Where can I find a reliable, legit version of Cubase 5.1 - 9?

My apologies: I posted this in the Lounge but I think maybe it would have been more appropriate to post it here? At any rate, here is a copy of my other post in the Steinberg Lounge:

As those of you who have been patient enough to persevere with my previous posts will know, I am currently using Cubase 5.1r2 with Windows 7 Ultimate. For those of you who have seen all this before, I’ll spare you once again listing my reasons for wanting to remain with Windows 7; however, due to an evidently unfixable audio anomaly, it has become necessary for me to do a fresh re-install of Cubase. Unfortunately, although I have the original installation disc ( from something like 15 years ago ), I can’t for the life of me find the registration key now, which means that that method is, annoyingly, not an option. This being the case, I need to source Cubase elsewhere.

The question of updating my version of Cubase, and my reluctance to do so, has also been discussed at length in other threads. However, since I now find myself at this juncture, a dilemma presents itself. As I understand it, the most modern version of Cubase which will run on Windows 7 is Cubase 9 ( as with everything else, please correct me if I’m mistaken ). The dilemma, then, is whether to keep things as simple as possible and just look for a downloadable version of 5.1r2, or find a downloadable version of Cubase 9 and at least update things to that, albeit modest, extent; or, would there be any more benefit in going for 6, 7 or 8, and if so, why? I would appreciate any thoughts as to the pros and cons of any of the permutations ( I’m working on the assumption, by the way, that the file extensions in 9 are all the same as in 5.1 ).

However, even this still presents something of a problem: where can I go to download any of the above?

Having already purchased a new audio interface which I’m not sure I actually needed, obviously I’ve no wish to spend any more money on this than can be helped; and frankly, beyond a certain point, I don’t have it to spend. That being said, I obviously do need to be certain that whatever I’m downloading is entirely legit, virus-free etc.; and therein lies the problem. To be honest, given that even Cubase 9 is more than eight years old, I hadn’t thought that it or any of the other iterations between 5.1 and 9 would be that hard to come by, but so far that hasn’t seemed to be so. The only paid version of Cubase Artist 9.5 ( is that the best version …? ) that I could find costs an eye-watering £265, which - dinosaur though I admittedly am - seems to me to be extortionate for software that’s already more than eight years out of date. Conversely, I came across a free download of Cubase 5 on a site called software.informer; however, reviews seem to suggest that the ‘informer’ part of their title comes from the fact that they inform all and sundry of your details so that you then get deluged with spam - not to mention one or two reviews which said the reviewers had experienced what seemed to be viruses or malware following downloading from this source. On top of everything else, this is a risk I really can’t afford to take. Assuming they didn’t want to completely scalp me for it, I would have even gone to Steinberg themselves, but of course they no longer sell versions as old as these, at any price.

So, once again I find myself asking for suggestions. This having already dragged on for so long, I would ideally rather download the programme rather than have to wait for an actual installation disc to arrive ( although both would be better still ), but any inspiration is still more than I have now.

Cubase 5 licensing was elicenser already wasn’t it? In which case you just reinstall the software. Registration key doesn’t do anything once it was used. Your license should be on a USB dongle…no?

I don’t remember ever having a dongle for this version; I think I possibly did for 3.7, but not this one. The whole studio setup was rebuilt from scratch when I moved to my current address 8 years ago, and I’ve certainly never used a dongle since then.

Open elicenser control centre and confirm how the license is stored. If it’s not on a dongle then you presumably have one of the cutdown versions that would work on soft elicenser but if that’s the case you will not be able to reactivate after 20th when the elicenser service closes down..

What @Grim said and the things I wrote in your identical thread in the lounge (please delete that thread after reading my post).

You should be able to see your current license in the eLLC

Buy a USB eLicenser as soon as possible and transfer your license to said USB licenser before May 20th.

Addendum: @Grim I didn’t know about the existence of cutdown Cubase versions - what does that mean?

I think Cubase Ai/LE are the only versions that will run on a soft eLicencer.

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I’m talking about lower editions of course…like Elements/Artist/Full now there was I think Studio/Full back then. Studio may have run on soft elicense, full version on dongle only.

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And Elements.

Dear all:

Firstly, thank you for your ongoing patience and help. I’m on my office computer at the moment rather than my studio computer, so I’ve left the other thread open until I go in there and click on the relevant link from there. I’ve discovered that I can in fact log into my Steinberg account, which frankly surprised me after so many years! When I go into the studio, which, time permitting, I’m hoping I’ll be able to do this afternoon, I’ll follow the other instructions regarding eLicenser. On this computer, I’ve reached the page on the Steinberg.net site which has the options of ‘redeem download access code’ / ‘show Steinberg Licensing-based products’ / ‘Deactivate licenses on unavailable computers’ / ‘Show eLicenser-based products’ / ‘Register eLicenser’ / ‘Register Hardware’; when I open this page in the studio, I’m not quite sure exactly what it is I need to do from there …?
… also, assuming all of the above ends up going smoothly, does anyone have any thoughts as to whether to go for 5.1r2 or 9 or anywhere inbetween …?
… and lastly, sorry to be a complete dufus, but I’ve never had to do this before ( or at least not within the confines of my memory ): do I need to uninstall my existing, presumably malfunctioning, version of Cubase before installing the new one?

Ah, cheers! I didn’t know that soft eLicensers couldn’t run full versions of Cubase. Is it still that way?? Haha, I had no idea… :laughing:

Do that now in your account…what do you see??

You can only run the one you have a license for. No point installing anything newer.

I will do that as soon as I go in the studio, hopefully not too long now.

Is there an argument for upgrading to 9 and getting a new license? - Or is that hideously expensive / am I complicating the issue unnecessarily?

