Cubase 5.5 font hack

[SJ_Digriz]

It's amazing how retarded they are about this. Oh well as long as it works.

If they keep shoving things up our asses this way and not improving Cubase, well hopefully by that time the alternatives will be better

Using Cubase is kinda like that scene in Little Nicky where Satan has Hitler in a maids outfit and he has to go pick out a Pineapple to get shoved.

[bduffy]

It's amazing how retarded they are about this. Oh well as long as it works.

If they keep shoving things up our asses this way and not improving Cubase, well hopefully by that time the alternatives will be better

They did improve performance a bit, at least. But these ADD GUI changes can go to hell.

[J.C.R.]

you should look at the answer regarding the hex editor in the cubase forum.

wow, they really make me feel the urge to sell my cubase (I probably don't do it...but) and never ever buy a product from them again. This is near the worst case a company could deal with problems. I can't believe this.

[visa tapani]

Well, it looks like all informations suddenly vanished from the Cubase forum and moderators started to insult people as criminals.

At least this thread and it's equivalent at cubendo are still available.

It's amazing how retarded they are about this. Oh well as long as it works.

you should look at the answer regarding the hex editor in the cubase forum.

wow, they really make me feel the urge to sell my cubase (I probably don't do it...but) and never ever buy a product from them again. This is near the worst case a company could deal with problems. I can't believe this.

Are there still some traces of their bad customer support regarding this issue on their forums? I couldn't find anything relating to this with a quick search... If not, could someone give a brief summary on how the Steinberg support reacted?

[SJ_Digriz]

Well, it looks like all informations suddenly vanished from the Cubase forum and moderators started to insult people as criminals.

At least this thread and it's equivalent at cubendo are still available.

It's amazing how retarded they are about this. Oh well as long as it works.

you should look at the answer regarding the hex editor in the cubase forum.

wow, they really make me feel the urge to sell my cubase (I probably don't do it...but) and never ever buy a product from them again. This is near the worst case a company could deal with problems. I can't believe this.

Are there still some traces of their bad customer support regarding this issue on their forums? I couldn't find anything relating to this with a quick search... If not, could someone give a brief summary on how the Steinberg support reacted?

They said it was against the EULA and I believe they closed the thread.

[trimph1]

damn you make my day! this is great, I literally hate the 5.5 original fonts.

Well, I do not have issues with the original font. So there HAAAARRRRUUUUUMMMPPH!!!

[opcode]

My lawyer told me to emphasize that this is for educational purposes only.

- Start by copying the Cubase5.exe file to the Desktop. rename it Cubase5_ClassicFont.exe, or whatever.

- Open Cubase5_ClassicFont.exe in your favorite hex-editor. (010 Editor is a nice one)

- Search for "Microsoft Sans Serif". (Or just go directly to the offset mentioned below.)

- You should find 2 occurrences. It's the 2nd one we need to change.
File offset of the string is 0x01497470 in the 32-bit version, and 0x01CD5E00 in the 64-bit version.

- Change it to "MS Sans Serif". This is the 'classic' Cubase font. (Remember to end the string with a trailing hexadecimal zero)

- Save the edited file, move it from the Desktop to the Cubase5 folder.

- Now the font is reverted back to the pre-5.5 font (Which isn't affected by ClearType and doesn't support Cyrillic, I'm afraid Smile )
in the Cubase5_ClassicFont.exe file.

Actually, it's much better to change both occurrences of "Microsoft Sans Serif". The first is located at address 0x1493930. (If you change only the second occurrence, you will not get the old look of 5.1 back.)

If you are using ClearType to smooth fonts in Windows, the font "Segoe UI" is also a very good option. It is specifically optimized for ClearType and applications in graphical user interfaces, where small font sizes prevail. (It is the default font used in Windows - and other Microsoft applications - since Vista.)

This image compares the new Cubase 5.5 default look to the patched version using Segoe UI with ClearType enabled in both instances and the first patched location in the hex editor. (Use the scrollbar at the bottom!)



Now Cubase looks better than ever if you ask me.

Using "MS Sans Serif" instead of "Segoe UI" will give you the classic pre-5.5 look.

Also, a word of advice to those unfamiliar with hex editors: Make sure you overwrite the old font name; do not insert new characters. And you insert the trailing 0-byte by entering two zeros "00" in the hex part of your editor.

cheers!

[D.Wako]

The segue UI font sure is easier to reed.

It's surprising they didn't fix that.

[bduffy]

Wow, that's amazing. Anyone know how to edit applications on the Mac?

[KrisP]

My lawyer told me to emphasize that this is for educational purposes only.

- Start by copying the Cubase5.exe file to the Desktop. rename it Cubase5_ClassicFont.exe, or whatever.

- Open Cubase5_ClassicFont.exe in your favorite hex-editor. (010 Editor is a nice one)

- Search for "Microsoft Sans Serif". (Or just go directly to the offset mentioned below.)

- You should find 2 occurrences. It's the 2nd one we need to change.
File offset of the string is 0x01497470 in the 32-bit version, and 0x01CD5E00 in the 64-bit version.

