Mixing in Cubase
Cubase by Steinberg is a powerhouse DAW with one of the most fully featured mixing environments available. The MixConsole provides a hardware-console experience with integrated channel strips, flexible routing, and a dedicated Control Room section for monitoring. Its stock plugin suite — including Frequency, Compressor, and REVerence — covers every mixing need with professional quality.
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Get Your Mix RoastedMixing Workflow Tips
- 1Use the MixConsole (press F3) as your primary mixing interface. Its channel strip section provides built-in high-cut, low-cut, EQ, compressor, gate, and saturation — set these up before loading insert plugins.
- 2Configure the Control Room (Studio > Audio Connections > Control Room) to separate your mix bus from your monitoring chain. This lets you add monitoring plugins, reference at different levels, and use talkback without affecting the mix output.
- 3Create Group Channels for submixes by right-clicking selected tracks and choosing "Add Group Channel to Selected Channels." Process the group with bus compression and EQ to glue related elements together.
- 4Use FX Channels for shared reverb and delay — they function as send/return tracks. Route multiple tracks to the same FX Channel to create cohesive spaces.
- 5Enable the MixConsole's "Link Group" feature to link faders, pans, or other parameters across multiple channels while maintaining offset relationships.
- 6Use Direct Offline Processing (Audio > Direct Offline Processing) for non-destructive, undoable offline effects on individual audio events — ideal for clip-level processing like noise reduction or pitch correction.
Best Stock Plugins for Mixing
Frequency
Eight-band parametric EQ with linear phase mode, mid/side processing, dynamic EQ bands, and a built-in spectrum analyzer. The dynamic EQ feature alone makes it competitive with premium third-party EQs.
Compressor
Versatile dynamics processor with standard and vintage modes, variable knee, and auto makeup gain. Works on individual tracks and buses. The vintage mode adds subtle harmonic character.
REVerence
Convolution reverb with an extensive library of impulse responses from real spaces. Load it on an FX Channel for realistic room, hall, and plate reverbs that place instruments in a believable acoustic environment.
Squasher
Three-band upward/downward compressor with gate functionality. Unique to Cubase, it excels at adding sustain to drums, thickening thin sounds, and creative multiband dynamics shaping.
SuperVision
Multi-panel metering and analysis suite with level meters, spectrum analyzer, loudness meter (LUFS), phase correlation, and waveform display. Essential for visual monitoring of your mix decisions.
Export Settings
- Export via File > Export > Audio Mixdown (Ctrl/Cmd+Shift+M). Select the output channel — typically "Stereo Out" — and choose WAV as the file format.
- Set the sample rate to 44100 Hz and bit depth to 24-bit for streaming distribution. If your project runs at a higher sample rate, Cubase handles the conversion with its high-quality internal resampling.
- Enable dithering by adding a dither plugin (UV22HR) as the last insert on the Stereo Out when rendering to 16-bit. For 24-bit exports, skip dithering.
- Check "Real-Time Export" only when using external hardware. For fully in-the-box mixes, leave it unchecked for faster offline rendering.
- Use "Channel Batch Export" to render multiple channels or groups simultaneously — select all the channels you want to export and Cubase bounces them in one pass.
Common Mistakes in Cubase
Not setting up the Control Room for monitoring
Many Cubase users skip the Control Room setup and monitor directly from the Stereo Out bus. This means any monitoring adjustments (volume changes, reference plugins, mono checks) affect the actual mix output. The Control Room separates monitoring from the mix bus — set it up once and your mix stays clean.
Overlooking the built-in channel strip
Cubase's MixConsole channel strip includes high-cut/low-cut filters, EQ, compression, gate, and saturation — all before the insert slots. Many users load third-party plugins without realizing these integrated tools are high quality and extremely CPU-efficient.
Forgetting dithering on 16-bit exports
Cubase does not automatically apply dithering when you export. If you render a 24-bit or 32-bit float project to 16-bit WAV without adding the UV22HR dither plugin on the master output, you introduce quantization noise on quiet passages.
Using real-time export for in-the-box mixes
Enabling "Real-Time Export" forces Cubase to render at playback speed, which can take minutes for a long song. Unless you are using external hardware or monitoring the export in real time, always use offline export for a faster and identical result.
Frequently Asked Questions
The Control Room is a dedicated monitoring section that separates your mix bus from your listening chain. It allows you to adjust monitoring volume, add reference plugins, switch between monitor outputs, check mono compatibility, and use talkback — all without affecting the mix. It simulates having a hardware monitor controller in your studio.
The MixConsole is modeled after large-format mixing consoles, with an integrated channel strip (EQ, dynamics, saturation), insert slots, send routing, direct routing, and configurable visibility. It supports up to 256 audio channels, and features like Link Groups and Quick Link replicate hardware console workflows in software.
Direct Offline Processing (DOP) lets you apply plugins to individual audio events non-destructively. Unlike real-time inserts, DOP renders the effect permanently but keeps an undo history — you can remove or re-order effects at any time. It is perfect for event-level processing like noise reduction, EQ, or pitch correction on specific audio regions.
Use Group Channels for bus compression. Group Channels receive the full summed signal from their assigned tracks, making them ideal for processing the combined audio. FX Channels are designed for parallel effects via sends (reverb, delay). The distinction matters: Group Channels handle summed routing, FX Channels handle send/return processing.
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