Computer crash, Cubase 6

[Fagerdahlen]

Hello!

I'm using Cubase 6 on Windows 7 Home edition, and it works great.
All my projects are saved in an external hard drive so in case my computer crashes I wont loose any of my projects.

So a couple of days ago my computer took suicuide.
"No problem".. I re-installed windows and installed C6 and saw all my projcets. I then installed all my VST plugs without trouble.

Today I thought that i'd continue on one of my DnB tracks, so i opened it, and all the plugs are there.. But every sound I have made, or if i had choosen any presets is RESET to the init patch, on every single project i have ever made.

What the f**k am I supposed to do here? Should I just try to re-create every single freaking sound from scratch? It will NEVER sound like it did before.

Are there any soloutions?

Thanks in advance.

[Fagerdahlen]

Really, no answers at all?

[standalone]

What the f**k am I supposed to do here?

Contact Steinberg's support. This is a too serious situation to try the different solutions that people in a forum could offer you.

In the future, make backup images of your hard drive to prevent things like that. Reinstalling the OS from scratch is too traumatic.

[4damind]

I don't think there is a solution. You have formatted your drive and re-installed the OS and stuff? If you have not the same presets and stuff installed, than you have a problem.
Remember that only "changed" sounds will be stored inside the project file. So if you using a preset without modifications (or you saved your own sound as a preset) Cubase will not store this inside the project file.

You must have your presets/own presets included in your backup strategy! There is no other solution to restore them later.

It's eventually a hard learning, but now do this right! Use a sync tool like "Sync Toys" from Microsoft to "mirror" important folders on a extra drive. Use a image backup tool like TrueImage and make regularly backups (at least every week) from the complete system drive so you can restore it in some minutes with _all_ your settings, presets and stuff. This is also very helpful when installing a new drive, moving to a SSD in the future etc.

If you have a important track ready, be sure that all tracks are rendered to audio so you have also some years later a chance for a remix without the needs of the synth/FX installed.
Make backups! Better to have your projects, samples etc on a second internal drive (for better loading time) and make every week a backup to a external drive.
If you store your projects only on a external drive, you have the same problem.. All your projects are lost if the drive is broken.

[twolegstoneworks]

If you have a important track ready, be sure that all tracks are rendered to audio so you have also some years later a chance for a remix without the needs of the synth/FX installed.

+1. It's really the only way you can make 100% sure to preserve your project and sounds as they were. Also make use of the notepad, as tedious as it may be this can provide valuable information when trying to recreate something.

[GeorgK]

I think the Vsti settings are part of the Cubase files, so this should not be the core problem.

I experienced something similar when I had to downgrade some NI plugins to earlier versions because of compatibility issues. I did this by de-installing the plugin, followed by a re-install of the older version. The plugins then had "forgotten" the chosen preset in older projects and showed the init patch. Regular updating (without previous de-installation) does not cause this problem.

I interpret this as follows: Cubase possibly does not recognize the newly installed plugins to be identical with the old ones as they are scanned as "new" plugins during the next start-up of Cubase; so it cannot match the presets, and switches to "init" therefore. Second (unlikely) possibility: There is a change in the file structure that makes it impossible to find the preset, and forces the plugin to initialize.
So: the preset information still shoud be present in the Cubase project files (as long as you do not re-save the files), but Cubase cannot link it to the Vst. Tricky...

Maybe you could try to replicate the original folder structure as close as possible. No idea if that helps.

Georg

[GeorgK]

BTW, it's good to be aware of this problem, because I plan to migrate to a new computer over the next weeks. So it is not only important to save own presets, but also to keep a (written) notice within the tracks which presets were used.

[Eric C.]

This would not happen with mixdowns, right? Now, I'm getting scared. lol

[bduffy]

I don't see how that could possibly happen with mixdowns, mixdowns are audio.

This is a strange problem, and I concur with GeorgeK: it could be that Cubase is interpreting the plug-ins as different versions. I would definitely contact official support, that is a weird one.

I agree about bouncing down. The only way to guarantee forward-compatibility, even if you switch DAWs. Another solution for the future: freeze your synth tracks.