Steinberg Media Technologies today released Cubase 6.5, a significant update to its music production system. With new VST synthesizers, effects and enhancements that boost productivity and extend the feature set of Cubase 6, version 6.5 incorporates everything and more to assist musicians, composers and producers in realizing their creative visions within a professional setting.

The mid-priced Cubase Artist version includes the core technologies and tools that make Cubase indispensable for music production. The updates to Cubase 6.5 and Cubase Artist 6.5 include the same new features and capabilities.

"Version 6.5 nicely complements the features of Cubase and Cubase Artist with new synthesizers, fresh effects and production tool improvements our fellow Cubase users will immediately fall in love with," said Helge Vogt, marketing lead at Steinberg. "Also on board are the long-awaited ReWire 64-bit support, SoundCloud connectivity and FLAC integration. More than that, we've added to the VST Amp Rack, with new effects pedals and artist signature presets that'll give guitarists the fat tone that their guitars deserve," Vogt added.

The virtual analog Retrologue and the granular Padshop synthesizers are two brand-new VST instruments introduced in this update. Retrologue features two oscillators, each with a maximum of eight widely detunable voices, one sub and one noise oscillator, alongside 300 presets and sounds. Padshop features two individual layers in granular textures that are mixed and processed with a dozen high-quality filters, modulation and delay effects. Each layer consists of two LFOs, two ADSR envelopes and one oscillator together with new control parameters for generating up to eight grain-streams, plus 400 quality onboard presets for immediate inspiration.

New effects in Cubase 6.5 and Cubase Artist 6.5 are the DJ-EQ, a powerful three-band EQ with frequency kill switches, and MorphFilter, a filter effect for blending between two of the many low, high and band-pass filters. The latest highlights in VST Amp Rack are the new Maximizer and Limiter stompbox effects, plus 50 classic and signature presets from bands the likes of Accept, Emperor and Meshuggah.

Other enhancements have found their way into the 6.5 updates: optimizing the lane comping tool introduces the dedicated Comp tool with easy click-and-drag features as well as the Cleanup Lanes function for resolving overlapping events and the Create Tracks From Lanes function that converts lanes into audio tracks. The marriage between hitpoint and AudioWarp results in enhanced quantization capabilities, such as warp quantizing in the Quantize panel, warp markers from hitpoints and perfectly manageable, non-destructive quantization.

More features new to Cubase and Cubase Artist are SoundCloud connectivity with its Upload Manager for easy dissemination of personal songs. Including the lossless FLAC audio compression codec saves up to 60% disk space when recording audio in real time. Third in line is ReWire 64-bit support and user interface localization in simplified Chinese.

"Cubase 6.5 is a great update to our award-winning DAW. Admittedly, we were planning on introducing Retrologue to the feature set, but we've listened intensely to our customer demands and have consequently added the recently announced Padshop VST instrument to Cubase 6.5 as well," said Frank Simmerlein, marketing director at Steinberg. "This really underlines our approach to customer satisfaction."

Features at a glance:

• New synths on the block: The brand-new Padshop granular synth and the Retrologue virtual analog synth provide more than 700 extraordinary presets.
• Supersonic sidekicks: Check out the DJ-EQ and MorphFilter effects and VST Amp Rack 1.5 with new stomp boxes and signature presets made by world-class guitarists.
• One step closer to perfection: New comping and audio quantizing tools give you the results you want in a more intuitive and faster way.
• Intercommunication 2.0: Export your mixes directly to SoundCloud, save up to 60% disk space while recording with the new FLAC support and connect ReWire client applications to Cubase in a pure 64-bit environment.

Availability and pricing

Cubase 6.5 and Cubase Artist 6.5 are exclusively available as downloadable updates from Cubase 6 and Cubase Artist 6, respectively, through the Steinberg Online Shop for €49.99, including German VAT, and £42.34, including British VAT. Customers who have activated Cubase 6 and Cubase Artist 6.5 since January 1, 2012, are eligible for a free, downloadable Grace Period update to the latest version.

The Cubase 6.5 and Cubase Artist 6.5 full retail versions are available from resellers and through the Steinberg Online Shop. The suggested retail price for Cubase 6.5 is €599, including German VAT, and £508, including British VAT. The suggested retail price for Cubase Artist 6.5 is €299, including German VAT, and £253, including British VAT.