When I started remixing older (roughly 2001-2019) SONAR projects in Cubase, I started getting very conscious of this consideration, and it has probably greatly affected my project archival practices in Cubase.
I’d always saved a Type 1 MIDI file, but, what beyond that varied a fair amount over the years (well, more like a decade and a half plus). But, in Cubase these days, I take detailed project notes (in the projects themselves, but also copied and pasted to a ReadMe file at the root directory of project archives that includes mention of VST instruments used and preset names, and possibly modifications to those presets if I’ve made any).
Of course, some of those old VSTs no longer exist, and may not even be able to be installed from old media. One I used quite a bit was the original Steinberg Virtual Guitarist – also VG-EE (Electric Edition). I still had those running okay on my Windows 10 system last year, though not in Cubase (they still worked in SONAR). But, when it came to building my Windows 11 system, I ended up punting on even trying to install them (not without a fair bit of consideration as to the possibility). But, thankfully, I’d generally rendered old tracks to audio, such as by freezing them in SONAR, and, because I’d used the Broadcast Wave File format, I could always import those audio files in their positions in Cubase if needed (and it was sometimes, though sometimes I replaced those parts).
One other thing that really helped in a recent remix (a 2011 SONAR project) was having gotten in the practice of saving OMF2 files in SONAR. That is something I haven’t gotten into doing with Cubase to date, though it that recent experience made me wonder if I should start doing it. My thinking at the moment is that having the individual underlying audio files is sufficient. In the recent remix, though, it got me the vocal track quite easily – the rest consisted of virtual instruments that I was either replacing or doing more work with.
When I remix an old project, the reason is usually trying to make a significant improvement in the quality of the results, between my added years of experience and better tools/plugins. So I’m not trying to recreate where things were when I left off. However, I am wanting the basic starting ingredients. In the case of virtual instruments, I’m often wanting to use the MIDI data and upgrade the sounds with newer instruments, though, in my most recent case, I was using the same instruments, just going back to add more CCs and such to improve the performances for the key parts I wanted to improve (i.e. other than the mix, which was really starting from scratch).
My current project was pre-SONAR (I think 1997 or 1998) – most likely Passport Designs MasterTracks Pro. I only had a MIDI Type 1 file for that. No notes on instruments (which would have been hardware MIDI modules, with everything recorded to ADAT). But I was pleasantly surprised how just assigning current virtual instruments to the MIDI tracks got me to a nice starting point for referencing my arrangement, with the idea that I’ll be replacing all the tracks. And I used Omnivocal for a placeholder vocal (I had the melody line in the MIDI file) while I work on the instrumental side of the arrangement. This was prior to my making notes on what was used in the projects, not that it would have made much difference since I haven’t had those old MIDI modules since at least sometime in 2012.
