Adding Motif XS VST Instrument track crashes Cubase 8.0.10

Cubase
#1

Hi Folks,

Hoping someone might be able to shed some light on this. I’ve searched the forums and can only find the Motif XS VST issue regarding the note timing - which is fixed in 8.0.10. My issue is different.

When I add a Motif XS VST Instrument track to an existing project in Cubase 8.0.10 (contains other work in progress), Cubase will pause for a moment and then crash.

It will usually add a Motif XS VST instrument if I start with an empty project, but then Cubase will invariably crash on exit.

Is anyone else seeing this issue?
If not I’ll log an issue in the Issues forum and see if I can get some help from Steiny.

This is a recent fresh install of Windows 7 and Cubase 8.0.10 as I have been troubleshooting the ASIO spikes I am seeing when using any VSTi after I upgraded the graphics card to a GTX970 (previously GTX670). I had Cubase 7 series purring like a kitten on this rig, and then 8.0.0 was doing okay, 8.0.5 and higher are proving to be very temperamental indeed, barely need to breathe on it. I’m starting to lose the faith :cry:

#2

I’m experiencing the smae problem. Haven’t had any luck to pinpoint exactly what’s wrong.

Sometimes the project with the yamaha vst works, but later starts to crash and never gets to work again until i remove the vst .dll

I had to go back to the external instrument workaround that badmister posted. Not ideal but better than nothing.

#3

Thanks for confirming I am not alone HammerPC, it helps with diagnostics.

I see you have an NVIDIA graphics card, would you mind telling me which driver version you are using with it?

Graphics driver version, the specific card type and the upgrade to 8.0.5 and 8.0.10 are the things that have changed from my previously working system. Of course 8.0.0 had the annoying motif can’t play at the right time bug.

I’ll figure out a minimum number of steps to reproduce the crash and put it in the Issue forum now I know I am not alone. Will see if Steinberg are able to reproduce and fix.

I may try the Motif XS firewire interface rather than USB. That will also give me an alternative ASIO driver to try with the ASIO spikes I am seeing as the UR44 audio works via USB and I’m curious if there’s a common issue buried in here.

#4

I did further testing on this in readiness for an official Issues post. In the process I discovered an interesting work around folks with the issue may like to try.
When you try this, back up your existing project first, just in case, Cubase will crash at one point.

What I discovered is that if you add the Motif XS VST Instrument track to an existing project that doesn’t have one Cubase will fail to connect the Motif Editor to the Motif. It did however receive midi note information when the track was armed to record and audio routed correctly. In my case only the Editor is failing and Cubase will crash on exit or at some random point earlier on.

The Motif VST editors uses Midi port 4 for editor IO so far as I can tell and it appears this is the midi routing that is failing in Cubase.

Now for the workaround, if you create the Motif VST instrument, and SAVE the Project before Cubase crashes, you can then quit, Cubase will crash. Then you can open the project an without changing a thing it will all work - editor, midi, audio. So far the newly opened session hasn’t crashed randomly or on exit when used for the same period as the other tests.

It also turns out that if you Create a new project using the Motif XS templates adding a Motif VST track also works out of the box. There is also never a problem running the Motif Editor standalone.

Looks like a Cubase bug to me. I’d be interested to know if the workaround works for others. Cubase will crash in the workaround so please back up your project, you don’t want to lose your work.