Thank You Steinberg!

Back in 2005, I bought my first audio interface; the original Focusrite Saffire, which back in those enlightened days, came bundled with the original Cubase LE. I loaded it up onto a PC running Windows 98 and off I went.

Pretty well exclusively, I track vocals, my own and others’, for TV and radio commercial production, which is how I make my living. We’re not talking Elon Musk, here – but, you know…

As the years, and several Windows machines, rolled by, I would ponder the notion of the upgrade path. Regularly, I get asked to change the odd word or phrase in a piece recorded years ago and so backwards compatibility is a major issue. Research on here and other forums led me to believe that I had long since missed the opportunity to upgrade to a newer version of Cubase and still be able to access a 13-year legacy of thousands of projects.

So, when my kit finally ground to a halt, I reckoned I was facing a totally blank page. Which platform and which DAW software? Many clients run ProTools/Apple. Other DAWs abound. But, I’m not a young person, so the prospect of getting to grips with a new platform and/or DAW software was not an attractive one and ultimately, a stem is a stem.

I built a modestly specified PC, running Windows 10; purchased Cubase Pro 9.5 and got back to work – parking any concerns about being able to work on all those legacy projects.

Just today, almost for a laugh, I attempted to open the first Cubase project I ever created, well over a decade ago – expecting a screen full of messages asking me to get serious --and blow me! If the thing didn’t open in the blink of an eye, like it was recorded yesterday! Settings, levels, the lot!

I can’t begin to express my gratitude for that level of commitment to long-term continuity.

My dilemma now, is whether to go back and tune everything; Variaudio is the bomb!

Tune everything, if nothing else you get good practice and you can always go back.

I will. Thanks, peakae.

I note, with interest, that my original post has been moved from the Cubase LE forum to here. Just to say; when I was trying to get advice on an upgrade path from LE, it was there that I would have been grateful to find a post like mine – which, is why I posted there.