Do I need to re-install Cubase 5 to upgrade to Cubase 8.5?

OK …Here is my deal. I originally has Cubase 5 installed on a general purpose PC where I played around with it for a year or two. This used the USB Licence Dongle. I built a music specific PC and at the same time bought a new Yamaha Keyboard. That came with a newer version of Cubase, so I installed that on the new PC instead of Cubase 5. The old PC has been put out to pasture, so there is no Cubase 5 installed anymore.

Late last year, I upgraded this install to Cubase Elements 8. I haven’t had much time to play with until now. I noticed that Elements was missing a lot of things that I had used in Cubase 5 (i.e. Beat Designer, etc).

So yesterday, I looked into what I would need to do to upgrade to Cubase 8 Pro (or 8.5 now). The price for upgrade from Elements is much higher than for Cubase 5, which confuses me given it’s age. I am not sure the Cubase Artist 8 would be much of an upgrade given the pricing, etc.

So…if I chose thoe go to the Pro, would I have to install Cubase 5 on my new PC in order for this is succeed? This is a big hunk of change to upgrade, but I feel tied into the N12/XF7/Cubase integration which works fairly well for my needs.

Thanks…

All you need is the Cubase 5 license on the usb elicenser.

As long as you can see this license you can update it to 8.5 and you can download a full installer from your MySteinberg after purchase.