Downgrading Cubase Artist

Cubase
1

Hi,
Is is possible to downgrade from cubase artist to cubase 7?
Thank you,
Anna

2

I don’t understand. Cubase Artist “what” and Cubase 7 “what”? And, perhaps more importantly, why?

What version do you have a license for? What version would you like to use?

3

Hello,
Why => Need to go back to a version with VST Embracer.
License is for Cubase Artist 11. Is there a way to downgrade to a version of the program -seemingly 7/5) so I can use Embracer?

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4

You can run older versions of Cubase artist with your current license.
Embracer is 32bit btw.

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5

Hi @anna.muchin,

@peakae is correct. Your Cubase Artist 11 license is downwards compatible. And the VST synth plug-in you’ve mentioned is 32bit only.

And I may be wrong in so far, but after looking up all the older Cubase plug-in reference PDFs, I could only find that both VST instruments Embracer and Monologue were made available with Cubase versions up to Cubase 6.x. But not with Cubase 7.x.

Also, the older plug-in references say: “(Cubase only)”, which would mean only the full version of Cubase would have them as integrated, licensed plug-ins. But here I may be wrong, as I started out with Cubase Pro 8.5, before I’d only used Cubase Elements since version 7. Perhaps someone else knows more detail regarding everything pre-Cubase/Cubase Artist 8.5.

Just as a reference - the table of all now unsupported versions of Cubase:

Cubase | Steinberg

Also: if the Embracer VST plug-in library file could “technically” be copied to a later version of Cubase - which must be able to load 32bit plug-ins - and if it would still run with an Artist license… I just don’t know.

However, without an external VST bridge software (like jbridge) these two “ancient” 32bit plug-ins would only run in Cubase versions up to 8.5 (x64/x86) anyway, since beginning with Cubase 9.x the operating system needs to be 64bit, and only 64bit VST plug-ins can be used.

Apart from all that, I think it’s a pity that some widely used older VSTs by Steinberg weren’t ported to 64bit.

Cheers

6

Jbridge won’t work, according to other users experience.
(Try searching for embracer in the forum).
It will have to be a 32bit version of Cubase, if you can find one that includes embracer and will run with the existing licence. Good luck .

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7

Thank you Markus, indeed such a shame…

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8

Thank you. Wondering - the license i have with cubase artist 11 will work only for ‘artist’ older versions of cubase or any previous version?

9

Yes it will, you can have multiple older Cubase installs on a computer without interfering with each other.
They will share the media files, like samples , loops etc. and therefor not take up that space multiple times.

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10

Hi @peakae,

thanks, didn’t know that (jbridge and Embracer).

Cheers
Markus

11

Hi @anna.muchin,

you’re welcome!

Since I’m on Cubase Pro 11, I got interested and just installed Cubase 6 (32 bit). I wanted to see if this would work on Windows 10, so I downloaded Cubase 6.0.2 just to make a quick test.

“Cubase 6” was the same full version as any “Pro” version would be today, also the install package is the same as Cubase Artist 6. So, now I have a Cubase 6 (32 bit) installation next to my Cubase Pro 10.5 and Cubase Pro 11 (both x64, of course). But…

…only if I was a Cubase Artist 11 license owner, it would’ve opened as “Cubase 6 Artist”, since sadly there’s no “switch” to either open Cubase Artist 6 or the full version of Cubase 6.
This is why I can’t really tell if your Cubase Artist 11 license would also give you the Embracer VST, if you decided to install Cubase 6 yourself.

Just for the record - DVD image of Cubase 6.0.2 (full version and Artist) - the installer will give you the choice between 32 bit and 64 bit:

https://www.steinberg.net/en/support/unsupported_products/cubase/downloads_cubase_artist_6.html

I can now open and use it, and everything seems to work fine so far. That synth sounds actually very nice!

Perhaps you might want to upgrade to Cubase Pro 11? Then you’d have Embracer back for sure, by just installing Cubase 6 (32bit) next to the latest version (11, x64).

Cubase_6_(x86)_VST_Embracer
Cubase_6_(x86)_VST_Embracer1041×647 154 KB

Cheers
Markus

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12

More Embracer fans! :grinning:

Unfortunately, in order to be able to run Embracer, you need at least a Cubase Pro or “full” license for any version from SX 2.2 to current (an Artist or “Studio” license won’t do), and some way to run a Cubase version that contains Embracer (i.e. from 2.2 to 6). It’s not possible to load Embracer in any other DAW (the plugin detects the host and refuses to run).

Although Embracer is a 32-bit plugin, my experience is that it is stable in older 64-bit Cubase versions that are themselves stable (such as 6) – it was one of the few 32-bit plugins that never caused me problems in older 64-bit Cubase versions.

