Running Cubase or Cubasis in Qemu?

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tkahn
Space Cadet
Posts: 2
Joined: Fri Jan 07, 2022 7:26 pm

Running Cubase or Cubasis in Qemu?

Post by tkahn »

Hi!

I've sat for two nights in a row trying to get any older version of Cubase (or Cubasis) to run on a Qemu MacOS 9.2 virtual machine. I don't really need the audio or MIDI to work since the only thing I'm trying to accomplish is to convert old songs originally created in Cubase VST/24 4 to MIDI. But this seems to be tricky and I can't isolate the source of the problems I'm having. Are they due to broken installers for these old versions of Cubase or Cubasis or are they a result of trying to run complex pieces of software in a virtual environment like Qemu? Music programs usually want to communicate a lot with special hardware like audio cards or MIDI-interfaces and sometimes want to do this through special plugins like OMS (Opcode MIDI System) etc.

On top of this you have Steinberg and their Cubase/Cubasis software for which they have always required serial numbers, hardware dongles and license managers. I don't blame them since they sell advanced and often expensive software, but still it creates problems for someone like me trying to recreate a software environment 20 years later just for converting some files. I had a paid license for Cubase VST/24 back in the day, so I'm not trying to get away without paying. I just want to be able to read and convert old music.

The errors that MacOS 9.2 throw when I try to launch Cubase VST/24 4 or Cubasis VST 2 are:
"The application "Cubase VST/24 4.1" has unexpectedly quit, because an error of type 3 occurred. You should save your work in other open applications and restart the computer"
and
"Sorry, a system error occured. "Cubasis" error type 10"
I guess what I'm asking is: is it worth trying to get this thing to work in Qemu, or is this scenario to complex for an emulator to handle? My other option is to look for an old Power Mac G4 on the second hand market.

Thanks in advance!

/Thomas Kahn
mcayland
Mac Mechanic
Posts: 152
Joined: Sun Nov 01, 2015 10:33 pm

Re: Running Cubase or Cubasis in Qemu?

Post by mcayland »

tkahn wrote: Sat Jan 08, 2022 10:24 pm Hi!

I've sat for two nights in a row trying to get any older version of Cubase (or Cubasis) to run on a Qemu MacOS 9.2 virtual machine. I don't really need the audio or MIDI to work since the only thing I'm trying to accomplish is to convert old songs originally created in Cubase VST/24 4 to MIDI. But this seems to be tricky and I can't isolate the source of the problems I'm having. Are they due to broken installers for these old versions of Cubase or Cubasis or are they a result of trying to run complex pieces of software in a virtual environment like Qemu? Music programs usually want to communicate a lot with special hardware like audio cards or MIDI-interfaces and sometimes want to do this through special plugins like OMS (Opcode MIDI System) etc.

On top of this you have Steinberg and their Cubase/Cubasis software for which they have always required serial numbers, hardware dongles and license managers. I don't blame them since they sell advanced and often expensive software, but still it creates problems for someone like me trying to recreate a software environment 20 years later just for converting some files. I had a paid license for Cubase VST/24 back in the day, so I'm not trying to get away without paying. I just want to be able to read and convert old music.

The errors that MacOS 9.2 throw when I try to launch Cubase VST/24 4 or Cubasis VST 2 are:
"The application "Cubase VST/24 4.1" has unexpectedly quit, because an error of type 3 occurred. You should save your work in other open applications and restart the computer"
and
"Sorry, a system error occured. "Cubasis" error type 10"
I guess what I'm asking is: is it worth trying to get this thing to work in Qemu, or is this scenario to complex for an emulator to handle? My other option is to look for an old Power Mac G4 on the second hand market.

Thanks in advance!

/Thomas Kahn
Is this with the screamer build or the standard upstream build? The standard upstream QEMU builds do not contain support for sound hardware, and whilst you may not actively be using it, it could easily be that Cubase/Cubasis always attempts to open the sound hardware on startup and is failing at this point.

So if this isn't the case, please try again with one of the emaculation screamer builds and let us know how you get on!
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