Friday, July 5, 2013

SOLUTION: Restoring MIDI Inserts Presets in Steinberg Cubase

I've had this problem on every version of Cubase I've used from 5.0 through 7.0. For whatever reason, the presets for Cubase's MIDI Insert plugins never seem to get installed in their proper location, with the end result being that none of the MIDI inserts appear to have any presets available when you try to use them- when in fact Cubase includes hundreds of presets.

Here's how to fix the problem:
  1. Quit Cubase if you currently have it open.
  2. Browse to the folder where Cubase is physically installed on your system. The exact folder name depends on your version of Cubase, and the exact location depends on your Windows platform (32-bit or 64-bit). Here are some examples of where you might look on a 64-bit Windows system:

    32-bit Cubase 6: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steinberg\Cubase 6
    32-bit Cubase 7: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steinberg\Cubase 7
    64-bit Cubase 6: C:\Program Files\Steinberg\Cubase 6
    64-bit Cubase 7: C:\Program Files\Steinberg\Cubase 7
  3. Inside the Cubase folder, open the folder named Presets. Inside it, you should see folders for: Arpache, Auto LFO, Chorder, Input Transformer, KeyCommands, Logical Edit, Micro Tunings, MIDI Monitor, MidiContextGate, MIDIEcho, Project Logical Editor, Staff Presets, StepDesigner. These are the preferences folders for all those inserts!

    Leave the Presets folder open. You will need it shortly.
  4. In another Window, click Start > Run and type the following: %appdata% (If you are running Windows 8, open up an explorer window and type %appdata% into the address bar, then press Enter.)

    You should now be in the AppData\Roaming folder for your current Windows user account.
  5. Locate the Steinberg folder in AppData\Roaming, and inside that, open the correct Cubase folder for your current version. Here are some examples:

    32-bit Cubase 5: Cubase 5
    32-bit Cubase 6: Cubase 6
    32-bit Cubase 7: Cubase 7
    64-bit Cubase 5: Cubase 5_64
    64-bit Cubase 6: Cubase 6_64
    64-bit Cubase 7: Cubase 7_64
  6. Once inside the correct Cubase folder, open the folder named Presets. You will probably find that most or all of the MIDI insert preferences folders are missing.
  7. In the original folder you opened in step 3, select any preset folders you wish to copy to your AppData folder in Explorer. Right-click the selected folders and type CTRL+C to copy them into your clipboard.
  8. Now click your mouse in an empty area in your AppData Presets folder (from step 6) and press CTRL+V. This should make copies of the presets folders. If some of the files or folders were already there, just let Windows replace the existing files.
  9. Now launch Cubase, create an instrument track, and place a MIDI insert on it. When you open the plugin and click the Select Presets box, you should now be able to pick from a list of presets for that MIDI insert.

8 comments:

Mysta said...

Thanks for this, been wondering for a years now where they'd gone. Thought they'd been dropped by SB since v6.5. Bravo you.

Unknown said...

Thank you so much

Unknown said...

any idea how to do this for mac computers I'm a tech at a college and ever since we have switched to v 7.5 from 5 all of our presets are gone.

Unknown said...

.

Flek said...

Thanks a lot! Very clever!

Recording Review said...

Thanks a ton! I wish I would have found this a year ago.

Unknown said...

So good !! couldnt use the chorder for one or two years , even google didnt help and now its fixed in a few seconds ;) thank you !!!

This Wreckage said...

Just like the other grateful commenters, I thank you for this tip, which is obvious only when you know how.