I’m helping some folks complete the project of someone who is unfortunately no longer with us, and therefore have to pull the tracks from his Cubase Studio 5 computer, but whomever took his home studio apart has lost the dongle, so it won’t launch.
Will the USB-eLicenser authorize this older version and allow it to work? As a mac/PT guy, I"d hate to have to start installing newer versions of the app on an XP system and screw anything up
Please forgive the breach of forum etiquette, but I wanted to post this in a higher traffic area, as I have a finite amount of time to make this happen for them. Thanks much…
Are you saying you have a dongle for a later version of Cubase? I know that the equal package of Cubase can be run using any later update- e.g., Cubase SX 2 will run off a Cubase 7 key. I don’t know if Studio can be run with a full Cubase.
no, no dongle at all (though they are still looking). With a version this old, would it still be a USB dongle, or would it be serial like the old versions of Logic used to use? But I was asking if buying that latest USB-eLicenser might work, that sure would be a simple and quick solution.
Just from looking more in the knowledge base, it seems they would at least need to find the original box that would hopefully have that sheet of paper with the license code for that particular copy, which maybe I could use to autho a new USB stick, but even that is a guess on my part.
I’m assuming I can’t install any remotely new version of Cubase on this XP computer and expect it work work, can I? If I need to start worrying about OS upgrades, I think I’d first better investigate how to clone the XP system drive just in case. And of course check whether the processor/RAM situation would even launch it regardless. oy vey…
Wouldn’t help I’m afraid…You can’t re-use an authorisation code.
You can run C5 on that computer with any newer version licence (Full version only) on a dongle…or you can copy off the project folders and try on a newer computer with Cubase demo version.
How is Cubase at relinking media? (this is relating to transferring everything to a newer system). This was an older guy who wasn’t too familiar with computer recording, so he was making all the beginner mistakes. Recording to the C drive, check. Not making separate folders for projects such that ALL audio files are in one folder, check. Not naming tracks so that EVERY audio file is called “audio”, check. So if Cubase can’t relink through unique file ID’s, I don’t know how you’d ever put things back together. If this was a ProTools rig I’d be comfortable doing it.
Grim, when you say “full version only”, would buying Elements 8, and therefore using the eLicenser it comes with, allow this copy of Studio 5 to launch, even if they can’t find the original license #? And in fact, even without installing Elements (since it’s an XP)?
Thank you everyone for the responses, I really appreciate it!
The audio files are referenced in the project files .cpr
So in theory you should be able to just copy the the folder that containes all the audio and project files to a new drive. Open a project and choose backup project, it will ask for a new location and copy That project and the files used by that project only to the backup location. This is done without touching the original folder. Then load the next project and do a backup on that, and so on. Then you will end up with every project in its own folder. Don’t use remove unused media. The projects should load fine in a new version of Cubase, there are going to be some missing plugins that were removed/exchanged during the evolution of Cubase.
Grim, when you say “full version only”, would buying Elements 8, and therefore using the eLicenser it comes with, allow this copy of Studio 5 to launch, even if they can’t find the original license #? And in fact, even without installing Elements (since it’s an XP)?
Sorry no…I should have said only with Pro version. I’m assuming this will be the case as the only upgrade path from Studio was to the complete version at the time Cubase 6.
Not making separate folders for projects such that ALL audio files are in one folder, check. Not naming tracks so that EVERY audio file is called “audio”, check.
If all audio is in one folder it should actually find files OK. They must have a unique ID as it’s obviously impossible to have 2 files named the same in a folder.
Cubase will have added a suffix and should scan and load the files with the cpr…if it can’t find the folder system/files because they are in a different path it will just ask you to point to the folder. I believe it looks first at original path, secondly at the sub-folders of the cpr location and if the audio isn’t there it asks you to locate the folder (or just scan the whole system which should ideally be avoided)
The problem will be if some files did end up being recorded to a different location and so might have a duplicate filename.
Yeah, as said above, I don’t think you’ll have any significant problems:
Install the latest version of elicencer that supports Windows XP (http://www.elicenser.net/en/download_archives.html)
Plug in any dongle with a suitable Cubase version on it - from Cubase 5 onwards
It’ll work.
In terms of re-linking, as said above, generally Cubase is good - it makes a unique file name for each file, so although it might be called audio_01_12423.wav then it’ll still be unique, providing the project used only a given folder. If you’re running it on the original PC, it should be fine. I’ve had some people have thousands of badly named tracks in the same folder and not have a problem; the only issues have arisen when they’ve used the same file in two projects, and conflicted project 1 by editing a file in project 2.
If you’re copying everything to a new drive and running on a newer computer, then you may need to point Cubase at the folder where all the audio is, but it’s generally pretty good at dealing with it from there. Again, as said above, if you do take this route then old plugins (or ones not installed on the new system) can be an issue. If it was me, I’d open it up on the old PC and do my track/stem exports from there, and then work on a new machine if this was a problem.
Sounds like I"ll have to search Craigslist and Ebay then for a key with an appropriate license already on it, as spending $550 for the full Cubase Pro won’t be an option. I really hope they keep looking and find their eLicenser of course.
A thought…
If this project was all audio tracks, maybe you could just search the massive audio folder for the audio files associated with the project. Then just copy/paste/send/import them to your (or somebody’s) working DAW software and recreate whatever you need. Maybe search by a date timeframe.
Also… if you need the actual Cubase .cpr project file maybe it can be somehow be imported/converted into the DAW software you have access to. Again, you might get lucky looking at file dates here to narrow your search.