So unfortunately @anna.muchin with only a Cubase Artist 11 license you’re out of luck, unless you want the expense of upgrading to Cubase Pro, and even then, it would not be ideal as you would have to work in Cubase 6 or earlier (although you could render the Embracer track to audio in 6 and carry on in 11).

[EDIT:] Embracer can indeed run in Cubase up to version 8.5, I found this post from a while back:

(quote from @will3music )

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13

Hi @MrSoundman,

excellent advice. Thank you for all the valuable information, so you - more or less - resolved the whole thing. Whereas I could only do some testing and then speculate about Cubase Artist 6…

Yesterday, I also did another short test by trying to load the Embracer.dll in tobybear’s Minihost and in SaviHost, and of course that didn’t work. Every other 32bit plug-in that I’d collected over the years would work, though…

So, just in case, this would be my own practical line of thought:
if I really wanted to work with Embracer - the one and only - on a regular basis and work with other authentic tools “from the era” only, I’d try and find myself an older DualCore laptop and an older 2CH USB interface (M-Audio FastTrack, Motu, etc), then install Win7 SP1 (Pro) (x86) but without network drivers (for safety reasons), then acquire an additional Cubase Pro 11 license and an extra USB eLicenser (and eat only spaghetti for the next half year), then install the x86 version of Cubase 6.0.x , just to make that machine my dedicated 32bit VST plugin environment - which has its stereo output fed into my main x64 computer(s). This way I’d avoid all possible troubles with “outdated” software, *.vstsound duplicates (tons of which I had to remove yesterday) and anything regarding the 32bit VST environment. There are still lots of great 32bit VSTs out there, so I think this alone might justify such a dedicated VST synth setup.

Apart from all that: in Cubase Pro 11, the still available older synth plugins are pretty powerful, if used together: Spector, Mystic, LoopMash. But together with Embracer… that would indeed be very very nice. Why (for heaven’s sake) did Steinberg drop Embracer?

Cheers

14

See this post from 2013 that refers to an even older post from the old forum:
https://forums.steinberg.net/t/cubase-vocoder/602275/23?u=mrsoundman

(quote from @Ed_Doll)

In the “about” dialog of Embracer, you can see that the original developer was Wizoo:
image
In 2005, Wizoo was bought by Digidesign, (who in turn were swallowed up by Avid, of Pro Tools fame). In 2008 then there was this announcement: Steinberg/Wizoo VSTi’s discontinued.

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15

Hi again @MrSoundman,

gee, you’re fast. Thank you. Didn’t know that. So Steinberg did (of course!) have a valid reason for dropping these three plug-ins. Sad… yet this is also part of modern reality.

Best,
Markus

16

Thanks Markus. What a hell of a detour, and spaghetti, to get it back - if that works…
What is Win7 SP1 (Pro) (x86) by the way?

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17

Hi again @anna.muchin,

oh, sorry, that’s just the short name for “Microsoft Windows 7 Professional (32 bit)”. And “SP1” stands for “Service Pack 1”.

But, as @MrSoundman has already mentioned, the 64bit version with Cubase 6 (64bit) would most probably also enable you to work with Embracer. Cubase 6 was more or less designed to run best in Windows 7 (2011).

And:
x86 → 32bit
x64 → 64bit

Technically, Windows 7 (both in 32bit and 64bit) could still be installed on older computers. Microsoft stopped supporting it last year though, and there’s probably no way to activate it as a new install. On the other hand, Windows XP (“Home” or “Pro”) SP3 might also work for running Cubase 6 (32bit).

Cheers,
Markus

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18

Interestingly, i started to use embracer through Nuendo 3, lots of plugins/VST that i have liked and worked with along the years; The pc been working would sound dinosaur now, but never connected to internet, and experienced no crash in 15 years. And running with Fireface 800 does quite a good job. Only downside is the noise and the cumbersome side
. Hence decided to switch and move things on my mac, that is how i came to chose cubase - after having had echoes that nowadays it is more ‘complete’ for the music i do.
Now i think again, ‘how noisy, really, is that dinosaur?’

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19

Great enlightening :wink: thanks!

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20

@anna.muchin,

you’re welcome. I find this quite interesting, since - at that time - I still used an Atari ST and Notator SL, and was about to fully switch to Windows audio editors, like Cakewalk (which later became Sonar and is still around via BandLab).

Also the Steinberg product timeline looks quite interesting, since in the same year when Nuendo 3 was released, Cubase SX was at version 3.1.1 (both 2005). Just before Nuendo 3 was released, Steinberg was sold to Yamaha. And in 2007 with the release of Nuendo 4, Steinberg’s VST3 era began, and it really took off in 2008 .

Steinberg Cubase - Wikipedia
Steinberg Nuendo - Wikipedia
Virtual Studio Technology - Wikipedia

So, thanks in return! Since without your inquiry about Embracer I might not have thought about most of these things again. Ha!

Best wishes,
Markus

1 Like