Compatibility between Elements 11 and Artist 14

Cubase
1

Hello all
We have Cubase Elements 11 which I am teaching with at my secondary school. I have recently set up a recording studio and want to be able to record audio in take folders. I’ve researched this and have found that Cubase call this Lanes and this is not available to the Elements software but is available on the Artist or Pro versions.
So I am thinking of purchasing one copy of the Artist version 14 but is this compatible with Elements 11? So for example - students record using the Artist version in the Studio and then can open up this in Elements back in the classroom so that they can edit/mix? Also how easy is it to copy across the file AND tracks from 1 account (the studio account where Artist will be used) to a student account?
Thank you in advance - I’m not a tech wizard at all but over the years have had to learn Logic Pro, then moved to a school with Studio One and learnt that and now in a school where we use Cubase which I am now learning to use!!

2

Hi and welcome to the forum,

In general, yes the projects are compatible. The project’s format is the very same. Of course, features, which are not available in the lower version/edition will not be applied.

For example, if you exceed the number of Elements tracks (because you have more tracks available in Artist in comparison to Elements), these tracks will playback in Elements, but you can’t edit them in Elements.

I would recommend you to download Cubase Pro 14 Trial, which you can use for 60 days. When you start it, you can hold down Alt/Opt modifier to force you to start Artist instead of the Pro edition (to get the exact one, you want to buy). With the Trial, you can test on your unique projects, in your unique use case.

3

Thank you for such a quick response - I am now liaising with my IT team to see if we are “allowed” to do the trial. This will be great to test out the compatibility.
Kind regards

4

I think Martin forgot to mention something very crucial. Projects created from ground up in Cubase 14 will not be able to run in Cubase 11. The project file format had to be changed and is thus not downward compatible.

However, if you use a template that was created in Cubase 11, you can work on it in Cubase 14 and then again in Cubase 11.

5

Thank you - we will play around with this when we do the trial.
Kind regards

6

I have found an upgrade for Cubase Elements 14 which I will consider - would this resolve this issue? or is it also to do with the compatibility between Elements and Artist itself?

7

It has to do with Steinberg realizing that the old file format has a chance to corrupt projects if the project file size exceeds 4 GB.
The only fix was to change to project file format. The jump is between version 13.0.20 and 13.0.30.
It affects all levels - Elements, Artist, Pro, Nuendo.

Just create an empty project in Cubase 11, save it, and use this file as the starting point in Cubase 14. This way your project will remain compatible with version 11. (Don’t have it exceed 4GB in size, though :grin:)