Steinberg Cubase Artist 7.5 review

Cubase is our favourite music-production application because it has a level of sophistication and attention to detail that never dips below excellent. Other packages provide more experimental editing tools or even better collections of virtual instruments, but Cubase is never far behind the leaders. Meanwhile, Cubase comes top for everyday editing tasks and its handling of mix automation.

We also appreciate Steinberg’s habit of releasing ‘dot-five’ updates. You can upgrade to version 7.5 of Cubase Artist from version 7.0 for just £41,

Cubase Artist 7.5 is the mid-price edition, falling between Cubase 7.5, which is Steinberg’s flagship application, and the entry-level Cubase Elements, which remains at version 7. Cubase Artist was already a well-rounded product, but one notable weakness was the quality of its RoomWorks SE reverb effect; the classier Reverence reverb effect was only available in Cubase 7.

Revelation marks a considerable upgrade to Cubase Artist’s reverb quality

This has now been resolved with the arrival of a new effect called Revelation. While Reverence is based on acoustic responses that are captured in real spaces, Revelation creates reverb from complex arrays of echoes. Revelation takes a more traditional approach that became popular in the 1990s, but it demonstrates that there’s room for both types of effect in a recording engineer’s toolbox. Reverence tends to sound more realistic, whereas Revelation is more akin to cushioning sounds in a fluffy blanket of reverb. What Revelation lacks in authenticity it makes up for in charisma. We’d ideally like to see both included in Artist, but Revelation is certainly a huge improvement over RoomWorks SE.

The new Magneto II plug-in adds some analogue warmth to digital mixes

Also new is Magneto II, which is similar to the existing Tape Saturation effect but achieves new levels of refinement. This is largely due to Magneto II’s ability to filter low and high frequencies from the distorted element of the sound, thereby maintaining a punchy bottom end and crisp high-frequency detail while adding some warmth to mid-range frequencies. Magneto II appears as a normal plug-in and is also available in the Channel Strip that’s integrated into each mixer channel, which encourages extensive use throughout a mix.