Steinberg Cubase Artist 13 Upgrade Cubase AI 12/13  

This product is a software upgrade from Cubase AI 12/13 to Cubase Artist 13. Cubase AI is a compact version of Cubase that is included with some Steinberg or Yamaha products. It’s a great starter version, but it’s understandable if you want to upgrade. Fortunately, it’s possible to upgrade at a special price, so you don’t have to pay the full price.

Cubase

Cubase is one of the best recording programs in the industry. Cubase is thus increasingly used by professionals. This is because Cubase is a versatile program that works very intuitively. There are technically three different versions of Cubase: Elements, Artist, and Pro. These three versions have different prices and consequently also different functions and plug-ins. Elements is the most affordable version and has thus the least functions and plug-ins, whilst Pro has all the functions and plug-ins. The Artist version falls exactly in between the two. These three versions make Cubase a lot more accessible for beginners because you can already do a lot with just Elements without having to pay hundreds of euros. Do you want to upgrade? No problem, you don’t have to pay the full price of the next program but only the upgrade price.

Artist

Artist is an amazing program for an amazing price. You can record different instruments and vocals with so little latency it won’t even be noticeable. Furthermore, all the bars are separated in handy boxes which makes synchronising, cutting, pasting, and dragging a lot easier. The system also has a built-in metronome so you can record your parts whilst staying on beat. Do you dislike the sound of the metronome? That is no problem; you can choose between different sounds and pitches. Recorded audio is also easy to edit with the added tools (like fades and EQ), effects, and plug-ins. Consequently, you can make the recording as beautiful as possible. Additionally, Steinberg made sure that there are sounds, effects, and plug-ins for every single genre possible. Artist also gives you access to VariAudio 3, which makes it possible to alter the pitch of individual notes of monophonic audio. You can also quantize multiple tracks at the same time and with ARA support editing the audio becomes even easier. The program can be used with MIDI devices or through an interface.

The differences

One of the most important differences is that Elements has a limited amount of tracks, whilst Artist and Pro have an unlimited amount of tracks. With Elements you are also limited to 16 groups whereas Artist has a limit of 32 and Pro has a limit of 256. Artist also has more audio and effects plug-ins than Elements, but not as many as Pro. As such, Artist is a more versatile version than Elements. A very important difference, especially for vocalists, is that Artist has VariAudio 3, which is a handy pitch correction tool. Furthermore, Artist has more input and output possibilities than Elements, which makes Artist more suitable for larger setups. Functions that Artist has that Elements doesn’t: WaveLab File Exchange, Workspaces, ARA 2 Support, Tempo Track, Signature Track, TrackVersions, Global Transpose Track, Note Expression and Comping. Functions Artist doesn’t have that Pro does: Project Logical Editor, Track Archives, Project Browser, Advanced Audio Export, Chord Assistant Proximity Mode, Expression Maps, Time Warp and Control Room.

Keep in mind: this product is software, there are no physical items included.