Working between Cubase 6 and Cubase 4LE

[JonPorobil]

Background info: I work from two computers. The PC in my bedroom gets used to recording anything that needs a microphone, plus my bass, which I line-in through a preamp. The laptop in my living room gets used for recording piano.

I just got Cubase 6 and installed it on my PC. I worked out a really complicated tempo track, and then sent the file over to the other computer, which still has Cubase 4LE installed on it. When I tried the open the project file, Cubase 4LE threw a fit and refused, because apparently it's not backwards compatible.

Does anyone know if Cubase has some kind of "Compatibility mode" or if there's any way I can move the tempo track and instrument tracks between these two computers?

[Billy's Little Trip]

Well, the obvious would be to send a pre mixed wav file over and layer additional tracks from there.

I ran into the same issue with no solution as of yet. The above is the only way I know to do it.

[JonPorobil]

Yeah, but a premixed wave doesn't include the tempo track.

And the song I'm working on has an extremely complex tempo track. That won't be the usual, but this time it's an issue.

[Billy's Little Trip]

So you can't just import the wav file and add a click track? I guess I'm not quite understanding what makes your tempo track so complex.

[JonPorobil]

About a dozen different spots where the tempo changes.

[Lunkhead]

Jon, it isn't possible, as far as I know. I had a similar issue just using the full version of Cubase 4 at home and the LE version at the BSS studio. I wound up just starting my projects in LE at the studio, but I didn't have to do that very often so that wasn't a big deal. You use your piano a lot, so I imagine that starting every project in your living room in LE would be a nuisance for you. The other option I can think of is to install 6 on the living room computer and cart your USB license key back and forth. Hopefully there isn't a reason why you can't do that (like OS or hardware incompatibility between Cubase 6 and your living room computer). If you can't do that, though, another crappy option would be to make an audio click track in 6 along with a mix of the song, and import both into a project in 4 LE and play along to the audio click track. Sounds like a lot of work, though.

[ken]

Usually you can go up but not down with Cubase. So Cubase 6 should be able to open a Cubase 4 project, but not the other way around.

I would check to see if there is a way to just export the tempo track. I'll bet you can do that and then import it. Otherwise, make a midi track with a click and copy and paste it enough times to get through the entire project. Solo the track and export that. You can easily import an audio track. It will then work as your click track instead.

Ken

[JonPorobil]

Jon, it isn't possible, as far as I know. I had a similar issue just using the full version of Cubase 4 at home and the LE version at the BSS studio. I wound up just starting my projects in LE at the studio, but I didn't have to do that very often so that wasn't a big deal. You use your piano a lot, so I imagine that starting every project in your living room in LE would be a nuisance for you. The other option I can think of is to install 6 on the living room computer and cart your USB license key back and forth. Hopefully there isn't a reason why you can't do that (like OS or hardware incompatibility between Cubase 6 and your living room computer). If you can't do that, though, another crappy option would be to make an audio click track in 6 along with a mix of the song, and import both into a project in 4 LE and play along to the audio click track. Sounds like a lot of work, though.

Yeah, this is my ideal. Unfortunately, that computer's getting old, and it's throwing i/o errors every few seconds while trying to install the new software. I could get an external DVD drive, but honestly at this point I'm better off just saving my money for a newer laptop (Dell just came out with those swanky XPS models, and I get a huge employee discount, so I'll probably be able to afford one in a few weeks anyway). Anyway, I managed to get done what I needed to do just by aggressive bouncing of tracks. Not fun, but the song will probably get finished in time now.

Oh, and Ken: Cubase 6 lets me export the tempo track, but Cubase 4 doesn't have any mechanism for me to import it. D'oh!