Cubase 11: More Customizable, More Inspirational, More Productive

Cubase is celebrated for its comprehensive feature set, powerful tools and unparalleled sound quality. Since 1989, Cubase has been bringing technological advancements to the table, the German expertise in creating which has been accumulated over three decades of core contributions to the industry. Now, Cubase 11 is the next major step in the long evolution of DAWs.

Cubase 11 is for music producers, songwriters, engineers and composers and those who aspire to become all of these. Version 11 not only delivers a myriad of workflow and performance improvements across the entire range. It has also upgraded the smaller Artist and Elements editions: VariAudio 3, ARA 2 support and unlimited audio, MIDI and instrument tracks in Artist, and side-chain support in Elements. Combining these enhancements and upgrades with the exciting newly introduced features provides genuine inspiration for the creative journey of producing music to the highest standards.

Cubase Pro 11 focuses on making printing stems a much easier task. Exporting processes can be queued and exported in one operation, with the export selection easily aligned with the selection made in the project, and controlling the full signal path, including channel insert effects group sends and master bus effects, is now a reality within Cubase.

Another focus within the Pro edition is synchronization across different windows. With Global Tracks now displayed in the Key Editor, staying in sync with tempo changes or markers is possible without ever having to leave the editor.

The Frequency EQ plug-in has received an update, now delivering dynamic response options: dynamic mode for each of its eight bands makes the filter nodes follow the input signal, and the newly introduced multiple side-chaining allows each band in Frequency to be set to an individual side-chain.

The Score Editor comes with many new enhancements. The new Properties provides instant access to matching options and notation settings, with Note Editing Overlay notes now edited as conveniently as in the Key Editor. The Score Editor now also supports the SMuFL font format, bringing Dorico's Bravura and Petaluma fonts to Cubase for the first time.

Other new additions in Cubase Pro 11 are Eucon integration for supporting the latest Avid consoles, the remote recording plug-in VST Connect SE 5 with a resizable and HiDPI-ready user interface, and 5.1 surround sound support for the MultiTap Delay signal processor.

Amazing additions to Pro and Artist

Available in both Cubase Pro and Cubase Artist, SuperVision is a fully customizable, multimeter audio analyzer, providing up to nine module slots for level, spectral, phase and waveform analysis.

Alongside the many refinements included in Pro and Artist, such as new Marker Lines, Pitch Visibility and improvements to the Range Selection tool and ARA workflow, additional tools have been introduced. These include Imager, the new multiband plug-in that contributes to a cleaner mix, and SpectraLayers One, a compact version of the acclaimed SpectraLayers Pro 7. Imager offers four bands for placing audio tracks in the stereo field, and the individual scope and correlation displays facilitating an easier panning to make the tracks sit perfectly in the stereo spectrum, while SpectraLayers One lets users visualize and edit audio in the spectral domain.

The Sampler Track in Cubase 11 boasts many new additions, such as the new slicing mode for loop-based samples, two global LFOs for more complex filtering sounds, and the new mono legato glide, which is ideal for bass lines.

The Scale Assistant is another addition to the Key Editor, setting the scale to ensure that all notes are played in perfect tune. Change the view so that only the notes of the set scale are displayed or let the Scale Assistant analyze the played MIDI notes and change them to the correct scale. Further improvements to the Key Editor's capabilities include creating ramps and curves in the CC and Pitch Bend lanes, setting pitch bend steps to semitones, copying CC edits to another MIDI track and deleting MIDI notes with a simple double-click — it's often the small things that make all the difference.

Also new to Cubase 11 is Squasher, a great tool that combines upward and downward audio compression for up to three bands, making it extremely flexible for adjusting the dynamic range.

Cubase 11 also comes with fresh-new content: six sound and loop sets have been created by hip-hop producer Beat Butcha, Hollywood sound designer Robert Dudzic and Black Octopus Sound, covering a wide range of music styles that will help to quickly jump-start any music production project.

Additional features across the three editions of Cubase include variable DPI on Windows 10, with more scaling settings than ever before, optimized performance for Metal-capable GPUs, further optimization for real-time processing on systems with more than eight cores, and a new multiple side-chain input architecture.

Steinberg's Senior Marketing Manager for Cubase, Matthias Quellmann, commented: “Cubase 11 is an outstanding release, which includes many enhancements and new features to make producing music easier, quicker and, yes, make Cubase more fun to use as well. We have been working closely with producers and composers to see what developments would enhance their workflow: some have a big impact on how one works in Cubase while others are small, detailed changes that make certain processes run just that much more smoothly. Overall, Cubase 11 is an essential update for all Cubase users as well as being the ideal version for those looking to dive into the world of music production for the first time.”

Availability and pricing

Various downloadable updates and upgrades, crossgrades, and education versions are exclusively available through the Steinberg Online Shop.

Customers who have activated Cubase Pro 10.5, Cubase Artist 10.5 and Cubase Elements 10.5 or earlier versions since October 14, 2020, are eligible for a free, downloadable grace period update to the latest version, respectively.

New features

• Advanced Audio Export: Save time with new export queues [Pro]
• Sampler Track 2: New creative features including slicing, LFOs and legato glide [Pro, Artist, Elements]
• Scale Assistant: Follow, quantize and play live to a set scale [Pro, Artist, Elements]
• Advanced Key Editor: Create perfect pitch bends and more [Pro, Artist, Elements]
• Global Tracks: Stay in sync more easily [Pro]
• Frequency 2: Amazingly precise dynamic EQ for better mixing [Pro]
• Squasher: Improve leads, tame bass and enhance reverb for EDM [Pro, Artist, Elements]
• Score Editor: Workflow improvements and beautiful new fonts [Pro]
• New Samples: Six fresh sound and loop sets [Pro, Artist, Elements]
• SuperVision: Super-flexible, customizable metering [Pro, Artist]
• Imager: Multiband stereo placement for perfect panning [Pro, Artist]
• MultiTap Delay Surround Support: Delay in up to 5.1 surround sound [Pro]
• Windows 10 Variable DPI: More scaling settings [Pro, Artist, Elements]
• Cubase Artists/Elements Upgrades: More bang for fewer bucks [Pro, Artist, Elements]
• Multiple Side-Chain: Improved input architecture [Pro, Artist, Elements]
• Eucon Support: Latest Avid console compatibility [Pro]
• VST Connect SE 5: Resizable HiDPI-ready interface for remote recording solutions [Pro]
• Workflow and UI Improvements: Refinements to make your working life easier [Pro, Artist]
• Apple Metal Acceleration: Enjoy maximum Mac performance [Pro, Artist, Elements]
• SpectraLayers One: Remarkable visual editing and audio source separation [Pro, Artist]