Converting cubase files?

LuttiS

I've used Reaper pretty much exclusivly for quite a few years now, and came across some 10 year old+ cubase files on an old hard drive. 

It's probaby better for my ego if i just leave these to rest, but morbid curiosty is uh.. curious.

Light googling suggests that i can export them from cubase to an importable file for Reaper, however i no longer have access to cubase. I think the last version i used was SX3..

Does anyone know an easy way to convert these files?

thecolourbox

I still use Cubase, I think I have Cubase 10 maybe? Happy to export them to whatever you like if you can send the files somehow, and with the instructions/details of how to export to what you need

LuttiS

thecolourbox said:

I still use Cubase, I think I have Cubase 10 maybe? Happy to export them to whatever you like if you can send the files somehow, and with the instructions/details of how to export to what you need

I highly appreciate that, however i remember some of the shit i played a decade ago and i think i would probably have to take off and hit you're house from orbit.. it's the only way ot be sure no living person can hear my cubase past..

It's also in quite a mess, so i imagine there will be much searcing for audio files to match each project..

octatonic

Cross platform export is notoriously unreliable and overly complicated.
Assuming your projects were up to date you usually have to do it this way.

1. Export Midi as a MIDI file.
2. Export Audio as an AAF audio file.

The problem is that Reaper doesn't (or at least didn't) support AAF natively.
I believe there are some workarounds now- have a look on the reaper forums.

Even when all things are fully working and supported it is a bit of a cludge.
I regularly have to move projects between DAWs and I generally find it better to just export the audio, track by track, putting a 2pop at the beginning of any audio track that doesn't start at 1:1:1:1.

When I need to import instrument MIDI I just create presets for the sounds/effects chains and manually recreate the session.

Habanero

Isn't there a free Cubase demo for 60 days, or maybe it's knobbled so not all the features work?

steamabacus

I have an old cracked copy of Cubase SX 2.01 that I still run on my main music computer (Windows XP!). It's very stable (all my mates used it back in the day). I've had it running on a Windows 7 laptop in the past but not sure about Win10 or Win11.

You're welcome to a copy of it if you want to try installing it.

LuttiS

Habanero said:

Isn't there a free Cubase demo for 60 days, or maybe it's knobbled so not all the features work?

Ah, i think this is probably the first port of call.

steamabacus said:

I have an old cracked copy of Cubase SX 2.01 that I still run on my main music computer (Windows XP!). It's very stable (all my mates used it back in the day). I've had it running on a Windows 7 laptop in the past but not sure about Win10 or Win11.

You're welcome to a copy of it if you want to try installing it.

I found my old copy of SX3, which unfortunately disagreed with my current set up, can't imagine that SX2 will do any better. But it might be worth digging out an old laptop with Win7 or XP on which i think i have somewhere...

andy_k

octatonic said:

Cross platform export is notoriously unreliable and overly complicated.
Assuming your projects were up to date you usually have to do it this way.

1. Export Midi as a MIDI file.
2. Export Audio as an AAF audio file.

The problem is that Reaper doesn't (or at least didn't) support AAF natively.
I believe there are some workarounds now- have a look on the reaper forums.

Even when all things are fully working and supported it is a bit of a cludge.
I regularly have to move projects between DAWs and I generally find it better to just export the audio, track by track, putting a 2pop at the beginning of any audio track that doesn't start at 1:1:1:1.

When I need to import instrument MIDI I just create presets for the sounds/effects chains and manually recreate the session.

Curious as to why not bouncing out WAV tracks / stems, rather than midi / AAF?
Isn't AAF proprietary to Apple, and therefore less compatible as an archive format?
And also, although it is nice to have the midi, surely it is better to have the actual desired audio, in case the VST is not available?
I try to make it a habit to leave a mix in a state where I can access full length WAV stems / tracks in the folder, usually using them for the final mix, which is generally present as an MP3 in the project as well.
This has served me well in the past when I have tried to work on older Logic and PT stuff on my newer Win machine.
Hindsight is always 20 / 20 though, and I do still have some stuff that I need to finalise in that way, which means firing up an old MBP, kept for that sole purpose.
I even have a copy of Ableton 10 on it, which I could never get to work with even the demo project, which is around the time I made the jump to Reaper - never looked back.

Bod

I'm terrible at rendering projects to audio as I rarely finish anything to a point where it matters.  It's a good habit to get into though, and I'll have a think about how I can build it into my workflow every time I close a session.  it is annoying to be alerted to missing plugins when opening old projects.  I do tend to try and stick with stock plugins where possible for that reason though.  

octatonic

andy_k said:

octatonic said:

Cross platform export is notoriously unreliable and overly complicated.
Assuming your projects were up to date you usually have to do it this way.

1. Export Midi as a MIDI file.
2. Export Audio as an AAF audio file.

The problem is that Reaper doesn't (or at least didn't) support AAF natively.
I believe there are some workarounds now- have a look on the reaper forums.

Even when all things are fully working and supported it is a bit of a cludge.
I regularly have to move projects between DAWs and I generally find it better to just export the audio, track by track, putting a 2pop at the beginning of any audio track that doesn't start at 1:1:1:1.

When I need to import instrument MIDI I just create presets for the sounds/effects chains and manually recreate the session.

Curious as to why not bouncing out WAV tracks / stems, rather than midi / AAF?
Isn't AAF proprietary to Apple, and therefore less compatible as an archive format?
And also, although it is nice to have the midi, surely it is better to have the actual desired audio, in case the VST is not available?
I try to make it a habit to leave a mix in a state where I can access full length WAV stems / tracks in the folder, usually using them for the final mix, which is generally present as an MP3 in the project as well.
This has served me well in the past when I have tried to work on older Logic and PT stuff on my newer Win machine.
Hindsight is always 20 / 20 though, and I do still have some stuff that I need to finalise in that way, which means firing up an old MBP, kept for that sole purpose.
I even have a copy of Ableton 10 on it, which I could never get to work with even the demo project, which is around the time I made the jump to Reaper - never looked back.

AAF is the *standard* format for cross platform project files.
It has nothing to do with Apple.

Have a look here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Authoring_Format

It is a buggy piece of shit though.
I hate it and dislike using it.

Why would you use it?
Well some people do and it does have some advantages when it works.
I find it more hassle then it is worth.

As I said, I bounce out audio AND midi.
AAF doesn't bring midi across.
I usually want to have the midi data and the audio data when moving between workstations.
So I bounce out any audio, including rendering VSTi and AU instruments as audio, but I also bring the midi over via a midi file.

andy_k

oops, was thinking of this, AIFF, 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audio_Interchange_File_Format

sorry.