Is that possible to implement an automatic fading of the audio when you press Play, Stop, or when you move the Cursor during playback ?
The reason for this is that it would finally remove once and for all the clicks that occur when we start and stop playback at a non-zero crossing point.
Honestly, I don’t think that would take a lot of effort to add a few lines of code to do that.
It has been requested for a very long time already.
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Read the manual. It’s a very complex DAW with features you may or may not have heard of before. Reading the manual will not answer every question, but it will answer most questions you’re going to get a bunch of opinions on in the forum. If everybody read the manual we’d have a much more educated forum.
I’m well aware of the Snap to Zero-Crossing function, which only works with the range selection, split and warp tools…
Just wondering if you are mocking me or not.
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Read the manual
I don’t think the OP is asking about event fades. The question is about fading in the playback engine from wherever the cursor is placed.
I haven’t noticed, or at least haven’t been bothered by, any pops/clicks when hitting play. This isn’t a helpful comment to the OP, but I think I understand the request.
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I’m requesting a feature where the audio makes a fade in when you press play and a fade out when you press stop, to prevents the clicks it makes when you start and stop playing from the middle of an audio clip.
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@kelp You posted when I was typing my reply, now the order is confusing 
Yes you got it.
It all depends on the material, you won’t hear it that much on a full on metal track, but on simple waveforms like bass lines the clicks are much more noticable.
Anyways, since the clicks are not louder than the actual audio that’s not really a major issue.
I’ve read Ableton users saying that Live doesn’t make clicks on start stop and feels much smoother compared to other daws.
I second this request, and it sure does make Cubase feel a little unpolished. If people are worried about playback accuracy, just make it an optional feature. Luckily this is “only” an issue during interactive playback (those clicks don’t make it into exported audio files), but it still presents a less-than-professional image, esp. with attentive clients in the studio, hearing (and asking about!) what that weird click/pop noise was…
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Maybe try adjusting the buffer size
I don’t think it’s a buffer size issue, but thanks for the suggestion! I’ve played around with buffer sizes a lot, trying to dial it into a point where latency isn’t so large that it presents an issue when recording live performers, yet having it large enough to prevent glitches. I think I’ve found a good balance, and I’m pretty sure this is due to the playhead not being able to snap to zero crossings across many tracks, hence the (good) suggestion by @Louis_R to add an optional (very short) fade-in feature.
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Maybe try adjusting the buffer size
This has nothing to do with the buffer size, it’s a completely normal behavior. Try rendering a sinus wave as audio file (not VSTi) and then hit play somewhere in the middle of it (at a non zero-crossing point). You’ll get the same result, which is a quick pop when hitting play.
I notice this especially on my bass tracks, my guitar tracks are fine though. Probably because it’s more audible on lower frequencies?
Other DAWs like Reaper, Pro Tools, … have a setting to “mini-fade-in” on playback. StudioOne even does this per default. I agree with @Louis_R that Cubase should have such setting as well.
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+1
Cubase should have implemented it years ago.
It’s a basic feature.
I hope C12 can add it soon.
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Yes please.
The current behavior makes prolonged editing sessions very tiring. I think it leads to quicker onset of ear fatigue than necessary.
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It it very annoying. The pops on start and stop make classical cutting less enjoyable and accurate I dare say. Also reverb evaluation after stop suffers from lack of mini fades. Vote given!
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+1 voted.
I am the oddball here but I am against this feature.
I want to hear the audio exactly on the sample where the play cursor is when I start playback. Especially true for using the playback tool or scrubbing. I don’t want Cubase to not play back what is displayed on the screen.
To make the fade in/out behaviour optional is also not so good given the statement of Matthias on another topic that Cubase already has plenty of modes and they try to avoid creating more of them. This would be another mode. And I agree with Matthias - when it comes to software design (actually also true for product design in general) modes always include a negative aspect. The software needs to make it transparent to the user in which mode it currently is. To do so in the hidden corner of a preference dialog page is not very transparent. Therefore the more modes you have the more screen estate you need to use for mode display.
To see examples for the mode dilema it is enough to browse through several topics here in the forum.
And I agree with Matthias - when it comes to software design (actually also true for product design in general) modes always include a negative aspect.
When it comes to software design, people tend to over-complicate things very fast. I think that starts when we’re talking about modes here.
People are asking for a simple option in the preferences menu, where hundreds of options already exist. Probably 95% of them without any visual indicator in the GUI except for in the preferences menu itself.
I agree not to over-complicate the software and not to add useless options everywhere. But IMO, we’re talking about a useful option here. So why not make it available as opt-in for users.
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There seem to be far more people that under-estimate the complexity of adding features.
The clicking noises upon playback triggers “something is wrong!” with me, like a micro panic reaction. And the result of that is that my focus is taken away from actually listening.
Secondary, and probably just as important, is that those sounds are crazy transient, and my ears don’t like that kind of stuff at all. Very fatiguing.
I had to upgrade my Pro Tools license yesterday, and there it is! Perfectly simple and convenient:
One final thought: I vaguely recall seeing a plug-in that can follow transport and do the fade-ins… Anyone?
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That’s exactly what I wanted to add to the reasons for this feature request! The mini-fades for the playback engine (when hitting Play or Stop, or when moving the the Cursor during playback) would avoid unnecessary early ear-fatigue during a Cubase session, not necessarily because of potential clicks, but simply from repeatedly going (harshly) from silence to decibels of sound.
I remember the good old Winamp (a classic MP3 player) used to have a user-modifiable setting for this and it was butter-smooth when you paused or stopped a song during playback, it was cool! I wish Cubase will implement this feature that we could activate or not (I would!).
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