Ellis Peters nuke@dircon.co.uk kindly posted his experiences on the subject of....
Getting Cubase VST installed under MacOS 8
Apple tech note 30149 (see www.info.apple.com under TIL) informs us that Cubase VST versions 3.5
and earlier won't install under MacOS 8, since the post-authorization expansion process fails;
however it's not too helpful on how to actually get it installed other than to do so before upgrading!
Here's how I managed to install and authorize my version of Cubase VST on a PowerMac 4400
running MacOS 8.
Firstly you *need* something earlier than MacOS 8; beg, borrow or buy MacOS 7.5.x or 7.6.1;
if you've upgraded, you'll still have the original CD which came with your machine,
otherwise find a friend who has. I used my original 7.5.3 disk.
You can install Cubase under MacOS 8, so do so, BUT DON'T RUN IT.
Now boot off of the System 7 CD by holding down the 'C' key whilst booting with the
System CD in the drive.
Once booted, locate the Cubase folder on your HD, and run Cubase.
Cubase will ask for the verification floppy disk; insert it and authorize as normal; I got a
'missing file' error during this process; just continue. Cubase should expand, however, and
you should see a progress bar complete.
My Cubase then brought up the Startup Window and promptly hung; don't worry! Just power-down
and restart; ejecting the System 7 CD as soon as power returns.
You should now be back under MacOS 8. Run Cubase; it may then ask for the authorization disk
again; insert it, don't worry, it will only take one of your 'lives' for the whole process,
it just seems to need to look at it again. Follow the usual authorization procedure.
Cubase will then start properly, without expanding, since this was done last time under system 7.
A comedy of errors, but it seemed to work for me!
BTW I'm running a PowerMac 4400/160 with 256k L2 cache and VST works just great; from other
sources it would seem the you need a fast 601 or decent 604 only; but I can easily get 6+ tracks
of audio (dunno how many, I haven't pushed it) out of my 603, and note that this is a 160MHz, not
a 200! So if anyone can pick up a 4400 cheap, they should do so.