Opening Cubasis AV files in Elements

[The Paul meister]

I've found the Cubasis AV CD. I'll get the hard drive removed as soon as my local PC repair shop is open and take it from there.

Happy new year, Paul

[Jimmy B]

Lots of good suggestions here. If I had to choose, I would dismantle the laptop only as a very last resort. In my experience, if something old is working, then taking it apart is quite likely to result in it not working, in the absence of a set of spare parts.
One slightly off-the-wall idea. If the files are very old, they might be small. Are they small enough to fit one on a floppy disk? If so, you could transfer them one at a time to your newer laptop that way. It might be tedious, but it might just work. You can still buy external floppy drives on Amazon, if your new computer doesn't have one.

[Wonks]

The audio and project files are unlikely to be any smaller than current ones (unless they were 16-bit recordings when the audio files will be 1/3 smaller). The installation files are on the CD, so that's not an issue.

Of course there will probably lots of unused audio files in the pool folders making the data to be moved bigger, but unless you can run Cubasis AV on the existing computer, you can't tell what's used and what's not.

[Jimmy B]

Yes, if they contain audio recordings they are likely to be much too large. I just thought that it might be worth checking how big they are, so that we can see what we are dealing with here.

[The Paul meister]

Hi everyone,

I got Cubasis AV re-installed on my old computer. All the files are there and opening fine - mostly midi. Strangely the computer freezes when you close Cubasis - I've been forcing it to turn off.

I've got some audio files as well so it's about 4.0GB in total. Can't use a floppy drive for 2 reasons - one: it's an interchangeable drive where you swap it for a DVD drive and I've lost the original floppy drive, and two: obviously the files are too big.

My old laptop does have a network jack as Sam Spoons pointed out, but the new laptop doesn't have this. I see that you can get a RJ45 to USB cable, e.g. here:https://www.amazon.co.uk/Moyina-Etherne ... 8877130315

Would this connection work to transfer the files? And if so, how would I go about it?

Otherwise, I'm going to have the hdd removed. James - can you explain how to set up the virtual machine? And would I be best using Cubasis AV or Cubase SE 3? I have both of these on CD. And once you've done that, how do you get the files into Cubase Elements?

Cheers, Paul

[Wonks]

You'll need to open the files in SE 3 and save them in the .cpr format to be able to use them in Elements.

If you need to copy them to yet another computer then copy the whole project folder and its contents across.

The project file should then be easy to access directly from Elements. You'll probably get a whole load of 'could not find/open' warnings as the old instruments and effects won't be there on Elements 13.

[James Perrett]

You may be able to connect your old laptop to your internet router and then access it from the new laptop via wifi. However, setting up Windows networking can be a bit of a faff and will probably just result in lots of frustration unless you are extremely lucky.

Can the CD drive in the old laptop write to CDs? If so, you could easily write a CD with everything on it and just read that on a new computer.

For virtual machines I use VirtualBox

https://www.virtualbox.org/

although I'm not particularly expert with it. For Windows 3.1 I seem to remember finding a virtual machine download that someone else had made. I used it at work to run test versions of Windows and a particular version of Linux that was needed for a particular software program.

[The Paul meister]

Hi James,

I've ordered one of these from Amazon:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Ethernet-Adapt ... 92504&th=1

I'm hoping I can just plug it straight in and transfer the files.

My old laptop doesn't have a CD burner, just DVD. I'm going to get the Cubase Elements demo and see if I can just open the AV files directly, before trying the VirtualBox. I'm waiting on a new external SSD before I can download the Cubase demo. Neither Cubase SE 3 nor AV work on my laptop.

Cheers, Paul

[Sam Spoons]

All DVD players can play CD's and AFAIK all DVD burners can burn CDs so if your DVD is a burner (and I can't se why it wouldn't be as it's in a computer) it can almost certainly burn CD's.

[The Paul meister]

No, it’s just a DVD ROM.

[BWC]

I've ordered one of these from Amazon:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Ethernet-Adapt ... 92504&th=1

I'm hoping I can just plug it straight in and transfer the files.

"Adapter" is a little misleading here, it's an external NIC. You'd need a crossover cable, and probably face an even more frustrating fight with those Windows networking settings that James mentioned.

Do you have any network attached storage, or a router with a USB port and a thumbdrive?

