Cubase is a digital audio workstation (DAW) developed by Steinberg for music and MIDI recording, arranging and editing. The first version, which was originally only a MIDI sequencer and ran on the Atari ST computer, was released in 1989. Cut-down versions of Cubase are included with almost all Yamaha audio and MIDI hardware, as well as hardware from other manufacturers. These versions can be upgraded to a more advanced version at a discount.
Cubase can be used to edit and sequence audio signals coming from an external sound source and MIDI, and can host VST instruments and effects. It has a number of features designed to aid in composition, such as:
Chord Tracks: Helps the user keep track of chord changes, and can optionally be used to harmonize audio and MIDI tracks automatically, as well as trigger arpeggios and chords with basic voicings or voicings for piano and guitar. Chords can be either entered manually or detected automatically.
Expression Maps: Adds a lane to the Key Editor (Cubase's piano roll) that allows the user to define changes to the instrument's articulations and dynamics. In other DAWs, this requires the use of complicated MIDI program changes and key switches.
Note Expression: Allows MIDI controllers such as pitch bend, volume, pan, and filters to be applied only to the selected notes. This overcomes one of the limitations of MIDI, where such controllers normally affect the entire channel (For example, all notes of a chord are equally affected by a pitch bend message).
Key Editor Inspector: Provides precise control over chord drawing, chord inversions, quantization, transpositions, scale correction, note lengths, and legato. Changes can be applied either to only the selected notes or the entire MIDI part being edited.
Audio Warp Quantize: Create warp markers straight from hitpoints, both single audio loops as well as the entire arrangement can be non-destructively quantized.
MIDI parts can be edited using a piano roll, a dedicated drum editor, a score editor, or as a filterable complete list of MIDI events.