Steinberg Cubase Pro 14

Cubase 14 introduces a wide selection of new features while refining old ones.

Last year’s Cubase 13 release was, in many ways, an opportunity for Steinberg’s developers to refresh and polish the foundations. Because while there were many headline‑worthy additions — such as the Channel Zone, improved editing with the Visibility Zone, Track Display, multi‑part editing and the ability for the Region Selection tool to be used in certain editors — many of the giant leaps forward were perhaps less obvious. MIDI 2.0 support was added, along with Direct2D for hardware‑accelerated graphics on Windows, and a streamlined, more cohesive user interface emerged. And who could forget the long overdue redesign of the Key Commands window?

But for all these improvements, there was something about the upgrade that left me feeling a little flat. Everything in Cubase 13 was better, no question. It was sleeker, smoother, and working with it felt undeniably more productive. But when demonstrating that new version to fellow musicians, I couldn’t really point to any one feature that truly ignited excitement. A year on, though, and my view of the latest Cubase release couldn’t be more different.

Drum Track Redux

Cubase 14 sees the return of a Drum Track to the application, and if you’re thinking to yourself: ‘Hold on, Cubase has never had a Drum Track!’, you’d only be half right. The very first versions of Cubase — before the program’s rebirth as Cubase SX in 2002 — did in fact offer a Drum Track Class, although its purpose was rather pedestrian. Drum Tracks functioned like MIDI tracks, but with two key differences. Drum maps could be assigned to the tracks, enabling the Drum Editor to display drum names, and MIDI parts located on a Drum Track would open in the Drum Editor by default.

The new Drum Machine instrument is an integrated part of Cubase’s 14’s new Drum Track.

Cubase 14’s Drum Track is significantly more sophisticated. Instead of triggering an external drum machine or a VST instrument like Groove Agent, Drum Tracks include a new, dedicated Drum Machine instrument. This mirrors the way in which Sampler Tracks employ a built‑in Sampler instrument. And even though both the Sampler and Drum Machine instruments are technically VST plug‑ins, they’re designed to be used exclusively with the Sampler and Drum Tracks respectively.

With a Drum Track selected, Drum Machine’s interface appears in a new page in the Lower Zone; although it’s puzzling why Steinberg didn’t consolidate the Drum Machine and Sampler Control pages into a single page, given that a Track can’t contain both instruments simultaneously. Similarly, while Drum Machine’s interface, like Sampler Control, can be opened in a separate floating window, a Drum Track’s ‘Open/Close Drum Machine’ button always opens the Drum Machine in the Lower Zone. Frustratingly, there’s no modifier or command to open it directly in a separate window, which is particularly irksome since it’s useful to have Drum Machine in a dedicated window, especially once you start editing patterns.

Machine Drumming

One of the differences between Groove Agent SE and Drum Machine is that the former is designed for sample‑based playback, whereas the latter offers a hybrid of both sample and synth‑based sound generators known as Modules. The Sample Module is straightforward, offering pitch, filter and amplifier components — each with its own envelope. You can adjust the start and end points, fade‑in and ‑out times, and reverse the sample’s playback. However, the Synth Modules are where the fun really begins.

In addition to a Sample Module, Drum Machine includes an impressive array of Synth Modules covering the most common kit drums and percussion.

Organised into seven categories covering the most common kit drums and some simple percussion, there are 38 sonically superb Synth Modules from which to choose. The percussion category includes a single‑operator FM generator, two noise oscillators, and two indispensable cowbell Modules! Cowbell 1 is perfect for those Whitney Houston‑inspired ’80s tracks, while Cowbell 2 is most definitely the one to deploy when more cowbell is required.

A Drum Machine Kit contains 128 pads organised into eight pad banks, and the pad area displays one pad bank at a time using the familiar 4x4 grid of 16 Pads. Each pad consists of four Layers and each Layer can host a single Module, which means each pad can trigger up to four Modules simultaneously. This is great when extra weight is needed to enhance a sampled kick drum, for example, since you can easily layer a Sample Module with a kick Synth Module, adjusting the volume of each Layer to taste. The only small complaint I have when assigning Synth Modules to Layers is that there’s no way to preview a default sound from a Module without first adding it to a Layer.

Drum Machine’s interface is divided into pages, including the main Instrument page where Modules are assigned and their playback parameters adjusted. Each page has settings relevant to the currently selected pad, except for the Group page that contains a row of configuration parameters for each pad within the selected pad bank. These parameters include the note range that triggers a pad, whether it belongs to one of up to 32 Exclusive Groups (useful for having a closed hi‑hat ‘choke’ an open one), and the output to use for a pad’s playback. Each instance has a master stereo output, along with 31 additional outputs, which should be enough for most purposes.

Drum Machine’s Pad FX page provides a four‑processor effects chain, including a Bit Crusher where you can manipulate the upper eight bits individually.

However, you may find you don’t need to separate the outputs of different pads too widely, since each pad has its own independent effects chain that’s accessed via the Pad FX page. Each pad offers an effects chain with four effects — Bit Crusher, Distortion, Filter and EQ — which can be individually toggled on or off and re‑ordered by simply dragging an effect to a new position within the chain. Of these effects, Bit Crusher is the most interesting since it offers options beyond simply setting the resultant bit depth, with controls to separately adjust how the upper and lower bits are manipulated.

Each of the four Layers has its own independent dry and wet mix controls for the Pad FX chain, which is a nifty touch, and each pad has send levels to delay and reverb effects that are applied to the overall kit. The output from these send effects is always sent to Drum Machine’s master output, although it would be useful if this routing was freely assignable.

Drum Machine is empty by default, but Steinberg include 40 kits as Track Presets that can be recalled by clicking the Load Track Preset button (in the Drum Machine’s toolbar) and navigating the Media Bay.

A Step Sequencer By Any Other Name

Complementing the new Drum Track and its integrated Drum Machine is the Pattern Editor, which presents a step‑based approach to drum programming. Unlike Cubase’s other editors, the Pattern Editor can be opened for immediate use without having to first select something to edit. Therefore, with a suitable track selected, such as a new Drum Track, you can open the Pattern Editor from the MIDI menu. Provided that track is empty, the ‘Play with Project’ button will be enabled on the Pattern Editor’s toolbar, allowing the contents of the Pattern Editor to play and loop with the project. This is particularly neat, since it’s easier to program a new drum pattern whilst hearing the project playing.

The new Pattern Editor makes it easy to program drum patterns using a familiar, step‑sequencer‑esque interface.

A pattern is programmed by toggling steps on different lanes in the editor area, although sadly there’s no Acoustic Feedback mode. While each lane has a preview button to audition the assigned sound, there’s no audible confirmation when you activate a step. If the editor is opened with a Drum Track selected, a set of lanes based on the current Drum Machine kit is automatically created, although it’s easy to add and remove lanes as required. However, unless I’m missing something unbelievably obvious, there doesn’t seem to be a way to...