How to Export / Convert / Import Rack Instruments in 2025?

Hello,
I have a large template (>2000 tracks) comprising mainly rack instruments that use VEPro. The rack instruments each have many outputs with multiple configured inserts in the Cubase mixer, e.g. MIR Pro 3D. So each rack instrument required a considerable amount of work to set up. I wish to re-use that effort by somehow importing these rack instruments into a new template.
Whilst I appreciate that this question was first asked 10 years ago, is there in 2025 a process to achieve this other than recreating each and every rack instrument as a track instrument?
Any process to reduce even some of this effort would make a massive difference.
I’m running Cubase 13 Pro.

Thanks.

You don’t need to convert them to Instrument Tracks. You can still use them as Rack Instruments in the latest versions. Just open your old Template in C13, make any desired tweaks, and save as a New Template.

Hi,
Thanks for the reply. Apologies, but I don’t think I made my question clear. What I’m looking for is a method to import what I currently have as any of the individual rack instruments into another project or template. The least bad option I’ve found so far is to duplicate the “instance” in VEPro that the rack instrument is connecting to, then create a track instrument to connect to the new instance, and then copy each channel from the original rack instrument outputs to the corresponding new track instrument outputs. The new track instrument can then be imported into other projects. However, given that the rack instrument must be contained within a project file, this approach seems like an overly laborious workaround.

Have you tried opening 2 Projects and dragging from the Rack in one to the Rack in the other? No idea if that might work.

Hi,
Unfortunately dragging from one project to another doesn’t work.
However I have a current (long) workaround as follows:

  • Load the original template
  • Save the rack instrument as a preset
  • Select all instrument outputs in mix console and save as a track preset
  • Select all MIDI tracks connecting to the rack instrument and save as track preset
  • Load recipient project
  • Create new rack instrument (has to be rack for next step to work)
  • Load preset into rack instrument (It connects to the VePro instance)
  • Activate the exact number of outputs as the original
  • Select the new outputs in mix console and load track preset
  • (sort out the routing manually)
  • Create the exact number of MIDI tracks as the original
  • Select all new MIDI tracks and load track preset
  • Manually assign MIDI tracks to rack instrument inputs
  • Name the MIDI tracks
    DONE!
    This process names the audio outs in the mix console. The MIDI tracks pickup the negative track delays, the expression maps, and the MIDI channel numbers but not the MIDI outputs or track names.

Even though it would be a lot of work you might consider rebuilding your Template using Instrument Tracks. You’d only need to do it once and after that you could use Import Tracks from Project… to pull them into other Projects.

Thanks, and smoothing out that very process is actually the whole point of my post. If rack instruments are to be replaced by track instruments then we need a way to convert them into track instruments. This issue has been around for at least a decade, and yet even in my long workaround the showstopper is that it’s not possible to load a track preset for mix console tracks that were created with a rack instrument into those apparently same mix console tracks that were created from a track instrument.
I think that the ball’s in Steinberg’s court on this one - either do the right thing and provide a seamless conversion function to turn rack into track, or at least meet us half way and enable track presets for mix console tracks that were created with rack instruments to be loaded into mix console tracks that were created from a track instrument.