Don’t ask why, but I’ve been using Cubase SX2 for around ten years now without upgrading… Just one of those people I guess. I even bought a copy of Cubase 5 at one point and never installed it… until now.
I really want to finally bring my working practice closer to the contemporary realm, but I’m a bit scared about what will happen to my 1000s of old .cpr files. Will they still open fine in Cubase 5 or will I experience weirdness?
Please can someone advise, as I’m really worried I’m going to lose everything.
Cheers.
Adam
Aloha A, and welcome to the board ‘E’ Komo Mai’.
First, you did not say in yer post what hardware computer gear you are using.
So questions:
1-Is the computer that now successfully runs SX2, powerful enough even run C5?
2-If so, can the two apps exist side by side on the same computer?
I ask this because I have C5/C6/C7 and C8 all installed and running on the same computer
with no probs.
Not sure about the ‘open’ part but when it comes to ‘weirdness’ IMHO yes.
But all is not lost, even if they do not open in C5.
There is alway what I call the ‘take the long way home’ approach
and here is how it works:
Export each SX2 project’s audio and MIDI files and then
import those files back into C5.
Upside to this approach:
1-You do not lose any performance work. (yea)
Downside to this approach:
1-This can be a long and tedious process and
2-you have to watch for alignment issues and
3-you will lose all eq and fx data.
(so I find it best to write down that info before the export process
and then try to recreate that info as best you can once imported into C5).
Good Luck!
{‘-’}
I always save/copy my entire projects on an external USB hard drive…it does not matter if your machine takes a crap, your files will be backed up on another hard drive. In fact, I’ve had to rebuild a machine…when I copy my project files back on the rebuilt machine, the files open fine…although I had to re-direct each project due to a re-location thing, but only the 1st time. However this was with using the same Cubase version.
I’ve seen SX 3 projects open in C-5 fine (see below about ‘save as’)… I would think SX2 should open in C-5, I’ve recently read that you can open .cpr files of one version, in a ‘higher’ version, but not the other way around! There may be some strangeness, but you shouldn’t ‘lose’ anything as a result of it.
Again, backing up your projects to an external USB drive 1st. BUT…I would STRONGLY suggest that when you DO open your SX projects in C-5, or anything above SX for that matter, that you select ‘Save As’ and rename that song project…this way, you can still open that project in SX2! But if you forget, you always have the project as it was if you saved them in the external HDD.
Of course, if you’re using the same machine for multiple Cubase versions, I’ve read of a number of people over time, having issues with the license…it took some ironing out for them, and possibly a support ticket from Steinberg to get it going.
SAVE/BACK UP your projects!
PS, Hey man don’t feel bad, I’ve used Cubase VST 5/32 for 15 years! 
Hey both,
Thanks for the helpful replies.
I installed last night and can confirm I have both SX2 and Cubase 5 installed and running.
However, I am experiencing some issues in Cubase 5 with audio latency and routing with my soundcard. I’m getting some horrible audio pops, and whilst I can hear/monitor the sounds through the soundcard input (hardware etc) I cannot record them. I guess I just need to look at how SX2 is set up in devices and figure it out from there.
For the record, my SX2 files do open in 5 but due to the above issue they automatically open with routing issues and an error message. But this isn’t a massive problem as SX2 still runs fine so I can always open them up in there. Normally I would export every stem like curteye mentions below but the left over tunes on there arn’t worth a week of my time!
Good shout about backing up. I need to start doing this! I’m making this move finally as I’ve just finished a record/some unfinished projects so using this punctuational point to move on and update my processes. Can’t wait to have it all up and running, already noticed some groundbreaking advantages in Cubase 5 such as being able to hire audio/group/midi tracks in the mixer etc. Can’t believe it’s taken me this long to get here!
Cheers,
Adam
Excellent topic…and very similar to what I’m experiencing. But to take this a step further…
I too have grown quite fond of Cube 2 on my PC. But inadvertently deleted my .exe file. I have Cube 5 that I never considered using until now. But it will NOT open programs that I created in Cube 2. Question: How can I get Cubase 5 to recognize files/programs created in Cube 2 so I can continue recording??
I’d rather stick with Cube 2 if possible. Is there ANYWHERE in the world I can acquire the Cubase SX2.exe file? I’d give an earlobe to get it back. Any assistance is so greatly appreciated!!!