Rounding out the changes to the Project window in Cubase is a cleaned-up Track List. I’m sure some users will find this useful, though, and I couldn’t help be reminded of Logic Pro when looking at this new consolidation, since that application also gained similar functionality (excluding the Instrument rack) in version 8. Even if I did, the integrated VST Instruments section actually takes up a few more horizontal pixels than the windowed version, which was quite surprising. This is partly because I think you always want to have as much of the Event Display available as possible, but also because I don’t use the Media Bay, and I don’t need to see the VST Instrument rack all the time. Personally, I didn’t find the ability to see the rack or Media Bay on the Project window that useful. The Media Bay view incorporates the Locations, Filters and Previewer elements of the Media Bay window, omitting Define Locations and Attribute Inspector. (Alternatively, you can set up a Show/Hide Racks Key Command.) Mimicking the tabbed behaviour of the left-hand part of the window, where you can switch between the Inspector and the Visibility controls, once Racks are enabled you can toggle between the rack and a Media Bay view. Simply click the Setup Window Layout button, enable Racks, and the VST Instrument rack will appear in a zone on the right-hand side of the window. Steinberg have also expanded the abilities of the Project window by making it possible to display either the VST Instrument rack or parts of the Media Bay directly in the window without requiring multiple windows to be open. On the plus side, the Project window has been cleaned up and each area is now neatly placed within a rounded rectangle yet, for some reason, the developers must have felt the scroll bars were too big, so they’ve been made unhelpfully smaller in the quest to look more modern. And while you can change the colour of the Event Display ‘Work Area’, there’s nothing you can do about anything else.

At least in 7.5 the Inspector was a bit darker and the Track List and Event Display were a little lighter to give some sense of contrast. One thing that irked me about this is that everything in the Project window is now the same dark shade of blue the Inspector is the same colour as the Track List, which is the same colour as the Event Display and other new elements of the window. The first thing you’ll notice upon launching Cubase 8 is that the Project window has received some interface adjustments, and fans of darkness will be pleased to know that the brightness knob for the application’s default palette has once again been turned down. The differences between the Pro and Artist versions are noted in the ‘Artistic Differences’ box. For the sake of brevity - and possibly sanity - I’ll refer to the program as simply Cubase 8 in this article. Cubase Studio later became Cubase Artist, making things a little clearer, but in version 8 Steinberg have removed any possible ambiguity: this new Cubase is now called Cubase Pro 8. This would have been fine, except the junior version of Cubase, which had been called Cubase SL, became Cubase Studio, and you could be forgiven for assuming the ‘studio’ appendage denoted the bigger version. Steinberg have often struggled in distinguishing the higher- and lower-end versions by name alone over the years, initially calling the senior program Cubase SX, until version 4 when they dropped the SX. The first change in Cubase 8 is the name. And if you can think of something, the chances are good this latest version of Steinberg’s popular “Advanced Music Production System” will offer the solution. With so much functionality being added in the last few years, it’s becoming difficult to think of features that don’t exist in Cubase that are implemented in competing products with longer release schedules.

In recent years, Steinberg have been releasing new versions of Cubase on an impressively paced annual schedule, alternating between major and ‘point five’ versions - many of which have nevertheless introduced important new features. Cubase Pro 8 in all its glory, playing back one of the construction kits from the included Allen Morgan Pop-Rock Toolbox.Ĭubase 8 combines powerful tools from Nuendo with new features such as VCA faders and the ability to render audio in place.

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