ZIP compressor bug in current Steinberg's implementation of dawproject (Cubase 14+, macOS)

[Jurek-Raben]

Hi,

Steinberg's Cubase 14+ currently expects the dawproject file, which is a zip archive, to be an "outdated" format, requiring a CRC32 checksum in the ZIP header at offset 14.

This is problematic, because neiher Bitwig, nor Renoise (with dawexport tool), nor macOS itself creates such a zip format. Also the standard macOS zip tool, 7z, you name it, won't create such a format. Instead these seem to use "data descriptors" or so.

So as an result, exports from Bitwig can't be properly opened in Cubase (all presets are missing). As a workaround, you will have to import the Bitwig export into Studio One, export again here, since S1 is capable of creating such a CRC32 zip, which then is readable in Cubase...

I think it is in the interest of all DAW vendors and users to make this format working finally. From my point of view, Bitwig's implementation is done the right way, and other vendors should align with this. This is especially important when it comes to track automation, AU ids, VST2 ids, polyphonic aftertouch... The specification seems to be a bit too open currently, so there is a lot of interpretation space left.

So Steinberg, please add support for normal / the usual zip compression of dawproject files.

I post this report here, because it is unclear to me how to reach Steinberg, and most certainly they will read this sooner or later.

Thanks