Cubase Presets & backing Up to where exactly?

Been some fair point shere & some invalid ones too regarding the general concensus about the usability of C8

Ill chime in ( for the first in a while & the main reason Im back here) Like many of us, we simply upgraded over a previous version of Cubase.

I fully KNOW this is wrong on so many levels ( from the hassles we had in C5 with C++ redistributables missing etc), but from C6 - 6.5 - 7 - 7.5 - 8 (05) the constant upgrading paths & installers changing - Halion VST sound banks erroneously being dumped around various folder or missing. changing folder structures & locationsā€¦ Mediabay playing up etc/not responding fluidly/ GUI headaches etc/ Halion Sounds installer issues etc.

I am fully aware probably 99% OF ALL USERS HEADACHES would probably disappear with 8.05 FRESH vanilla O/S wiped Install.

From Scratch.
We get that.

However Steinberg your policy of ā€œsimply dumping every iota of data somewhere inside the C driveā€ in a completely unstructured way kinda makes me lose the will to live.

It Makes backing up Cubase & their respective Midi files / VST presets / VST3 presets /Logical Editor Presets/ MIDI Loops/GA KITS & related soundsources ALMOST impossible to correctly manage - maintain - update , in a cohesive manner.

Im a 18 yrs user of Cubase, but has finally hit my limit of HOW the hell to back up ALL the relevant data from one version to another in a concise LOGICAL order. without corrupt placements - missing files - or anything releated to a FAIL.

My business relies on being able to ā€œkeep up with Jonesā€ Im adept at the inner workings of all WIndows O/S incarnations, but cmon guys , we need a hand in management - especially looking towards the future & larger databases - Largers sample libraries - Mediabay does great for that.

But the basics start within Cubase - Tracking ALL the components needed & included in my daily growing internal presets archive, this is getting too much to bear.

We NEED help in managing Cubase - esp from version to version updates. it starts to get ridiculous even managing Groove quantise Presets elegantly. Or tracking vst3 presets/ vst 2.4 presets (in another folder) Midiloops/chorder presets/patterns

Can we get some help in this area for future update paths please Steinberg??

The mediabay helps in handling Audio best & does great - 1 dll file & your there.

But certainly all the included presets & files I have built up & added to directly within Cubase - I need a sherpa guide handcuffed to me to even begin to dive into the quagmire inside the Steinberg folder.

should be made more manageable please, this would help in many areas, esp in helping users (both new & long term) upgrade/update MORE fluidly.
:smiley:

I totally agree, file locations are a mess! Too bad the topic title doesnā€™t reflect the content of the post, so will probably be ignoredā€¦

retitled Arjan :wink:

Asking for this to get sorted might be worth a Feature Request.

+1000 Yes.

I like to sync (and ergo, backup) track preset folders and certain preference files in real-time with Dropbox but because Cubase doesnā€™t play nice with symlinks (especially on OS X), it is not a seamless solution and only allows you to load presets while breaking the ability to save new ones.

On top of this, Cubase is inconsistent with WHEN it saves preferences too. Some things get committed to disk (ie: in .xml files in the Preferences folder) as soon as settings are changed, but other things donā€™t get committed to disk until you successfully quit Cubase (read: successfully. Cubase has had a nasty history of randomly crashing during operation or on program quit - before it has a chance to save your preference changes to disk).

My O.C.D. is begging for a more modern, central, modular rebuild of Cubaseā€™s preference files and MediaBay/VSTPreset asset storage folders.

+1 Agreed
Itā€™s a complication we can all do without. Not only affects workflow, but it also aggravates setting up systems and crucially Steinie, it makes upgrading a PITA. Please have a look at some form of management and preferably a routing system allowing all presets / Prefs / Key / FX chains et al to be held together.

P

Read Steinberg Knowledge Base /Cubase and Nuendo Program Preferences Files in Detail at https://www.steinberg.net/en/support/knowledgebase_new/show_details/kb_show/cubase-and-nuendo-program-preferences-files-in-detail/

This tells where what all the prefs do & where they are located. From experience, when I trash all the prefs for a new install etc, I keep the Presets folder, Defaults.xml & Templates, also being sure to first save the main Cubase prefs as a named preset, ā€˜my prefsā€™ or similar.

Worth repeating. Too many tears before bedtime because of this.

The fact that a knowledge base document exists (pointed out by profdraper) in order to try to make sense of this tangle, surely proves the point that rationalisation is something that is needed. For example key stroke presets exist one location, but the key stroke customisations go to another. Why?

This thread is great. I found this needle in the Cubase hay stack forum because my preferences data has mysteriously become corrupt, resulting in the render in place feature ring rendered unusable. Clearly this is an issue which needs to be addressed by Steinberg themselves? As I scroll through the many threads itā€™s clear there are a lot of opinions from so called experts but very little by way of any workable solutions. Maybe one of Steinbergs product experts can comment?

For interest sake, thought I would mention my latest update to this.

Hereā€™s my quandary. Cubase by its nature is mobile (the dongle can be moved from computer to computer) but its preferences, MediaBay track presets, everything is single computer-centric.

I have different studios that I like to port projects between on a daily basis, and I like to have my track preset library, VST plug-in presets and Cubase preferences all essentially mirrored (synced) between multiple computers.

Itā€™s not as easy as copying the Preferences folder from one computer to the other (or establishing an automated cross-network/cross-Internet sync vis-a-vis Dropbox and/or ChronoSync). Because of how fragmented Cubaseā€™s preferences / presets folders etc. are, Iā€™ve had to do hours worth of research and digging around in hidden system folders (and dissecting XML filesā€™ internals - Iā€™m looking at you, RAMPresets.xml).

Iā€™m very tech-savvy and have been a coder for the past 20+ years. Itā€™s gotten so messy that Iā€™m on the verge of coding my own application to manage syncing and selectively merging parts of XML files etc. to avoid all this manual surgery any time a preference changes, a preset is made, or what have you.

Am I crazy?

I would kill for an official Cubase cloud-based solution to this of course, but Iā€™d only be dreamingā€¦

bump. any update on this idea Steinberg? (meanwhile Iā€™m trying to mirror my settings between studio computer and my laptop)? :sigh:

Totally agree!

In addition to be a musician, you must also be a professional computer master to handle the Cubase structure for backup and maintenances.
There should be ONE BUTTON for a COMPLETE Cubase preferences Backup, ALL inclusive!

And then when time for a restore, the user/cubase can filter out what is necessary.

Steinberg, you say you are listening to us users, are you getting this?