And the name, which I can’t say without chuckling: Rock Star:INXS.

Two reasons this is CDM-worthy: first, anyone up for a Web-based electronic music reality show? (I think we should lock a bunch of musicians in a house for 2 months with nothing but a single Atari ST, personally.)

Second, behind-the-scenes this show has some serious music geek cred. Steinberg Nuendo powers all the audio mixes, for sending practice MP3s to the participants and the mixes you can buy on the Website. Music director Paul Mirkovich is a big Nuendo fan and veteran of Cher’s last tour; check out his soft synth arsenal: Steinberg The Grand, NI’s Reaktor, B4, Pro53, Giga Studio libraries through ReWire, Atmosphere, and Steinberg’s D’cota. Paul is obviously a fan of the “Go to Sam Ash and buy everything you see” strategy CDM appreciates so dearly. You’re one of us, Mate.

But wait, there’s more — the dude plays live with the Muse Receptor so he can go live with all the plugins.

Suggestion to networks: in future, cover the real musicians. They’re more interesting.

Want proof that you can’t keep on top of which DAW is best? Updates are now nearly round-the-clock, and point-one updates can bring serious features. Hot on the heels of MOTU’s free 4.6 upgrade to DP, Steinberg has over 50 new features in Cubase SL/SX 3.1, coming as a free download in August. Some of what’s new:

External hardware integration: Updated Studio Connections technology lets you monitor external hardware’s audio as if it were an internal VST. One caveat: this comes out of Steinberg’s ongoing partnership with its now-parent-company Yamaha, so your hardware manufacturer must rhyme with Lamaha.

Freeze; you’re surrounded! Dolby Digital and DTS Encoder support

Processor optimization for the latest multiprocessor Macs and PCs, plus optimization for new AMD and Intel DualCore processors and Hyperthreading (that last feature means you can now make the Kessel Run in . . . oh, never mind.)

“Equal Power” panner

MIDI delay compensation (more hardware integration, remember?), plus “freezing” of MIDI track playback

Got all that? This will have decidedly less mainstream appeal than some of the other updates announced this week, but for some Cubase hardcores and pros, it should come as good news. Of course, this update runs on Mac and PC only — sorry, Atari ST users.