It's no secret that Steinberg's Cubase is one the worlds most popular and most powerful music production software packages. We've been selling it for close to 20 years. It might be just that fact, that we're so used to this software that we sometimes forget how unbelievably powerful it is .. But it is!

This week I'd like to share with you one of the least talked about but most powerful features of Cubase. First, let me ask you, which weakness, more then any can ruin a good recording? The answer, at least from my perspective is a sloppy drum track. Producing super tight drum tracks is hard, even for seasoned drummers but a loose drum track can really make an otherwise great recording sound, well crummy. Cubase has the enhanced ability to analyze your drum tracks and establish what it calls hit points. Hit points are basically beat lines usually broken into 16th or 32nd note resolutions. You as the user have the ability to manipulate these hit points to ensure that they are accurate. Once established you can have Cubase slice up your drum parts into dozens of individual segments each being a single drum hit such as kick drums and snare hits. Once sliced up, Cubase can use its quantize feature to tighten up the timing of less then perfect drum tracks. It is worth pointing out here that I am not advocating making your drum tracks perfectly quantized and unnatural sounding but I am an advocate of making them sound rhythmically consistent.

If this sounds all a bit un-musical, you're right it is pretty nerdy and technical. However, there is nothing musical about a bad drum track and lets face it, most of us don't have Neil Peart as the drummer in our weekend band or as our songwriting partner. So, start with solid bed (drums and bass) tracks and your song stands a much better chance of sounding good.

For more information about Cubase 6, Click here.