I never use Track Instruments. I hope Steinberg leave Rack Instruments well alone.
Imagine the number of broken projects if Rack instruments are removed!
I just went through a hard drive with projects dating back to 2004-2005 looking for something specific. For funsies I opened a few other Cubase projects of my own. None of the VST Instruments from back then would load. I either didnât own the instrument anymore or they have been updated numerous times over since and there is no backwards compatibility.
I could of course try to recreate the instrument patches with modern counterparts. The MIDI tracks are obviously intact. At the end of the day however, I decided it wasnât worth the time for a little bit of nostalgia and better to leave the past in the past.
If the Rack instrument feature was removed, in say, Cubase 15(!), then any projects from now until then, with HALion, Kontakt, Opus, etc, would be broken.
The horror! 
I guess my point is, perpetual backwards compatibility in software development doesnât exist.
Only if you insist on still using Rack Instruments (which I donât understand why you would nor recommend). Or until an update of said VSTiâs breaks backwards compatibility. Or the VST spec updates and does. Or the processor word size increases. I think you get my drift.
Different strokes, and all that. I donât understand why you wouldnât. Câest la vie?
1 Like