- Change it to "MS Sans Serif". This is the 'classic' Cubase font. (Remember to end the string with a trailing hexadecimal zero)

- Save the edited file, move it from the Desktop to the Cubase5 folder.

- Now the font is reverted back to the pre-5.5 font (Which isn't affected by ClearType and doesn't support Cyrillic, I'm afraid Smile )
in the Cubase5_ClassicFont.exe file.

Actually, it's much better to change both occurrences of "Microsoft Sans Serif". The first is located at address 0x1493930. (If you change only the second occurrence, you will not get the old look of 5.1 back.)

If you are using ClearType to smooth fonts in Windows, the font "Segoe UI" is also a very good option. It is specifically optimized for ClearType and applications in graphical user interfaces, where small font sizes prevail. (It is the default font used in Windows - and other Microsoft applications - since Vista.)

This image compares the new Cubase 5.5 default look to the patched version using Segoe UI with ClearType enabled in both instances and the first patched location in the hex editor. (Use the scrollbar at the bottom!)



Now Cubase looks better than ever if you ask me.

Using "MS Sans Serif" instead of "Segoe UI" will give you the classic pre-5.5 look.

Also, a word of advice to those unfamiliar with hex editors: Make sure you overwrite the old font name; do not insert new characters. And you insert the trailing 0-byte by entering two zeros "00" in the hex part of your editor.

cheers!

First of all - the offsets given in my post were for Cubase 5.5.
Second - the first occurrence of the "Microsoft Sans Serif" is, AFAIK, just used by the splash screen you see when loading Cubase.

btw I'm also using Segoe UI - really like it.

And to the guy who was concerned about how I use my time: Well, it took me 5 min. to figure this out. Appreciate your concern, though!

Kind regards,
Kris

PS: Thank you LawrenceF for your kind words!

[opcode]

Second - the first occurrence of the "Microsoft Sans Serif" is, AFAIK, just used by the splash screen you see when loading Cubase.

You're right. It's not necessary to change it. I must have mixed something up while trying out different things; probably a typo in the font name when I first tried changing just the second instance, because if you mistype the font name, it defaults back to Microsoft Sans Serif, I believe. Anyway, no harm in changing them both.

cheers!

[Innervision]

I really would like to know how to do this font hack you're talking about as I can't stand this new font at all.

I downloaded and installed 010 Editor but I don't how this thing is working. Each time I'm typing something it goes over the next characters. Here is a video showing in action what I'm talking about:



Also, I have no clue what the following sentence means

And you insert the trailing 0-byte by entering two zeros "00" in the hex part of your editor.

Thanks in advance for explaining carefully in detail

[opcode]

The editor gives you two views of the same content. The left view shows each byte as a hex code, and the right view shows each byte interpreted as an ASCII character.
Simply overwrite the font name using the right-hand side of your editor by typing in the new font name (overwriting is the default editing behaviour of hex editors). The next byte has to be a zero byte, which you cannot enter directly on your keyboard (simply no key for it), so you switch to the left-hand side and enter two zeros in the next byte.

Note that the image I posted shows a completed edit at the bottom.

Hope this helps.

cheers!

[Innervision]

Thanks opcode for your input. But when I type something in the right panel like on my youtube video, it erases the next characters.

For example:

Before typing:




After entering "MS Sans S", you can sea it "ate" some letters of the word "Courier New":



I don't want to get an unstable Cubase because I edited the .exe like a fat pig so I'm being careful.

[opcode]

But when I type something in the right panel like on my youtube video, it erases the next characters.

This is what is supposed to happen - it's what I mean by overwriting (as opposed to inserting). You are supposed to partially overwrite "Microsoft Sans Serif" such that it becomes "MS Sans Serif. Serif" or "Arial.oft Sans Serif" or "Segoe UI. Sans Serif" or whatever, where the "." stands for a 0-byte. Do not delete the old string and then overwrite what follows (which I believe is what you did). Instead, simply overwrite the old string character by character.

In case you are interested in the reasons for having to overwrite rather than insert: If you were to insert new characters and thus were to push back the old data, you would be changing the (relative and absolute) positions of any code and data that succeed the data you added in the executable, such that the program would no longer find the right bits of code/data in the places it expects them to be (and would, as a result, most likely crash). By overwriting the old string and replacing it by a new one, you are just changing a string resource (i.e. a character sequence), which is safe (as long as the new string resource is at most as long as the old one, because if it were longer, you would also be overwriting the data/code behind the string resource you are actually trying to edit). So please do not choose a font whose name is longer than "Microsoft Sans Serif" - that may be unsafe; but the original name is, luckily, a long one, so most font substitutions are safe.
You have to add the 0-byte at the end because that is what used in the C/C++ programming languages to mark the end of a string, so the program "knows" that when it comes across the 0, it's the end of the font name.

As a professional computer science researcher (for whom the production of indie rock tracks is but a hobby), I have long-time debugging experience and can assure you that overwriting this particular string resource is 100% safe. It will have no effects beyond changing the font; so if, after having made these changes, you have trouble with Cubase, it's quite unlikely to have been caused by these modifications unless the problem is related to the display of text. Nevertheless, do keep the old .exe file around. You can make your changes in a differently named copy of the .exe file and just run that (as originally proposed).

cheers!