Atari PRO24 to LE4 HOW???

I periodically look for a workround for this issue and have done a quick search here but nothing showed - so am reposting:

I am Long-time user of Pro 24 V3 and Cubase v1 for ATARI STf.

Have several compositions where in Pro24 you could save as a *.PAT (pattern), the current synth settings including any Edited and Unique sound patches created with Steinberg Synthworks Editor (in this case for MT32/D10/D110/D50). I also used the Steinberg Satellite desk acc tool in this process.

The *.PAT was saved as part of the resultant *SNG file so when you reloaded that song/composition and pressed PLAY, the unique patch edit was dumped to the synth in the first 2 beats as a MIDI dump. This is a great way to automatically configure synths per song!

Now I realise that you can import the Pro24 format *.SNG file into later ATARI Cubases and resave as .ALL but to get that saved up the line so I can have this data content active in a Cuabse LE4.03 (PC) file - how many steps with legacy versions do I have to resort to and will that crucial Midi dump info be retained or stripped out?

On same note: What would be the equivalent way to achieve this action in Cubase LE4 today?

The trouble is - Currently - you need to load the saved soundfile which is a *SND format via the ATARI/Satellite tool from a floppy to the Synth. BUT I have saved these files off of the floppies onto a PC hard drive and have them as standard *'syx files now (or *.mid)… what can I do with them?

I hope this makes sense… Will do to legacy users I am sure!

The first step is to ensure that the computer you are transferring to can actually read the ST floppies correctly. This is not trivial; some configurations work, some don’t, & some appear to work but then you find the data is nonsense.

Assuming you are not having this problem, your problem is importing data from .ALL or .ARR files into a recent version of Cubase. I have been trying to find a workaround for this for several decades; the only way to do it is manually. Steinberg changed the import options so you can’t import old Songs directly, or even by a series of ‘hops’.

When I realised this, I switched form Cubase (which I had been using since Pro-24) to Logic Pro. The reason for the switch is that it is equally difficult to perform the steps required whichever sequencer you use — & I had had so many problems with Cubase over the years that it made sense to try an Apple product, since I felt Apple could be trusted to provide a properly-working product with fixes appearing rapidly for any bugs that might appear.

Anyway… you may find that all you can do is run the last version if Cubase (or perhaps Pro-24 would actually be better for this purpose) that contains all the info you need, & having exported the MIDI files into a fresh project, manually copy the information that doesn’t get included in the MIDI files.

I know — it’s unbelievable, isn’t it? Particularly if you have hours & hours of projects to port over…

But at least this method will work.

I should make it clear that by “manually copy”, what I mean is “display the missing info on the screen, read it, & then manually type the same info into the new project”.

IOW — you have to recreate the missing info, & you can tell which info is missing by displaying it.

This works best if you have two computers both running at the same time; so e.g. the Atari ST displays the missing info, & your PC displays where it needs to be manually input!

I am still doing this myself (which is why I joined this Forum). I am running Logic on my 27" iMac (OS X 10.6.8), & Cubase is running in an emulation of System 9 on the same iMac. This should work very nicely for this purpose; I’m just trying to figure out how to get Cubase authorised on an emulated computer…! (I don’t need to get Cubase to actually produce any sounds or other output, let alone record anything new; I just need to get it to display the existing project information.)

All roads lead to… somewhere… pre VST5 songs - HELP NEEDED - Cubase - Steinberg Forums :wink: