Simple question, maybe just too simple to post here because everyone went through it…
I just installed C9 (after purchase in Dez/16 ^^) - everything seems to be set up “virgin” - so I have to set up everything again…
Is it safe to copy xml files from the C8.5 folder to C9 folder or is the best way to go through everything again? To start clean?
Pasting keycommands & plugin manager xmls should be fine, yes?
ah damn, color settings of almost everyting… how can I transfer that? This was the hell of a work to set up and I do not have a clue how to manually recreate that in a short time… course I have not much time left.
Hi Brandy long time no chat. The only thing I can add is I did clean install here and redid my prefs, key commands, transport settings, everything configurable etc. from scratch. Though here it was only 1 hour work and I am finding Cubase 9.0.2 to be the most stable and best I have ever experienced. I do not know if this is related to the clean W10 and Cubase install and of course pure 64 bit everything but it is working great here.
I am quite sure that the 64 bit throughout and the sentinel seems to be doing a good job here. (and my machine is some generations old now with a i7 2600) Running lots and lots of 3rd party plug ins and VSTi (maybe 100 plugs roughly) and an Access Virus Snow, in a 40 track song and it is running like a dream come true at the moment at about 40-50pct load (at 12ms MIDI input latency)
I really think it is best to stick 100pct 64 bit, just my gut feeling (and logical given Steinbergs policy)
I can honestly say this is how I always imagined the perfect DAW and music making system to be, super happy !
cheers
Hey Barry, yea - I am not around that often, only when I run into “computer headaches” 
Mh yea I can recall that I did a clean setup in V8 as well because that way you can be usually stay away from transfering old bugs in old settings etc… but over the years of work in C8 I tweaked quite a lot, finetuned etc…
the key commands alone have grown over the last 15 years - I always transfer the key commands… which I already did and works fine, though new features and changed structure might require some treatment later… but the basics are there.
best would be to open C8 and C9 side by side (this works when you have 2 dongles, which I have) and going through the menues and settings one by one… summer nights are shourt, though…
I don’T care the 64bit move - I moved to 64bit long time ago and it was a PITA - because of 3th-party plugins… this is why I use jBridge with quite a lot of oldie-but-goodie plugins… time to get rid of a few cause I basically have hundreds of plugins installed … some of them I only need for old projects… maybe just killing them in the plugin manager…so they still will open up in C8.5 and older … I do not know if a “disabled” plugin (in the plugin manager) will act like a “not installed” plugin - I mean, sometimes just having a bad plugin installed can cause issues.
BTW - V8 and 8.5 were very stable for me already, as you might know - I sometimes run projects with 800 or more tracks… since Vst3 plugins are stopped when there is no signal it does not cause any issues to have everything on separate tracks. I disabled all VST2 plugins in the manager when there is a VST3 version installed - that was why I asked for the plugin manager settings to transfer, which I already did - it took me 4 or 5 hours to sort the plugins in custom folders and stuff…
800 tracks, that is err… quite a session ! 
You can never have too many cowbell mics.
Well I was W7 64 Cubase 8.0x 32Bit and having lot of running out of memory issues so had to make the switch at some stage. Well yes I lost a few plug ins that were 32 bit only but gained some 64 bit ones and some of which do a better job anyway so that is fine by me. The only one I wish I still had… Wizzooverb W2, but included Revelation does nice job too, so I can live with it, no problems.
Now this system seems stable and well performing I am inclined not to mess about bridging things.
Sure there can always be something you might miss but at least in my instance I am so happy with the system now I
won’t be losing any sleep over it. Long may this period of stability and performance continue. Every time I get off Cubase 9.0.2 I have a big smile on my face after a productive session, could not be happier right now.
Thats great to hear!
Well, in a computer/software world all you need is just to do NO upgrades ever - then you should be able to work with a smile even in 10 years from now Because without software updates your computer will keep young and fast like he was at day one
Processing is now fast enough that you do not need a new system every 2 years like 15 years ago were you usually maxed out the system all the time… These days I can have the full album in one big project, thats way I often have huge track counts because you might want to mix for example the choirs of each song on different tracks - if you have 20 tracks of choir / song you will end up with 200 tracks when you have 10 songs… you will process usually on groups and busses and I usually hide all the individual tracks in the mixer - BUT I am able to access the individual voices and for example can tweak level/pan or apply some eq/comp (usually just the channelstrip stuff which eats up zero cpu)- basically it is like mixing with submixes - BUT with the possibility to tweak in detail if you have to.
I rarely buy new plugins these day, I own “most” of the stuff out there and I am using 5% of that, usually you reach for your one of your 5 fave EQs but usually you might have 50 eqs or “eq style” plugins… this can all be confusing and CAN kill productivity… well - all this is slightly offtopic
To stay on topic: I have quite a big setup and I lost almost all motivation to spend time tweaking the computer, I can recall that I usually spent days and nights 10-15 years ago re-installing XP and tweaking setting to do performance/stability tests etc etc and it was more or less fun for me. These days I just want to use the computer and if I have some offtime I prefer riding on my bike or playing drums or stuff like that Thats why I tried to save some time setting up C9 - but well… Maybe I just will spend an evening cleaning up a bit and re-doing settings, this might safe headaches in the future
That is a cool way to work, flexible, gives max control and faster. (and to go off topic again) may I ask what CPU/Memory and machine spec you have for that track count ?
I get my PC for the mastering work custom built and obviously that costs a bit more but for total reliability it is worthwhile, the PSU alone in that machine is £200.00 (10 year guarantee). It is not critical for it to have mega CPU horsepower (still fast though 7th gen Intel) as much processing in mastering is done in analogue domain. But for the home machine it is a Frankenstein office machine where I upgraded components, cpu, memory, HDD/OS etc. W10 I have found need a relative minimum of tweaking so far. I am also impressed with W10 for audio. You can never have too much CPU running the latest softsynths but it does well for the CPU’s age.
I’m not clear whether you ever got the answer ‘yes’, selectively. These definitely: Defaults, Key Commands, UserPreferences and the Presets folder. Others, depending on what you use. I wouldn’t touch the VST stuff - that and others are best left to the system, I feel. Just back up before you try…
Not considering the off-topic (which was worth a beer, by the way), I would recommend to back up your whole working preferences folder (even one for each Cubase version):
KeyCommands.xml file
→ It’s usually the most painful to re-create and the less prone to issues
PluginManager.xml
→ This is also painful to re-create and not really prone to issues, it’s just a list
PortSetup.xml
→ Usually not painful to re-create, but it’s nice to find the connections the way you left them
Defaults.xml is the one which can cause issue if corrupt, imported incorrectly or something unexpected happens. Unfortunately, many colors are saved there.
Presets and templates were not considered here, but you can back them up, too (with templates you sometimes need to adjust them, but still better than starting from scratch).
Hey Fabio,
thanks for this very helpful and complete post!
To keep it short - I did it quite like you mentioned - as I did in previous versions. I am here since Nuendo1 and USUALLY a new version imports older settings automatically, USUALLY I trashed these “defaults” just to make sure to not run into issues. This installation btw did just NOTHING - which is unusual for Cubase
Anyhow - I am just re-doing all the color settings and stuff manually.
Question: Isn’t it possible to be able to save some kind of a “color scheme” in future versions? Safe to a preset file - being able to import this in new versions or on other computers… lets say on the laptop.
And yes: Backuping the prefs from time to time is a good idea since day one, a crash CAN corrupt them and this is not what you need when in a session… just trashing the corrupted files (all of them) and moving the old files back fixes bad stuff in seconds.
I forgot about the detailed specs, I built that system 2 or 3 years ago… i74930K @ 2,4GHZ, 32GB Ram, all SSD hard discs… quad head VGA. Yes, I maxed out the system a couple of times, depending on the plugins I use. Some plugins are bad encoded and can boost the ASIO meter harder then others while CPU is more or less low/ok… I should be able to overclock temporary like others do to handle bigger projects but I would have to do quite some research here first so I usually just take care with the plugins
Regarding Colors:
When having Cubase 8.5 and 9 open at the same time (I have 2 licenses) copy & pasting colors is working! So it is easy to transfer custom color setting just with quite some clicks
EDIT: Seems not to work like expected… sometimes the color transfers sometimes the previous color is transfered…