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Question: What is the difference between Cubase Essential, Cubase Studio and Cubase? What plug-ins and effects are included?

Answer:

Features	Cubase 5	Cubase Studio 5	Cubase Essential 5
Award-winning 32-bit floating-point audio engine	yes	yes	yes
Number of audio tracks	virtually unlimited	virtually unlimited	64
Number of MIDI tracks	unlimited	unlimited	unlimited
Instrument tracks	unlimited	unlimited	unlimited
Physical inputs/outputs	256	128	32
Group channels	256	256	256
FX Send channels	8	8	8
FX Return channels	64	64	8
VST audio effect insert slots	8	8	8
MIDI effect insert slots	4	4	4
VST instrument slots	64	32	16
VST3 plug-in support	yes	yes	yes
ReWire support	yes	yes	yes
Number of mixer views	3	2	1
Control Room	yes	no	no
Extended Channel EQ (VST3 Studio EQ)	yes	no	no
Extended Mixer view	yes	yes	no
Sidechain inputs	yes	yes	no
5.1 surround and True multichannel audio path	yes	no	no
External FX	yes	no	no
External instruments	yes	no	no
Automation modes	touch fader, x-over, autolatch, trim	touch fader	touch fader
Volume envelopes	yes	yes	no
Automation panel	yes	yes	no
Hardware controller support	yes	yes	only Houston, generic+Tascam US-428/224, Mackie Universal, HUI and CC121
Channel Batch Export function	yes	yes	no
Unlimited Undo and Redo functions	yes	yes	yes
Offline Process History	for built-in audio and all plug-ins	for built-in audio	single undo
MediaBay and VST Sound support	full	limited*	limited*
Track presets	yes	yes	yes
Studio connections	recall+audio	recall	recall
Workspaces (virtual desktops)	yes	yes	no
Project Browser	yes	yes	no
Recording modes: Mix, Overwrite, Normal, Merge, Stacked	yes	yes	excl. Stacked
Recording from busses	yes	yes	no
Editors: Key, List, Basic Score	yes	yes	yes
Drum Editor	yes	yes	yes
Logical Editor	yes	yes	no
Project Logical Editor	yes	no	no
Inplace Editor (MIDI editing in Project Window)	yes	yes	no
Advanced options in Tempo Editor	yes	no	no
Extended Track Inspector (shows VSTi channel for MIDI tracks)	yes	yes	yes
MIDI devices (Device Maps and Editors)	yes	no	no
Professional score layout and printing functions (incl. MusicXML Import+Export)	yes	yes	no
Arranger Track	yes	yes	yes
Global Transpose Track	yes	yes	no
Signature and tempo tracks in Project Window	yes	yes	no
VariAudio	yes	no	no
VST Expression support	yes	yes	no
AudioWarp (real-time time stretching+pitch shifting)	yes	yes	playback only
Time Warp tool	yes	yes	no
Pitch Shifting/Time Stretching algorithm	real time+MPEX	real time+MPEX	real time
Dithering	Apogee UV22HR	Apogee UV22HR	Apogee UV22HR
Key command macros	yes	yes	yes
Pool Import and Export	yes	yes	no
Track archives	yes	no	no
Extended Freeze for VST instruments and audio tracks	yes	yes	yes
Track Quick Controls	yes	yes	no
Full MP3 Fraunhofer encoding	yes	available as update	available as update
Windows Media WMA Pro encoding	yes	yes	yes
OMF import/export	yes	no	no
Sequel Project import	yes	yes	no
Number of VST MIDI effect plug-ins	18	18	18
Number of VST audio effect plug-ins	58	39	33
Number of VST instruments	8	3	2
Number of instrument sounds included	1,623	749	706
Full printed operations manual	yes	no	no
Mac OS X Universal Binary	yes	yes	yes
Multi-processing support	yes	yes	yes
Vista 64 native Cubase 64-bit version	yes	yes	no

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