[The Paul meister]

Hi BWC,

Yes I have a standard RJ45 ethernet cable. What is an NIC?

When I first bought the laptop in 2000 I was in college in America and it connected to the T3 network with no problems. We didn't have Wifi in those days.

I'm not sure exactly what 'network attached storage' means, and I don't have a USB port on the router. I thought for £7.64 the adapter was worth a try, and I can always return it if I need to.

[BWC]

NIC = Network Interface Card
"Standard RJ45 Ethernet cables" can be wired in different ways. What you have is probably wired "straight" rather than "crossover". That will connect a laptop to a router, but not a laptop to a laptop.

Personally, I would extract the old disk, put it in a caddy and transfer the files to the new computer.

Probably going to be the easiest way for you.

[The Paul meister]

OK BWC,

Thanks for your reply

[James Perrett]

If you have a network cable you don't need any more hardware. Connect the old computer to the router with your network cable. Connect the new computer to the router via Wifi. Hardware wise that's all you need to do.

Now comes the fun part...

You need to share the drive one one computer so that the other computer can see it. Here's one guide (I'm assuming that your old computer is running Windows 98 or similar - if it is running Windows 2000 or XP then things may be simpler)...

https://kb.iu.edu/d/adjo

It is probably worth looking for a few more similar guides because Windows networking can be very hit and miss. You may also need to adjust your router configuration to allow traffic through between ports - although, if you already use a Wifi printer, this may not be a problem.

[The Paul meister]

Presumably a 'crossover' RJ45 cable is difficult to get hold of or expensive?

Yes James, I'm running Windows 98. I'm not using a Wifi printer. I think I'm going to get the hard drive removed.

[James Perrett]

A crossover cable shouldn't be hard to get hold of but you don't need one if you connect your old computer to the router.

If your USB network interface is smart you won't need one either but I couldn't see enough information on the Amazon link to tell if this was the case. Just about every computer shop will sell crossover cables - and probably your local hardware store too.

One tip - if you want to go for the networking option learn how to use Ping and work out how to use direct IP addressing. Another option may be to use VNC's file transfer (or similar remote viewing software) rather than Windows networking.

[BWC]

Presumably a 'crossover' RJ45 cable is difficult to get hold of or expensive?

Not at all, but it doesn't avoid that "fun part", it makes it even more "fun".

Using your router would be easier (and worth a try). Puling the drive, quite possibly, easier still.

[merlyn]

Most recent networking gear has automatic crossover, meaning crossover cables are only for older gear. A laptop from 2000? Might have automatic crossover, might not. It's worth trying a straight through patch cable first. i.e. the cable you already have.

If a computer is on the internet, then networking has been set up. What is required here is Windows file sharing, which is needed whether the computers are connected together with a cable, or go through a router.

[BWC]

Yeah, I guess that's how long it's been since I tried networking two PCs without a router.

[The Paul meister]

Hi everyone,

Wonks posted this quite early in the thread. I contacted Steinberg support and they gave me the same link. Sorry for not looking at this earlier Wonks!

According to this article, you'll need to first load an old version of Cubase (SE 3, SL 3 or SX 3).

https://helpcenter.steinberg.de/hc/en-u ... CPR-format

Which still means you'll need a suitably old old computer to load that on, just to convert the project files.

I downloaded Cubase SE 3 to my modern laptop, as my original CD didn't work. Fortunately, I have the dongle that came with SE 3 so now I have it working. This program enables you to import .ALL and .ARR files and save them as .CPR files, which will open in Elements. No need for a virtual machine as James suggested.

Thanks for all your replies everyone. Cheers, Paul

[Sam Spoons]

And kudos to Cubase for making the process possible.

[Wonks]

This program enables you to import .ALL and .ARR files and save them as .CPR files

I suppose the .ARR files are ones from pirate copies of Cubase.

[The Elf]

Always good to read a success story.

[The Paul meister]

Hi everyone,

I finally have my old hd backed up onto my current one. I took it to my local PC repair shop and they were waiting about 3 weeks for an IDE caddy, which when it arrived, it didn't work. So eventually, they just backed up the data directly onto my new hard drive.

I now have all my data present and correct. It only cost £50.

Thanks for all the replies,

Cheers, Paul