Atari ST & Cubase: A Recording Session Using the DAW of the 1980s!

As a non-musician who used to be a synth nut back in the 80s I really appreciate this bit of insight into how this stuff actually worked.

Love it. Except the 16 track HDD recorder is a bit out of place, but that's okay. I was doing similar but with a Fostex R8, 8 track reel to reel. I striped track 8 with smpte and chased the computer. Man, those were the days! You had to work for your music. You had to be creative!

The first engineer I apprenticed under back in the Atari Era once told me that if the external gear hadn't sync'd to Atari Time by ~3bars then that meant there MUST be a problem somewhere, and it was time to troubleshoot.

So this was the first daw from 80 s before Cubase?

Great video. I’ve since moved on, but still have my Atari STe and Cubase (and dongle) and do still use it from time to time, just because I can (and because latency remains awesome). Usually with my Roland MKS-80, JV-1080 and 707. I do record the individual tracks as stems into logic and throw them through a reverb and delay and Ozone though 😂 Think some artists still use the ST these days. I know the entire PSB album Very Relentless from 93 was all ST and Notator. Pete Gleadall (their MD) talked about it on a video last year on the Facebook thingy.

got a ST and a Falcon030 with cubase audio at the time . .. good computers, and no bugs :) ... Still on cubase now on pc with cubase 12

Interesting video!
I just found my dad's Atari 1040ST with Cubase 2. I use old gear like the Akai S950, so might look into it and try to use it!

I love how you look like a kid in a lolly-shop with those facial expressions
.... I still have all my ATARI gear circa 1989 & I'm guilty of being one of those ummm, 'hoarders' who doesn't want to let it go.

Good presentation as usual mate

... Joe all the way from Tasmania/Australia

a guy told me that in a bar... I didn't believed him. thougt he makes fun of me. but hell yeah this is great

ATARI should remake the Falcon ST cheaply using a single board computer with all the original MIDI and other inputs/outputs . Just for the musicians . It should sell well .

I didn't think Cubase was a DAW as far back as 1992. But it required special hardware. First time I used a DAW was about a decade later.

How was the connection made from the Atari to the recorder if there were only one in/out port on the Atari??

This was my introduction to making music I bought an Atari SD 10 40 out some dude for £40 and had lots of different daws with it cubase was the only one I could use

So cool, what midi software did you use on your Atari, I just found mine in the attic

Hi, what if now in that config i want to ad another synth as or module, the 16 midi channels are already used by our nice SC_880 ?
There is a way to use the SC-880 fx parts wiih externals devices i mean guitars or synths ?

I think standalone multitrack HDRs are already a bit obscure, and while the popular ones like RADAR and mackie HD24 will maintain some following, there's plenty of early- to mid-90s units that came of age in the pre-web world of magazine reviews and don't seem to have a lot of online representation these days. I think these are going to remain more usable long-term than the digital tape units like the DA88 and ADATs.

A delight from start to finish. The nostalgia for the days of Atari STs etc. I am amazed what you achieved with 3 MIDI tracks and a vocal. Since I first owned an STFM, I had intended to have a go but never really got around to it. More fool me!

Great vid. Planning on picking up an ST myself soon

awsome thanks for sharing some of how the magic is made

Wow great memories.. I was a Sound Engineer in the early 90s. We used this sort of system a bit but it quickly turned into DAW with Sound Tools / Pro Tools and recording digitally on things like the Alesis 8 track SVHS machines. Later I worked on tv shows were we used SMPTE code for everything. All syncd video machines and analog tape machines. Worked pretty reliably day to day.. somehow.

Bugger. I just sold all 8 of my ataris. But… you know… 25 years was enough. Synced to a cassette tape four track. Then a mini disc 8 track and finally, how grandiose, a Roland 2400 cd 24 track with… gasp.. flying faders. Great to see this though. I fought off the DAW beasts for so long. But now I am happy with colour, ease and the knowledge that I will never again have to clean the little contacts in the mouse. Bye bye 1040 STEs it was good while it lasted.

This was not the only way we worked. You could also use an ADAT synchronised with a device called DATA SYNC and then do the stereo mix with a DAT. I still have my Atari ST and two screens, monochrome and colour, but the monochrome one no longer works. The Adat also ended up dead because of the constant work it had to do... Thank you for the video!