Oh…I thought you had logged into your MySteinberg on the office computer…so yes, try that later so it’s clear what license you have.

You can’t just update to C9 unless you could find a used one with a dongle…and you already said that was proving difficult/expensive.
We also have no idea if your current computer issues are going ot be fixed by re-install or whether they will be by updating either…but that’s what comes of trying to run old unsupported software on an old unsupported o/s.

EDIT: I just had a quick scan of your other thread (lot of text there!!)…before you do anything else you should do some more troubleshooting of this noise.
Test in a new completely blank project and confirm it does it there.
Provide a sample of the noise if possible.

I feel I may be running into deeper water here.

Firstly, just for clarification: yes, I was logged into the account on the office computer, but my reasoning was that that wouldn’t show any licensing information relating to the installation of Cubase on the studio computer. However, I am now on the studio computer and have clicked on ‘Show eLicencer-based products’, whereupon a window comes up headed ‘eLicencer-based products’, with three options underneath: ‘Register eLicenser / software’ / ‘Reactivate’ / ‘Register hardware’. No existing products are shown. ( I’m assuming I didn’t need to download anything before doing this ). Just in case, I tried ‘reactivate’; a window appears headed ‘reactivation’ which then states ‘there is no soft e-licenser to reactivate’.

If there is in fact no license to reactivate, I can only guess that when my son built the computer and installed Cubase back in the noughties, maybe it wasn’t an entirely legit version of Cubase. I’m not just saying this, but I genuinely don’t know ( in case anyone is sceptical, I promise you I wouldn’t have wasted this much time trying to find a license I knew didn’t exist ). Working hypothetically on the assumption that this is the case - insofar as it seems to be - as of now I’m certainly wanting to do things legitimately. Presumably, since ( contrary to what I’d previously thought ) the Steinberg website has the facility to download all the early versions of Cubase, and since those version still require a license of some kind, it must be possible for me to purchase a license from Steinberg themselves? I didn’t know Cubase 9 required a dongle, but if I’m going to purchase a version of Cubase completely from cold, as it were, do all of the versions between 5 and 9 require dongles?

Or in short, I suppose, what next …?!

[ As far as the noise is concerned, that was always an intermittent problem, which made it very difficult to provide a sample. It seems to be the case that that problem has gone away since I got the new interface, which is to say that during the fairly short periods of time that I’ve used Cubase since then, it hasn’t manifested itself. Until and unless it does, far and away the bigger problem is the fact that when I go to record a new audio track, Cubase records all the other backing tracks along with it ( the info is all in the other posts, although believe me, I do appreciate that that’s a lot of reading ). Cutting a much longer story short, the fact that this problem manifests itself in Cubase but not in Audacity ( especially now the external audio interface has been replaced ) leads me to believe that Cubase is the culprit. As far as diagnostics for this problem are concerned, over and above what’s already been done, I really wouldn’t know what else to try, hence having come to the point of considering re-installing ( or just ‘installing’ ) Cubase. ]

With all due politeness, you’re making things too difficult :slight_smile:

Not too clear on the status of your elicenser dongle working and/or you possessing valid serial numbers, however…forget that for a moment (no need to re-explain)

You’ve stated a number of dilemmas with possible solutions that each have severe time restrictions (do I try this ver, that ver, maybe this ver, maybe not this, look for 5, look for 9 etc etc…)

I use windows 98se, xp, 7, 11 on various systems, various Cubendos including 3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14.

From my glancing at your very very long posts, there is one solution.

Locate and buy cubase version 10 asap. With serial of course. Buy and register a new dongle too (from Amazon) if that’s an issue.

Install and activate cb 10 on SOMETHING (doesn’t have to be on your win7, just someone’s win10-11 computer…perhaps your son or etc). The install of cb10 and then its license appearance on the dongle is the critical part.

Grab the dongle, pop it into your win7 computer, install current tiny ecc software on the computer and…

Now…you can download ALL the old Cubases…all of them. They’re all on the steinberg server and on the ftp area. They might NOT be there a year from now.

Install the tiny current ecc software on your win7 computer, pop in the dongle (contains the cb10 lic), install cb5 or 6 or 7 or 8 or …whatever you want …onto win7.

Try them all. The presence of cb10 license on the dongle is what allows it.

By the way, even though I use win 98,xp,7, 11 pro…a heads up in case you ever want to experiment…cubase 5,6,7,8,9 etc ALL work magnificently on win11 Pro 24H2. I’ve purposely installed all of them to test

At any rate, time is fast running out for whatever you plan.

This is usually caused by a function called loopback being enabled in the interface. You just need to disable it.

Beautiful engagement from all involved.

I’d just like to give some food for thought (or consideration). @Firefox7 has mentioned Cubase versions 3.7 and 5.1r2. These were version on the PC in the 90’s of Cubase VST.

Firefox7 might be talking about this version.
If so, Cubase VST 5.1r2 ran on both, the USB dongle and the dongle for the parallel printer port. As far as I can remember Cubase VST 3.7 only ran on the printer port dongle.

If my above thought is true and Firefox7 cannot see a dongle when using Cubase it would indeed be an illegal version of Cubase.

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As I say, I can’t defend the possible illegality of the existing version of Cubase.
Re the loopback idea: someone else suggested this to me, but neither he nor I knew how to disable it - if in fact this is the problem - in my Tascam US-122mk.II.
I should mention that the problem doesn’t always manifest itself immediately upon opening Cubase; sometimes it can be a matter of minutes before it does so. However, I would love to try disabling the loopback thing if anyone can tell me how to do it, just in case it really is as simple as that ( I should be so lucky ).
Half in the process of preparing dinner at the moment, so will look more closely at DosIsBest’s post soon.

Just by the by, I can’t find any reference to loopback in the Tascam manual.