Hi!
I didn’t find this exact topic, so I would like to post this new topic here. Cubase has existed for a long time, since the nineties, thousands of people have used it all around the world. In order to enrich my erudition and to know how the professional mixes done in Cubase should sound, can you please name any top10 songs mixed exclusively in Cubase? If you also know the version where such top 10 song was mixed, it’s even better. I’m looking forward to your replies, thanks.
Our version of Nasty Girl - Inaya Day (as Riffs & Rays for AATW) reached no 9 in the UK in 2005. (And various others since then).
I’ve always worked exclusively in Cubase (or more recently Nuendo).
Very interesting. I will listen to it now.
It’s not really a work of art. Just a good pop song. My work has varied greatly over the years from rock to orchestral and sound design etc. but this was just an example of what you asked. I’m sure there’ll be people with much better examples.
I listened to it. Sounds like Cubase indeed, especially the drums and the transients overall. But here it worked, 1,3 million views, 5,3 thousand likes. If you could share the Cubase project (the archive) so that anyone could open it in old Cubase versions, and look what was done to achieve that success.
Hey, Phil, one question. On that pop song, that must be Cubase 4 or Cubase SX, basing on the year. Can you tell me the project and export settings to achieve that quality? 48 khz/32 bit and 44100/16 bit export mixdown, no? What would you recommend to achieve the best quality of mixdown out of old Cubase programs, what project and export settings you use to preserve the energy and breathiness in transients in the songs like those?
In that particular case, Project was at 48k 24 bit and as it was in the days of CD I mastered it (and dithered) to 44.1 16 bit. But tbh it’s not the best example. Got a lot of radio time though.
Before going much further to avoid confusion, it may be best to explain your definition of “top 10 songs”
First of all the country origin is important.
In the USA which Billboard chart, assuming you are referring to Bollboard, are you referring to? There are lots of charts broken down in genre. And Billboard is IMO not the best guage. The magazine Radio & Records was closer to the “bible” in the 80s and 90s. Gavin Report…several others.
If you mean the list that Seacrest goes by on AT40 show, last i checked theAT40 producers deviated slightly.
Charts simply dont mean near as much today as when KC Kasem counted down the Top-40. Just Top 40 alone has been segmented into different charts.
Sorry for being a killjoy.
It is very simple. Any chart of any country of any time…
Don’t worry, your intentions were clear and obvious.
Well, a user above needed additional clarifications to understand what the topic was about.
true
Drop me a pm and I’ll see if I can sort out some project stuff for you. Probably better than stirring it up publicly. 
Hi,
you’ll find loads of past and contemporary producers/songwriters/mixing engineers etc that use Cubase as their main DAW (e.g. Ian Kirkpatrick - Dua Lipa etc / Avicii / Tiësto / Tyler Smith / Ludwig Göransson and many many others).
I think you’ve raised an interesting question here! It would be interesting to have a dedicated song list - there is none to the best of my knowledge.
I would be quite surprised if you found something like the “sound” of Cubase. There are certain Steinberg instruments which lean into a specific direction but I don’t think there’s a particular sound to Cubase. Apart from that, Cubase as a DAW is just one piece of the puzzle.
Again, interesting question
Hi. Any particular song names that fit the specified criteria? Yes, as you fairly noted, I could have found this information by myself on google, but it is really hard, there are only trendy generalistic thoughts and almost nothing about mixing results. I need to improve my mixing, but for this purpose, I need to at least know how a mix done in Cubase should sound to be accepted at the radio and other establishments. There is in fact sound to this program, you can make mixdowns of the same in different DAWS and I will pick what mix is a Cubase mix.
As I said, tracking, arranging, mixing and producing in a DAW are just parts of the bigger puzzle. What about 3rd party plugins, hardware on the way in/out, mastering etc?
If you can still identify the “sound of Cubase” (I highly doubt that there is such a thing) then you are capable of something I can’t do. Nonetheless, it’s worth exploring if you think you can put your finger on a specific aspect. Anything in particular?
In your long text I tried to find the answer to my question and the topic, but unfortunately didn’t find it. Can you please look at the first message of this topic to make sure you have an understanding of the subject that is discussed here?
Curious how you can identify “the sound of Cubase”. In any case, Grammy winning music producer Zedd uses Cubase exclusively for his production and mixing. He tracks vocals and comps in Pro Tools, but exports them to Cubase for his mixes. He’s been using it since v5 or so. His song, “Clarity” won a Grammy in 2014 and was Top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and a #1 Dance track, FYI.
Okay, I’ll leave you to it.
If you find evidence for the sound of Cubase please feel free to share!
@phil_Pendlebury LOVED that track, BTW. What a fun mix. Nice work.
That evidence is not very hard to find if you have been working in Cubase for at least ten years. You may check it for yourself, for this you have to install any other daw, take any piano library and export the track in two daws. If the recordings will not sound the same, you buy me a pack of roasted nuts, deal?