Cubase Essential 5

Read Me

September 2009
Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH
 Welcome Congratulations and thank you for purchasing Cubase
Essential 5! This Read Me includes important information
about installing and using Cubase Essential 5 on your Apple
Mac OS X or PC Windows computer.
At the end of this document you will find a description of the
major new features Cubase Essential 5 has to offer. We wish
you creativity and success using Cubase Essential 5!
Your Steinberg team

Software licensing Please read the Software Licensing Contract displayed on

your screen when installing Cubase. By installing the
software you are declaring yourself to be in agreement with
the conditions in the contract.
If you want to read the Software Licensing Contract
independently from the installation process, or if you want to
print the contract, you'll find the text file on the DVD in the
'Additional Content/License' folder. Please open the file in
your preferred language.

Installation Depending on your system, the Cubase Essential 5 Start

Center program on the DVD may start automatically. If no
interactive start menu appears, open the DVD and double
click the file “Cubase Essential 5 Start Center”. From there
you can start the installation of Cubase Essential 5 and
browse through the additional options and information
presented there. By the way, Cubase Essential 5 does not
overwrite any previously installed version of Cubase.

Cubase license activation The full version of Cubase Essential 5 ships with a Steinberg
USB-eLicenser which is pre-loaded with a 25 hours license. It
allows you to use Cubase Essential 5 up to 25 hours of non-
consecutive operation time. The remaining time will be
displayed each time you start Cubase Essential 5. Please
make sure to activate your Cubase Essential 5 license
permanently within this time frame. For further details about
the license activation process, please have a look at:
[Link]

Steinberg USB-eLicenser Should you experience any difficulties with your Steinberg
USB-eLicenser, go to the folder “Additional Content/Copy
Protection Driver” on the DVD and double-click the included
installation setup file. Alternatively, you can download the
latest version of this software from here:
[Link]
gb

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 First Cubase Essential 5 start up The first time you start Cubase Essential 5 it can take a while
until the loading process is finished. Cubase needs to gather
all components and plug-ins you may have installed.
Subsequent starts of the application will be much faster after
that.

Steinberg Advanced Integration Cubase Essential 5 requires drivers and components for your
Hardware Steinberg hardware. Please make sure that the latest
versions are installed before you start working with Cubase
Essential 5. For more details please visit the respective
download site for your hardware product:
[Link]

Updates and additional resource Steinberg regularly offers software updates, which can be
files for download found here:
[Link]
s_cubase_essential_5_gb
Steinberg also offers a variety of Patch Name Scripts, Device
Panels, Drum Maps and more for Cubase, which you can
download from the Steinberg website. Have a look here for
an overview and more details:
[Link]

Known issues in Cubase To learn about known issues with Cubase Essential 5, please
Essential 5 take note of the "Issues & Solutions” PDF document, which is
located in the "Read Me Files" folder.

Plug-in compatibility with While Cubase Essential 5 does not include older, legacy
Cubase SE projects plug-ins from Cubase SE on its DVD, they are provided for
you on the Steinberg website, should you require them for
project compatibility. You can download them here:
[Link]

Support for ReCycle files (Mac If you want to use REX files with Cubase Essential 5 for Mac
OS X only) OS X please install the Propellerhead REX component
manually. This is only necessary if you did not already install
Propellerhead ReCycle or Reason application. The REX
Shared Library installer is located on the Cubase Essential 5
DVD (Additional Content/Installer Data) and can be
downloaded here:
[Link]

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Cubase Essential 5 - New feature highlights at a glance
On-the-fly pitch correction
The new PitchCorrect VST3 plug-in brings easy and
automatic intonation control and scale correction of vocal and
monophonic instrument recordings to Cubase. The advanced
note detection and correction engine heals up any intonation
without noticeable artifacts and preserves the sonic audio
quality of the original performance.

Designer beats and grooves

Beat Designer is the hot new beat construction plug-in that
allows you to get hands-on with beats for step programming
and designing drum patterns in an easy yet powerful way!
Beat Designer also works hand in hand with the MediaBay
and the new beat pattern file type for an ultra-fast beat
creation workflow.

More sounds for more music

• A prologue to epic sound: Prologue is an exceptional
polyphonic subtractive synthesizer with incredible sound
shaping capabilities. The included library features 330
designed sounds with that unique Prologue character —
from cutting leads to earthshaking basses and ultra-
expressive pads.
• HALion ONE expanded: Cubase Essential 5 Essential
adds almost 240 premium instrument sounds for HALion
ONE, including the entire HALion ONE Studio Set
previously found in Cubase 5 and Cubase Studio 5 only.
• Autopan audio-effect processor: This creative new
VST3 effect is the ideal way of using the stereo field
imaginatively in songs and compositions.

Enhanced MIDI
• MIDI loop support: Now you can build a personal
custom MIDI part library and access thousands of pre-
produced MIDI loops, including their unique and
associated instrument sounds to fuel the artist’s creativity.
• MIDI effects reloaded: All MIDI effects in Cubase
Essential 5 have a fully redesigned user interface and
extended functionality. Cubase Essential 5 also includes
three new effects: MIDI Monitor, Apache SX and the
Context Gate.
• MIDI automation enhancements: Cubase Essential 5
interfaces CC data with the Cubase automation, bridging
the gap between part-based MIDI controller and track-
based automation data routed to the same target. Now
it’s easy to use both systems side by side and handle

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 layered controller/automation data in a consistent way.

Smoother Workflow
• MediaBay optimizations: All aspects of MediaBay have
been expanded and improved in Cubase Essential 5,
including the visibility of existing media content, faster
searching and browsing, and overall improved
performance plus the introduction of the beat pattern file
type for Beat Designer.
• Refined editing: Thanks to the new info-line, the Sample
Editor now allows even faster access to the most
important parameters.
• Recording enhancements: Cubase Essential 5 features
new handy tools like the Remaining Record Time Display
and the Lock Record function.
• Virtual MIDI keyboard: Made for mobile musicians in
mind, Cubase now allows using the computer keyboard
or the mouse to play virtual instruments or edit MIDI
notes.
• Low latency for all: Cubase Essential 5 takes full
advantage of the latest audio driver technologies in
Microsoft Windows Vista and supports generic and on-
board sound hardware with lower latencies than ever
before.

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