Steinberg has announced Cubase 4 Essential, a personal music production system (formerly Cubase LE).

Bringing to your desktop powerful tools for composing, recording, editing and mixing, Cubase Essential 4 is your entry-level ticket to the world of Cubase. Cubase Essential 4 shines with the same user interface and award-winning Audio Engine as Steinberg’s flagship Cubase 4. And that means when it comes to audio quality and intuitive handling, Cubase Essential rivals its bigger brothers. Any way you choose to use it - as a sequencer for your home recording studio or a multi-track recorder for the band rehearsal room - with Cubase Essential 4 you get the real deal at an unbeatable budget price.

Cubase 4 Essential features

• Audio + MIDI Recording and Mixing.
• VST3 Plug-In Set (including HALion One and Guitar Amp Simulator).
• Professional Technology (32-bit Audio Engine, 24-bit/96-kHz Recording).
• Powerful Editors for MIDI and Audio Processing.
• Media Bay database for sound management.
• AudioWarp realtime time stretching/pitch shifting.

Cubase 4 Essential will be available for Windows and Mac OS X Universal Binary (compatible with PPC- and Intel-based Macintosh computers) in Q1 2008.

Visit Steinberg for more information.