Mar 28, 2018 This week we’ve seen updates of two major iOS DAWs: Cubasis and GarageBand. While Cubasis is taking on more pro-features – introducing support of AU MIDI FX, GarageBand shows that it is not taking pro-direction with new soundpacks and one new guitar FX. Another cool thing with Cubasis update is that it now supports iOS Files. Cubasis: Mobile music creation for iPhone and iPad. Quickly and easily capture your ideas as soon as they arrive and turn them into professional-sounding songs with the multi-award winning Cubasis 3. Enjoy performing, recording, mixing and sharing your music in no time, wherever you are, right there on your iPhone and iPad. Jan 09, 2013 50+ videos Play all Mix - Cubasis with GarageBand and FL Studio instruments YouTube Sonik Synth Mobile Edition sound collection for SampleTank iOS.
Way back in the mists of time, Cubasis was a PC application that was an entry-level, cut-down version of Cubase. Steinberg resurrected the name a couple of years ago for a completely new app built for the iPad. Technologically, it was light years ahead of the software from which it inherited its name, bringing Steinberg’s famed ease of use to a surprisingly powerful mobile DAW.
Version 2 of Cubasis continues this development to build on the impressive work already done in translating Cubase’s core features to the iPad platform. It really is like a mini version of Cubase, distilling the essential features down into a touch-enabled environment that comes closer than anything I’ve used to feeling like a really serious DAW for iOS, yet one that doesn’t have a prohibitive learning curve.
It’s definitely recognisable as a member of the Cubase family.
Nice Specs
Ideally you’ll want a recent iPad to run bigger projects, though the app is apparently compatible with any iPad that can run iOS 8.3 or higher. It weighs in at just over 1 GB, half of which is made up of loops and instruments. You get Micro Sonic, Micrologue and MiniSampler, each with a healthy selection of instrument presets as well as a bunch of MIDI loops. Audio Units and Inter-App Audio are also supported and work really well, meaning you can expand the selection of instruments and effects available to you without any problems. Audio tracking is fully supported as is multichannel output, where your interface allows it.
The new Channel Strip module, just one of the bundled processors.
In terms of effects, there’s a new Channel Strip module for every channel with filter, noise gate, compressor and saturator. Like other internal modules and features in Cubasis this can be automated using a clever and well-designed automation editor that’s much more powerful than you might expect to find on an iPad. There’s a decent selection of bundled effects plus the ability to unlock extra effect packs, and AUs and IAA are supported here too.
Recording MIDI using the clever built-in keyboard or pads is a breeze and there are easily customizable chord tools like you get in the desktop app. Quantization and transposition are available plus there’s now an auto quantize during record option. Audio loops can be manually or automatically time stretched without changing pitch using the zplane Elastique 3 system, which in practice works fantastically well and means loops and timing are a breeze to get right.
The keyboard and pad interfaces let you customise chords easily.
The interface makes excellent use of the iPad’s screen real estate with tools and features cleverly laid out and not too much reliance on menus or swiping. Pinch to zoom is everywhere of course, and you can have as many tracks as your iPad can physically run. Track freeze is even available to lighten the load. You can import from and export to various locations including iCloud, iTunes or Dropbox and stem and MIDI export are available in addition to regular mixdown. There’s actually tons more to the app so do check out the site to find out more.
Final Thoughts
Cubasis 2 is a free update for owners of version 1, which is pretty generous. As a new purchase, it’s £40 / $50USD and while this might initially sound a lot for an iPad app, be sure that this is no ordinary iPad app. It’s much more in-depth than something like GarageBand, and much more user friendly than something like Auria. Add an audio or MIDI device to really unlock its potential and what you have in Cubasis is a serious proposition for music production on iPad, without the compromises you might once have thought that would involve.
Price: $49.99 USD / £39.99 GBP
Pros: Beautifully designed to take advantage of the iPad platform. Unlimited audio and MIDI tracks. Great bundled content. Powerful and useful effects. Advanced automation capability. Expandable via AU and IAA. Fun and friendly to use. All the core tools you need for working with audio and MIDI and arranging songs.
Cons: Given the purchase price, bundling all the effects in might have been nice.
Web: http://www.steinberg.net/en/products/mobile_apps/cubasis/whats_cubasis.html
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Steinberg has released Cubasis 2.7, the latest version of its mobile DAW for iPad.
The update brings support for the latest iPad Pro models, new effects options, support for up to three AU MIDI plugins per track and more.
Here’s what Steinberg says about the updates in Cubasis 2.7:
Micrologue ARP (in-app purchase)
Boost Cubasis’ Micrologue synth with a full-blown, feature-packed Arpeggiator. In addition, enjoy more than 75 earth-shaking ready-to-use presets to get you going instantly.
Native-resolution support for iPad Pro 11″ & 12.9” 2018
Enjoy an unrivalled user experience when running Cubasis on Apple’s brand-new iPad Pro 11″ and 12.9” 2018 devices.
95 new effects presets
Enjoy 95 fresh new effects presets to polish individual tracks via a simple button press, to instantly make them sound right or further tweak them to your taste.
Audio Unit MIDI Plug-in slots extension
Maximise your creativity by combining up to three Audio Unit MIDI plug-ins per track, such as arpeggiator, step sequencer, LFO and many more.
Cubasis 2 Vs Garageband Ipad 2
MIDI Thru refresh
Use Cubasis as your control center to easily re-route incoming MIDI to different channels for output to Core MIDI apps or hardware.
Mixdown normalize
Give mixdowns extra polish before sharing them with the world via a simple tap, quickly bringing them to the perfect level.
Cubasis 3
Keyboard transpose setting
Easily change the transposition of the on-board keyboard and external gear up to two octaves in both directions via the new keyboard transpose setting.
Extended MIDI editor range
Enjoy flexible MIDI editing from the highest highs to the lowest lows, with the extended C -2 to G8 MIDI editor range.
Audiobus 3.0.6 library update
Cubasis has been first to offer straight forward Audiobus integration, and again assures the best possible performance by embedding Audiobus’ latest 3.0.6 library update.
Elastique Pro 3.2.7 library update
Enjoy unchanged, fluent performance when changing the tempo or pitch of audio files in real-time with Cubasis, thanks to integrating the latest Elastique Pro 3.2.7 library update.
Pricing and Availability:
Cubasis 2.7 is available now for US $24.99. Some features are available via In-App purchases.