Will my license for Elements 10.5 allow me to 1st install SX/SL/SE3 to convert .all to .cpr? (Win10 PC)

Cubase
,
#1

I’m currently in the process of converting my old Pro24III .sng files to .all using a very early ST Cubase on the STeem emulator. These are just midi-only files. Although I could save them as .mid files, I want to retain the individual patterns/parts instead of the channel-tracks being single long pieces.

I want to buy Elements 10.5 for Win10 PC, but before I install it, I’ll need to first install SX/SL/SE 3 convert those .all files to .cpr. Many forum posts indicate using SX/SL/SE 3 for this, like this…

https://www.steinberg.net/forums/viewtopic.php?f=146&t=230 <-- wrt Mac PPC versions

1 - Which version of SX/SL/SE do I want? 3.03 or 3.1?

ftp://ftp.steinberg.net/Download/Cubase_Essential_4/Cubase_SE_3_VST_Song_Conversion/PC/

https://www.steinberg.net/en/support/unsupported_products/cubase_sx_3.html

2 - Because of just having an Elements 10.5 license, do I want SE or SL or SX? Does it matter?

3 - Do I need a USB dongle for Elements 10.5? Will I need it for SX/SL/SE 3?

4 - Is SX/SL/SE 3 going to load on Win10? Or do I need to install it in XP compatibility mode? or what?

5 - Wouldn’t it be easier for Steinbergs programmers to create just a simple program to convert old .sng /.all /.arr files to .cpr and avoid all this?

#2

Hi,

Please read this article.

#3

Ok, thanks - I’ll go with SE3.03 as that article ultimately links to. So now theres questions 2,3, & 4…

2 - will my 10.5 elements license let me load SE3.03 first?

3 - Do elements 10.5 / SE3.03 need dongles?

4 - will SE3.03 load in Win10, or do I need XP compatibility mode? Or an actual old PC running XP?

#4

That article tells that Elements cannot be used with any of those

“In general, Cubase AI, Cubase LE, Cubase Essential and Cubase Elements licenses
cannot be used with Cubase SE, Cubase SL and Cubase SX!”

So to answer your questions

  1. None of them will work with your License
  2. No
  3. No to the first, not sure about SE
  4. It would probably load fine, but if not then use compatibility mode
#5

“In general, Cubase AI, Cubase LE, Cubase Essential and Cubase Elements licenses
cannot be used with Cubase SE, Cubase SL and Cubase SX!”

OK, thanks, I missed that. So I need to buy $500 Cubase Pro instead of $100 Elements to be able to load SE3.03 to convert some files?

(I would eventually like to buy the full Pro version, but that’s overkill for me now)

#6

Afaik yes. However you could take the middle step and get Cubase Artist, which is around half the price as Cubase Pro.

#7

My sympathies to the OP, I find it quite unfair that a Cubase 10 Elements license does not allow Cubase SE3 to run, unless of course there’s some technical reason to do with the Soft eLicenser (SE3 used what was then still known as Synchrosoft).

What I can tell you (I have actually done this, so I’m 100% sure it works) is that it is possible to run Cubase SE3 on a Windows 10 machine that has a Cubase Artist 10 license, however that also requires you to purchase a Steinberg USB eLicenser (physical copy protection device).

Running such old software is always problematic however, so what I did was install Cubase SE3 on an old Windows XP machine, then zip up the program folder and copy it across to the Windows 10 machine, unzip and run from there (but with the Cubase SE3.exe in XP compatibility mode). It works well enough to load and save .ALL files to .cpr

#8

OK thanks for that. Wrt the issue of getting SE3 to run on a Win10 PC…

As a test I downloaded (from the link above) and installed SE3.03. Before I did, I right-clicked on setup.exe -> properties -> compatibility -> Run this program in compatibility mode for: Windows XP service pack 2. It installed OK and even asked to do a reboot. When I launched it, I got an “Elicensor Control - Error” popup and clicking on “Licenses” takes me to another popup “Elicnsor Control - Select License” (with a license tree). Hitting “Refresh” just brings it up again, and hitting “Cancel” gives me another popup “The user has cancelled the license selection”.

So it seems to work getting that far OK. When I right click on “CubaseSE3.exe” and do a “TroubleShoot Compatibility” it changes it to WinXPSP3 and everything above works the same as before… so I think SE3 will work on this Win10 laptop if I can get a license for it.

Sound about right anyone?

#9

Sounds about right, but you’ll have to pay to upgrade your Elements license to at least Artist, and to do that, you’ll also have to buy a USB eLicenser; seems a bit unfair to me. Kudos for perisistence in trying to revive the old stuff though!

Once upon a time, in the dark days when Steinberg were owned by Pinnacle, there was a version of Cubase SE (a cut-down equivalent of SX, or “SX1”) which did not use the Synchrosoft system, just a serial number that you could use to activate the software, even offline. That never made it past Windows XP, however it just might run in a Windows XP VM well enough to convert files.

Of course, if Steinberg were to publish the format of the now obsolete .ALL, .SNG and .PRT files, perhaps the community could create a proper conversion utility.

#10

Actually, it’s Steinberg themselves who should have created a proper conversion utility… even if it was just a version of SE3 that had everything disabled/deleted and just the abilities to load/import and save/export to different file types.

But instead of an XP VM, shouldn’t these early 2000-era programs be able to run on Win10 in XP Compatability mode? (but if Stenberg had made a conversion utility, we wouldn’t even have to be asking these questions about how to run and license old versions)


But ya know what I could use? Just a license for the SE3 that I installed yesterday that expires after only about 4 hours (really, I’d probably need only 2) just to convert these files so I can start working on them in Elements 10.5

#11

You’d think, but Windows 10’s XP compatibility mode has limits. I think the problem is that the rights to SE (1) are probably still owned by Pinnacle. We don’t like to talk about the dark side here. :stuck_out_tongue:

#12

I just posted a suggestion in the Feature Request forum:

https://www.steinberg.net/forums/viewtopic.php?f=285&t=190316