Steinberg Cubase Artist 6 review

Cubase Artist is undoubtedly impressive, but we’re yet to test its main competitor, Cakewalk Sonar X1 Studio – we’ll have a review next month. It also has the rest of the Cubase family to compete with. The flagship Cubase 6 is well worth its high price for those who can afford it, not so much for its unrestricted channel counts but more for its powerful VariAudio pitch editor, advanced audio quantise functions, superior effects bundle and various other powerful features. Cubase Artist users won’t miss what they don’t know, but the PDF manual annoyingly covers both versions and constantly reminds Artist users what they’re missing. This manual is much less easy to navigate than conventional online help, too.

Meanwhile, Cubase Essential 5 is extremely good value at around £115. Cubase Artist 6 offers various refinements over Essential 5, and its 64-bit code means it can access more RAM, but otherwise they’re not that different. Both are limited to 64 audio tracks and include a broadly similar collection of effects and instruments. As such, Cubase Essential comes across as much better value. Just to confuse matters further, it costs just £77 to upgrade from Essential 5 to Artist 6, which works out £36 cheaper than buying Artist outright.

Still, whatever the pros and cons of each version, those who feel that Cubase Artist is the one for them won’t be disappointed by the quality on offer.