Cubasis 3 - DAW & Music Studio

Review by eFreeware

Cubasis 3 is for people who already make music and want to keep working when they are away from a desktop: songwriters catching ideas on a phone, producers sketching arrangements on a tablet, and anyone who would rather not carry a laptop to a rehearsal room. This is Steinberg's mobile take on a full production studio. The pitch is straightforward: instruments, a mixer, effects and editing tools in one app.

What you get for the $29.99 price is a digital audio workstation rather than a toy sketchpad. Tracks are unlimited, the audio engine runs at 32-bit floating point, and recording and playback go up to 24-bit/48 kHz. That combination is what separates a serious mobile studio from a loop player, and it is the main reason this app sits at the top of its category on Android.

The app has been on Google Play since June 2020 and has passed 50,000 installs with a 4.3 average from 4,690 ratings. Those numbers suggest a steady audience rather than a viral hit, which fits a paid tool with a learning curve. It is not a game or a casual time-killer, and the developer's own framing is professional music production.

Recording and editing audio and MIDI

The core of the app is capture and cleanup. You can record audio and MIDI, then cut, trim and tweak events in dedicated audio and MIDI editors, with automation available for the parameters you want to move over time. MIDI CC, program change and aftertouch are supported, so controller data from external gear can be brought in and edited rather than just recorded and forgotten. Track duplicate and an undo history list make it easier to try an arrangement idea and step back if it does not work.

Time-stretching and pitch-shifting happen in real time through zplane's élastique 3, which matters if you want to change the tempo of a recorded part or move a vocal into a different key without re-recording. Tempo and time signature tracks are supported too, so a song can shift feel partway through.

For beat makers, the app includes responsive pads and a virtual keyboard with chord buttons, plus chord and drum pads with note repeat. Quantize and time-stretch help tidy up timing after the fact. There are over 550 MIDI and time-stretch-capable audio loops to start from, which is a reasonable library for building a backing track before adding your own parts.

Instruments, mixing and effects

Cubasis 3 ships with three instruments. Micrologue is a virtual analog synthesizer with 126 presets, MicroSonic covers over 120 instrument sounds from acoustic piano to drums, and MiniSampler lets you build your own instruments, with 20 factory instruments included. Between them you can put together a full arrangement without buying anything else, though the app also offers in-app purchases if you want to expand the instrument and effect collection.

Mixing is where the app leans hardest into its desktop heritage. Every track gets a studio-grade channel strip, and there are 17 effects processors to draw on, with eight insert and eight send slots available. You can rearrange plug-ins and change whether they sit before or after the fader. Sidechain support is included, which is the kind of routing detail that usually gets dropped in mobile apps. The Master Strip suite handles the final stage of a mix, and the Spin FX plug-in is fully automatable if you want performance-style transitions.

Groups let you combine individual tracks and treat them as one, which keeps larger projects manageable. The overall picture is a mixer that behaves like the one on a computer rather than a simplified mobile stand-in. That is a strength for anyone who already knows their way around a DAW, and the main source of the learning curve for everyone else.

Working with hardware, apps and other people

The app is built to sit inside a larger setup, not stand alone. It supports MIDI Learn, Mackie Control (MCU) and HUI protocols, MIDI clock and MIDI thru, and Ableton Link, so it can be synchronized with other software and controlled from external hardware. Keyboard shortcuts and mouse input are supported as well, which makes a tablet or Chromebook feel closer to a desk setup.

Export options are broad: projects can go to Cubase, Google Drive, Dropbox, external hard drives and wireless flash drives. Moving a sketch from a phone into a desktop session is one of the more practical reasons to keep everything in the Steinberg ecosystem, and the Cubase export path is clearly the intended one for people who finish their music on a computer.

One caveat matters here. Hardware support on Android is narrow, covering only some audio and MIDI devices. Anyone planning to build a rig around a specific interface or controller should check that their gear is covered before buying, because the Android version does not match the hardware compatibility of the platform's desktop counterparts.

What to know before you buy

This is a paid app at $29.99 with no ads, and it also offers in-app purchases for additional instruments and effects. The decision comes before you have used it. On Android the purchase is the entry point.

Android and Chrome OS are the supported platforms, covering smartphones, tablets and Chromebooks. The app was released in June 2020 and was still being updated as of August 2026, with the most recent change described as a supplemental update containing improvements. For a paid app, a six-year update history is a reasonable sign that work continues.

Expect a learning curve. Unlimited tracks, automation, sidechain routing, insert and send effects and a full channel strip per track add up to a lot of interface for a small screen. The developer pitches the app as intuitive, and the pad and keyboard workflow is aimed at quick capture, but the depth of the mixer and editors will take time to learn if you have not used a DAW before.

Who gets the most from it

The clearest fit is a musician or producer who already understands tracks, buses and effects and wants those tools available on a device that is always with them. If you write on guitar or piano and want to capture parts, layer drums and build a rough mix before moving to a studio, the app covers that whole path. If you finish music in Cubase, the export route makes the transfer close to painless.

Beat makers and electronic producers are the second group. The pads, chord buttons, note repeat, loops and the Micrologue and MicroSonic instruments give you enough to build a track from scratch, and time-stretching means loops do not have to dictate the tempo. Someone who wants to perform with hardware and other apps will also find the MIDI and sync support useful, provided their gear is on the supported list.

A beginner with no DAW experience can learn on Cubasis 3, but the price and the depth of the interface make it a demanding first step. It is a tool for people who intend to finish songs, not for passing twenty minutes. That focus is deliberate, and it is what the app is built around.

A serious mobile studio for committed musicians

Cubasis 3 is one of the few Android apps that can honestly be called a full production studio. Unlimited tracks, a 32-bit floating-point engine, real-time time-stretching, a proper mixer with insert and send effects, three bundled instruments and broad export options add up to a package that covers recording, arranging and mixing without leaving the device. The 4.3 average across 4,690 ratings, alongside more than 50,000 installs, suggests that the people who buy it tend to stay with it.

The trade-offs are real. You pay $29.99 up front, in-app purchases sit alongside that price, and audio and MIDI hardware support on Android is limited, so a planned rig needs checking first. The interface is deep enough to demand time. None of that is a flaw in the design; it is the cost of having desktop-grade tools on a phone.

If you already work in a DAW and want that workflow on a tablet, phone or Chromebook, this is the app to look at. If you are curious about making music and want something to dabble with, the price and the learning curve make it a commitment rather than a casual download. For the committed, it is a well-equipped studio that fits in a bag.

What's new in version 3.8.6

This supplemental update includes improvements and is recommended for all Cubasis users. For the complete list of improvements, issues and solution please visit us at www.steinberg.net/cubasisforum. If you like Cubasis, please support us by rating this app!