There's something romantic and inspiring about recording the old way. Add an Akai sampler, gated reverbs and a Juno and you got yourself an 80's hit.

This vid is pure gold. Really an awesome demostration. Greetz from Chile.

Marvellous. Thanks for bringing me down memory lane with CB and my 1040STe ;) Cheers!

Cool, but dont acept UAD plugins! 😂😂😂😂😢

Plus points were, midi timing ( clock straight from cpu on hardware level unlike PC's) , no monthly updates of software, no crashes from a vst , no glassy soundquality from in the box , and most important making music with your ears instead of drawing modulation lanes

Yep. I remember having to do all that. I started doing it again a couple of years ago, syncing Pro Tools as a slave to time code striped on my Reel to Reel to get that 'tape vibe' on my bass and some drum tracks -- until the plugins got so good at replicating that sound that there's really no point in doing it anymore! IK's tape plugins are amazing.

I loved Cubase & my Atari ST. Was into making dance music from my bedroom. Never got anywhere but hours of fun.

Mad how Mj Cole made sincere on this & cubase 🔥

The Atari ST is more than capable of beautiful colors but the reason you are stuck in black & white is because the mode your running CuBase in. To get the highest resolution you only can run that mode in black & white, which is preferablw because the higher resolution is all you need for recording music. Games for example run in a lower resolution and were full color.

I had the STE 1040 1MB of RAM whooo 🙌😂
Also, use Steinberg pro 24 that came with it until Cubase one illegal floppy disk arrived. LOL

OMG, iam so thankful for this Time Journey....!
Almost 40 Years ago ive bought my first Atari
with Cubase 1 ! It was a Dream for me and ive
composed many Tracks with my KORG M1 Synth.
That was pure magic (: Many Thanks my Friend.
😀😀😇😇😇😇💫💫💛💛💛👌👌🙏🙏

Nice to see it work you should have 4 ram inside it:)

what you remind me now~~~~~~~~~

Thank you!

Cubase is amazing !!

DAW = Digital Audio Workstation, ie a piece of software running on a computer allowing you to record MIDI and audio.
This isn’t that.
This is a computer running a SEQUENCER software program in conjunction with an audio recorder. At first tape recorders were used and later hard disc recorders, so in essence what you would see in a complete studio setup. And as far away as the concept of a ”DAW”, the self contained Digital Audio Workstation housed in a computer.

Did you know the song Cat Scan by Tangerine Dream was recorded entirely on an Atari ST? It's a bloody great track too, from their Optical Race album.

best midi timing ever

Hi Dan, great video of old tech. As old tech goes, I still use an old Tascam 2488mk2 24 track digital recorder. Keep up the great content. Kind regards. Paul.

Atari monochrome monitor, 640x400 at 72Hz - retina display for its time, razor sharp and clear.

What i find amazing about the tools are that despite the hardware limitations the software itself is so similar to what we still have in 2025. If anything limitations and simplicity are refreshing compared to what we have now.

Love the Atari very reliable reaper has SMPTE generated code and it can read it to .No outboard kit required great for cassette portastudios

I started with an Atari 1040 ST with Steinberg Pro 24 on a color TV! Then a real monochrome Atari Monitor. Steinberg Cubase. Yamaha DX100 synth, 1300 HFL in late 1980s money. During the first studio session a friend of mine spilled a bottle of beer on it! Roland MT32 module. A Yamaha drum computer. Later on a Korg M1, still have it. A Portastudio with four (4!) tracks on a cassette tape. Those were the days! Not!

Listen how tight the midi timing is, you dont have to worry about buffer size, latency, what front end software is handling the monitoring, bring the buffer down, take the plugin in and or out, oh men, we need this system back in modern way where everything is NOT in a box, remember those all in one tv, vhs, dvd systems, they were horrible, this is what we have today.

I also used Edit Track from Hybrid Arts to produce music with my ST.

Great stuff, I upgraded my old yamaha midi sequencer to atari, used them with fostex r8 which used smpt and did work very well. I would take a break from recording bewtween 4-16 to about 4-45 every day as the Atari would tend to freeze around this time without fail. I put it down to mains power fluxations, people making tea after work etc.

That was really interesting, thanks! 😀 I would have loved all this gear in the 90s, but so glad I have GarageBand now!

I still use my Atari STe, its connected to a digital 16 track.