If you're looking for a traditional-style iPad DAW, Steinberg's Cubasis is undoubtedly one of your best options, and it might just have become an even better one with the release of version 2.
This adds real-time timestretching via zplane's elastique 3 algorithm, so the tempo of your audio loops can now be matched. There's also a pitchshifting feature to keep everything in key, while the "professional" channel strip adds a cut filter, compressor, noise gate and tape/tube saturator to each channel.
If you want to create DJ-style breaks, tape stops, stutters and filter effects, meanwhile, you can check out the new Spin FX processor, and there are new sounds for the Micrologue virtual analogue synth and MicroSonic instrument. Sporting a refreshed interface, Cubasis 2 is fully compatible with iOS 10.
Steinberg's Team Lead & Product Planning Manager Lars Slowak said: "After releasing over a dozen 'smaller' updates to the first version of Cubasis, we now chose to give this release a major version increment due to the many new, full-blown features that this iteration has to offer. It's certainly also worth mentioning the effort we invested in tweaking the overall app so as to make it even more powerful and intuitive."
Cubasis 2 is available now for iPad from the Apple App Store and is currently being offered at half price - £19/$25. Find out more on the Steinberg website.
Steinberg Cubasis 2 features
- Unlimited number of audio and MIDI tracks
- 24 assignable physical inputs and outputs
- 32-bit floating-point audio engine
- Audio I/O resolution of up to 24-bit/96 kHz
- iOS 32-bit and 64-bit support
- Real-time time-stretching and pitch-shifting featuring zplane's élastique 3
- Micrologue virtual analog synthesizer with 126 ready-to-go presets
- MicroSonic with over 120 virtual instrument sounds based on HALion Sonic, HALiotron and Allen Morgan drum kits
- MiniSampler to create your own instruments (includes 20 factory instruments)
- Mixer with studio-grade channel strip per track and 16 effect processors
- Fully automizable DJ-like Spin FX effect plug-in
- Over 550 MIDI and time-stretch-capable audio loops
- Virtual keyboard, chord and drum pads
- Sample Editor and Key Editor with MIDI CC support
- MIDI Auto Quantize
- Automation, MIDI CC, program change and aftertouch support
- Export to Cubase, iCloud Drive, external hard drives, wireless flash drives, Dropbox, SoundCloud, AudioCopy and email
- Core Audio and Core MIDI compatible hardware supported
- MIDI over Bluetooth LE support
- Full Audio Unit, Inter-App Audio and Audiobus support to use compatible apps as insert/send effects and virtual instruments or simply record their audio output
- Import audio from your iTunes music library or iCloud Drive or iTunes file sharing, use AudioPaste or set up a Wi-Fi server in Cubasis
- Audio mixdown and MIDI export
- MIDI clock and MIDI thru support
