I’m pretty new to music production and started using Cubase Pro 12 this May. Just grabbed the 40th anniversary discount and purchased the Cubase Pro 13 upgrade. Redeemed the Download Access Code and now see Cubase Pro 13 in my Steinberg Download Assistant, and…now what?
I’m not a computer novice but still need some advice here so I can do the upgrade properly without creating any headaches.
I’m a Windows 11 user and always try to keep my system clean so I usually use uninstallation software (not going to tell the name here) to uninstall software so all the related registry remains and folders get removed. I use this way to remove an older version of a product before I install a new one because I only keep the latest version.
Now, how can I do this for the new Cubase Pro 13? What is the best possible way to remove my Cubase Pro 12 completely (registry values, folders, etc) and shift everything to Cubase Pro 13 smoothly and safely?
I have several VST plugins installed already. That includes free VSTs from Spitfire, Native Instruments, ProjectSAM, etc. I also have the Scaler 2 plugin installed. How will these get affected when I uninstall the Cubase Pro 12 and what should I do to get them transferred to the new Cubase Pro 13?
Also plugins that came with Cubase Pro 12 like the HALion Sonic 7.0.1. I can see them already shown as installed under Cubase Pro 13 in the ‘My product downloads’ tab in Steinberg Download Assistant, but the SpectraLayers has a new version 10 in C13 so I’m not sure this will affect my saved projects if I uninstall the C12 and use C13 to open/edit them.
Speaking of projects, I’m sure I can open/edit the projects with C13 that I saved with C12 previously, but should I do anything else? If I open a current project and save it with C13, will it still be editable with C12?
Forgive me if these questions sound stupid to you. I’m nearly 50 and new to all this. Still a lot to learn.
Thanks. That’s naturally a first thought but this way will leave lots of ‘residues’ in the system and make the PC slower and slower. That’s why I said I use specialised software to uninstall software, but I know it might cause some problems on certain software with plugins to work together. This is why I asked here.
I wouldn’t use this kind of specialized software. This can break the system easily.
All plug-ins and libraries (HALion Sonic, Groove Agent, etc.) are not touched when you uninstall Cubase properly (i.e. by using the system uninstaller). This is, what you want to get, because you want to use these plug-ins and libraries in Cubase 13.
Yes, you can open Cubase 12 projects in Cubase 13. You don’t have to do anything to achieve this.
Yes. But not the features, which are new in Cubase 13, of course.
Keep them both. V12 only uses about 1 gigabyte of disk space and neither version will interfere or cause problems with the other.
I still have V9.5, 10.5, 11, 12, and 13.
And I’m 70.
Cubase 13 will re-use many of the resources that Cubase 12 already used. So most of the Steinberg entries to the registry should remain in place.
You can look at this key… HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH\Steinberg Cubase 12
and of course at its equivalent in HKEY_USERS.
However, there is hardly anything in this key after an uninstall. I would recommend to not touch the registry.
Steinberg is keeping most of the Cubase related stuff in the %appdata% and other folders, which has nothing to do with the registry.
You can look for a folder “Cubase 12_64” in %appdata%/steinberg. It should be enough to rename that folder in order to put it out of action.
If this folder exists on first time launch of Cubase 13, then C13 will try to carry over your user settings to the new version. If you don’t want that then rename/delete the mentioned folder before launching C13 for the first time.
NB: SpectralLayers installs its own set of registry keys. But if you are not proficient at working with the registry I would strongly discourage you from manually editing it. If you do, make a complete backup before you start. The registry has no undo!
Thanks for everyone’s input. I decided to keep C12 for a while and remove it with the system uninstaller when I don’t use it anymore. Guess this is the best possible way to keep everything tight.