aggregate device audio distortion

Cubase
1

Hi, my setup is, I am using a Mac Mini with USB 3 ports. I am plugging in a keyboard JDXI and a Komplete Audio directly into the Mac and using Cubase as my DAW. No USB hubs. Everything is plugged directly into the Mac.

I setup an aggregate device with the JDXI and Komplete and then am using that as my audio device.

I am basically playing back a couple of MIDI tracks, one audio track and also trying to monitor in real time what I am playing on the keyboard.

The track starts playing fine and I am hearing everything fine. But as the track progresses, about into 1 minute mark, there is more and more distortion, to the point where I have to stop the track and reset the Audio device to get rid of the distortion. After the reset, everything is fine and the distortion starts all over again.

I tried playing around with combinations of disabling ASIOguard and changing different ASIO levels[1] and it doesn’t seem to make any difference.

Is there a proper way to setup and use aggregate audio devices in Cubase? Is there a better way to set this up that I am missing? I guess I could always just plug the audio outs of the JDXI into the inputs of the Komplete and just use it that way, but I am trying to see if I can use the USB connection for recording the JDXI.

[1]https://www.steinberg.net/en/support/knowledgebase_new/show_details/kb_show/details-on-asio-guard-in-cubase-and-nuendo

2

Hi,

Try to increase the Buffer Size of the Aggregate Device, please.

Btw: Aggregate Device is not officially supported by Cubase.

3

That’s a pity, because Aggregate Device can be used to add ins/outs from Soundflower, and thus record from other applications :wink: (I use such an Aggregate Device all the time here… gives me access, for example, to the Instruments available in Apple’s MainStage :wink: )

4

Thanks. I will try that.

If it’s not supported, then can I ask, is there a better (or more sane) way to hook this up?