At the 2011 NAMM Show, Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH announced the release of Cubase 6 and Cubase Artist 6, two freshly updated versions of the Cubase music production system for recording, editing, mixing, and producing music.

Cubase 6 and Cubase Artist 6 offer improved features and new capabilities, such as extended composing features available in VST Expression 2, phase-accurate multitrack drum editing, and new effects and instruments. Cubase 6 ($599.99 MSRP) and Cubase Artist 6 ($329.99 MSRP) are available at dealers and in the Steinberg Online Shop.

What's different in version 6? Cubase 6 and Cubase Artist 6 offer enhanced workflow features within the Project window. The new Track Edit Groups option improves multitrack recordings, allowing related events on multiple tracks to be grouped and edited simultaneously, while the new Lane Track function offers multitake comping for selecting and consolidating audio parts. The redesigned transient and automatic tempo detection, phase-accurate audio quantization, and drum replacement functions incorporated in Cubase 6 help to smooth out any glitches in live-recorded drum tracks, Steinberg says.

In addition, the Key Editor has been enhanced with an Inspector panel and the Note Expression feature for creating and editing multiple controller values on a single-note level. Also included is the new Dynamics Lane, which allows for real-time listening of dynamic changes while being automatically in sync with dynamic notations from the Score Editor.

Both Cubase 6 and Cubase Artist 6 feature the VST Amp Rack plugin, which comes with 7 amp models, 16 stomp boxes, 6 speaker cabinets, and 2 microphone types. Version 6 also includes the HALion Sonic SE virtual instrument, which comes with more than 900 sounds in Cubase and 550 sounds in Cubase Artist, and the second edition of LoopMash, which includes 24 MIDI-controllable live and slice-based effects. In addition, the redesigned graphical user interface minimizes eye strain and is customizable according to intensity, brightness, and tone color settings.

The new Cubase versions offer 64-bit support for Windows and Mac operating systems, enabling a performance boost for using more tracks and bigger sample libraries. Other changes in Cubase 6 and Cubase Artist 6 include global project compatibility between Cubase 6 derivates, new time-stretching algorithms, and more than two hours of in-depth video tutorials in high-definition quality.