ROAD
TEST
Steinberg Cubase Pro 10.5 Music
Creation Software
By Eric Price
I
t’s that time of the year again where we
get to have a look at the latest Cubase
Pro upgrade. This time around, Steinberg
bumps Cubase 10 Pro up to 10.5 Pro.
Though this update skews heavily towards
small refinements and enhancements, it still
adds many new and worthwhile features.
Features
At the top of my list of new favourites is the
overhauled channel EQ, which now includes
a Spectral Comparison option whereby you
can compare the EQ curves of two different
tracks at the same time. For example, choose a
kick drum and a bass instrument and you can
visually and aurally make sure the two are not
walking over each other’s sonic footprint. The
feature allows you to switch instantly between
the two channels’ EQs for quick tweaking – a
great way to easily help clean up your mixes and
something I made use of straight away.
Under the “cool” heading, we find a new
multi-tap delay. This effect allows for up to eight
separate delay taps! You can then add other
effects to any of the delay taps or to the output
of the entire plug-in. This effect allows you to
get very creative with sound manipulation with
minimal effort and is also on my “thumbs up” list.
Next up is one of the handiest updates, the
new video export option. You can now render
MP4 files with both the video and the audio
combined. This is great for content creators
as you can finally complete your videos with
only one stop! Export allows for H.264 video
compression with 16-bit stereo audio at either
44.1 or 48 kHz. You also have the option of
adding timecode for reference and exporting
only a portion or range of the video.
The VST instrument Padshop, Steinberg’s
granular synthesizer, got an overhaul as
well. The newly-christened Padshop2 takes
some features from Retrologue (mainly the
arpeggiator) and incorporates them into this
retooled VST. Samples can now be dragged-
and-dropped into Padshop2 and then edited
using the synthesizer’s controls. They have also
included 100 new presets for you to work with.
Also, under most requested features,
Steinberg has added more options in the
Import Tracks from Projects menu. They have
also greatly increased the number of track types
you can import, such as Folder tracks, Group
20 C A N A D I A N M U S I C I A N
tracks, and FX tracks. Plus, you can choose
which attributes from a track to import. This
enhancement now brings Cubase more in-line
with other major DAWs’ abilities.
Lastly, in the overhaul department, the
Retrospective MIDI Record feature gets
expanded. For those unaware, this feature
allows you to capture MIDI data even if you
are not recording, making sure you never
miss a creative moment. Though this feature
has existed for some time now, Steinberg has
made it stronger by capturing looped cycles on
separate tracks as well as continuous recording. tracks apart quickly and easily in the MixConsole.
Now that you can choose a track’s colour and
brightness, it goes a long way to helping you
visually sort tracks on the fly.
A few last items to mention: you now have
the ability to open Cubase in Safe Mode. This is
where Cubase will disable all third-party plug-
ins in an effort to help you diagnose annoying
start up issues.
There have also been improvements made
to the scoring section of the program and there
is a new track picker window with more choices
available, making your initial track selection easier.
Workflow
On to workflow improvements. First and
foremost, on my wish list was the ability to
combine the select tool with another tool and
Steinberg has now delivered. They have added
an option on the tools menu for you to be able
to merge both the Range tool and the Object
Select tool into one without the need to go
back and forth between the two. You will need
to have the track height a minimum size to use
the tool but basically, when in combined mode,
the cursor, if located in the lower half of the track
window, acts as the Object Select tool; however,
when placed in the top half of the track window,
the Range tool becomes active. It took me very
little practice to get used to working that way
and what a time-saver once I got the hang of it!
Yet another regular feature request from
users was the ability to colourize each of the
mixer channels. With many projects now using
high channel counts, it’s getting tougher to tell Summary
Steinberg remains a leader in the DAW world by
continually raising the bar. The latest workflow
enhancements and new features in Cubase Pro
10.5 make it a worthwhile purchase, even to
version 10 users.
Note that this review covers the fully-
featured Pro version of Cubase and not the
Artist or Elements editions, meaning that some
of the features, options, and enhancements
mentioned here may not be available in either
of those versions. When in doubt (or to see
in-depth videos and descriptions of the new
features), visit www.steinberg.net.
Eric Price wrote this review with unwanted
assistance from his cat Chico, who made
countless contributions to both grammar and
spelling that Eric certainly could have done
without. You can reach Eric or Chico at
[email protected].