I’m trying to understand what’s causing long load times with my template/project setup.
My current template has around 1300 tracks, all disabled except for the VEP instances and MIDI channels. Even so, opening a project (or even just the template itself) can take anywhere from several minutes up to 20 minutes.
What also puzzles me is the file size — each project file is around 500 MB, even though most tracks are disabled. I’ve also cleared all audio from the pool, so I wouldn’t expect the size to be coming from that.
On top of that, every autosave adds another ~500 MB to the project folder, so it quickly takes up a huge amount of disk space.
I’ve looked through various forum posts, but there doesn’t seem to be a clear explanation. Some people mention Kontakt as a possible cause, but without much detail or a clear solution.
System specs:
CPU: Intel i9-14900K (24 cores)
RAM: 192 GB
Does anyone know what might be causing both the long load times and the large file sizes, even with mostly disabled tracks? Or if there have been any recent updates or improvements related to this?
Whether tracks are disabled or not should not have a significant impact on the project file size (it will on the memory usage of the running Cubase process though). What is saved in the project file, apart from Cubase’s own data, is the state data (the presets) of the plugins you use.
single Kontakt presets aren’t usually very big (couple of kB to maybe 1-2MB?), but depending on how many instances you have, and how many other FX plugins with each their own state can possibly add up.
500MB does sound a lot, but 500MB/1300 tracks results in ~0.4MB per track, which seems reasonable at first glance, but then I have no experience with templates of such size, maybe others have better explanations.
Hi,
Is this an older problem or has this just started?
When you load the file and look in the task manager, how much memory is used?
What kind of hdd or sdd do you use?
Regards, Twan
Hi,
Is this an older problem or has this just started?
When you load the file and look in the task manager, how much memory is used?
What kind of hdd or sdd do you use?
Regards, Twan
Well I think the template has been growing in time and it’s now taking too much space and taking too long to load. So maybe it has been happening before but not as bad.
So my configuration is a bit weird because I have VEP loaded in the same computer which is taking around 90gb of ram. The Cubase instance is taking around 32gb. Total would be 75-80% in average of RAM Usage.
Hi Qino,
Just checked a file on my system.
84 instrument tracks, 15 group tracks, 12 fx tracks.
cpr = 42kb, loaded 44gb.
Loading takes 1:10 min.
If your load time is due to corruption? No idea.
It’s a long known and documented, that a wide variety of different Cubase trouble symptoms can be triggered by a corrupted UserPreferences file.
So when some tome ago, I started experiencing very long load times even for relatively small projects, I investigated that as a potential problem source.
And then I documented my experience and the results of in depth troubleshooting on another thread (see below for link) in lots of detail.
Your case my have a different root cause than mine, because there are other reasons why the UserPreferences file may end up with corruption. But it is well worth it to follow the widely documented process to start Cubase with a new/clean UserPreferences file, to see if that maybe helps. Here’s just one older forum thread, but there are probably more:
p.s. This is the link to the thread about my specific experience with slow startup times due to a corrupted UserPreferences file.
Isn’t it supposed to be decoupled from VEP? I thought the whole point of using VEP was avoiding those project load times (except on first load of the day).
Distinguish between Start up time (the time it takes Cubase to start until the Hub appears) and Project load time. (once you start the project from the Hub.)
Or for some, clicking on a .cpr that eventually manifests a total load time.
I too have experienced corrupted preferences causing slow load times. It’s best to start Cubase in Safe Mode user preferences disabled and perhaps no 3rd party plugs.
It is! And yes that’s the goal, to have faster project load times. That’s the reason I’m trying to understand why each project takes to long to load even with Vienna
Interesting, would you mind sharing what you did with Kontakt? Perhpas Batch Resave at some point? I’ve read it helps with loading time, wondering if that could also help with inactive tracks somehow