Media Bay woes

Cubase
1

Hi all,

I need a lift over this hump. Brand new Cubase 11 Pro install.

The Media Bay and Media Rack just isn’t working for me. Here has been my experience so far: (following some youtube videos that lead to these dead ends):

Looked all over in the Rack for installed factory loops and sounds to no avail.

Went to Steinberg Download Manager Assistant, downloaded some samples (Cello, Ambient Lounge, VST Sounds & Looks Collection). Go to Media bay, and Selected File System and browsed to their location. They are there but do nothing. Right-click, rescan, they still do nothing.

Went to those folders (in Windows Explorer) and found they have the vstsound extension, double clicked on that it and brought up the Steinberg Library Manager. They needed registering, so I did “register in place”. Nothing. I specified the folder they lived in. Nothing. Nobody asked for a license, so I assumed at least a time-based preview.

Went back to media bay, Loops & Samples still empty. Went back to a youtube video (s1yaeHD7g9U) and decided to try a factory instrument. (I had already successfully used/recorded my non-Steinberg VSTS, like Arturia, UAD plugs,and Korg Wavestation). I selected LoopMash (there was no GrooveAgent SE as the video suggested),

I finally had a list of groove or whatever they are–I selected “Smoothie 93”

I immediately get a standard Windows folder selection dialog asking for the location of “Live Drums 093L11.wav”. I searched on my boot drive (where most of the default installed files for Cubase seemed to go) and found nothing. I searched a few other places to no avail.

When I dismiss this dialog, I get a new dialog for the next .WAV it can’t find. (One assumes that even if I had found the first wav file, I would still be asked for the location of this 2nd unfound wav file).

Cancelling again and again just brings up the same dialog for a new missed wav file. I’m going to guess that I would have 93 of these (based on the number after the name of the groove I selected).

So I have no factory content, the newly downloaded and registered samples don’t work … do I have a faulty install?

Note: I ran the 30 day demo for a few days before buying it, then activated it with the code I got after purchase. So I seem to have a legit copy running … but did the demo install come without a lot of the content? Could that be it? Do I need to reinstall?

Thanks for any tips,
Chris

PS: if I have to do a new install: I put a lot of work into my buss config, and did the laborious hiding of all the UAD plug-ins I don’t own (so they don’t come up in the insert list). Can I save those configs somehow?

2

The content for Cubase 11 Pro is in the Steinberg Download Assistant grouped under the Cubase 11 Pro section, but is quite a number of separate downloads and installs.

And one has to do both steps for each item:

  • first Download
  • and then Install
3

Thanks, I just tested that and installed an instrument (Spectral Layers) that works.

However,

  1. there were still instruments with loops installed that I could not access (it could not find the WAV files required).

  2. after following your instructions and taking a closer look at the default download folder, I found several folders of factory content that did not exist as an EXE to install, but were all fines with “.download” or “.download.aria” filename extensions. These include:

Groove Agent
HALion Sonic
Retrologue

I could be wrong, but those seem like downloads that failed to complete, and therefore failed to install.

That doesn’t explain why I have Loop Mash in my Media Bay, without it’s content (hence all of the errors I received), since I see it listed in Download Manager as “optional”.

So the user experience of a new-user install leaves something to be desired. It’s unfortunate, because the tutorials are presented very well, they’re really quite excellent, but it all breaks down when something in the tutorial just doesn’t work or isn’t there.

I suppose one thing the tutorial could have done when it went to the Media Bay and selected Groove Agent was to mention (or note as text on screen) that it was an optional install.

Chris

4

Totally agreed!

1 Like
5

didn’t have time to do a thorough read, but everything has been easy for me.
Spectralayers is not an instrument.

the content does not auto-install upon download completion. If the downloads failed, then you probably closed the DLA before they finished. You can go back to the DLA, and probably resume them by downloading them again (it will check to see if a partial download already exists).

Just leave your DLA open until everything is complete, once the downloads are complete, open them from the DLA. It will open up Library Manager, and prompt you for a location to install. if the content is already installed in that location, it will skip it.

The content do not come in .exe form.

6

I get that now, but the trouble is that the content was listed in the Media Bay, even though I didn’t install it. Hence the error message for each WAV it couldn’t find.

Possibly, and was late at night. But I’ve been in the software biz for over 30 years and don’t use that machine for anything but audio production (actually, up to this point, audio tool installation, something I would not need to interrupt). So while I accept that it could have been me, I not totally convinced that I would have done something so simple as close the DLA while it’s working.

Also, is it true that you can close the DLA and it doesn’t complain about a download in progress? I doubt I would have blundered past that confirmation.

At any rate, I am now up and running with instruments and their separate optional content sets. Just sayin’, it wasn’t good experience at start.

There are plenty of other things that I just accept are going to be me wrapping my head around how differently things work compared to my previous DAW. I eventually figure them out, and most things have been easy (especially with the excellent tutorials).

Thanks, Chris