So, I had the issue happen again tonight, and I think the specific scenario might provide a clue. Here’s the basic sequence of events:
I was working on editing fades in a bunch of background vocals, then bouncing them together, doing various direct audio processing with plugins, initially Waves Vx DeReverb then Vx, but then iZotope RX 11 Connect. Each time after I did the direct processing I made that processing permanent, duplicating tracks and disabling them along the way (and putting them into an “Old BGVs” folder to hide the clutter). After this, I used Waves Sync Vx (an ARA extension) for tightening the BGVs versus the lead, then I started tuning a few sections of the song with Melodyne (also as an ARA extension), making the extensions permanent as I did each song section.
I then closed down Cubase and took a few hours break for dinner and to practice for an upcoming live gig. Here the possible key though. RX Connect brings up an instance of the RX application. The sound for that goes to my computer’s audio interface, not the MOTU while I’m actually doing the editing. Of course, once it is applied it will be playing through the MOTU interface in Cubase, but the RX editor does not close down in the background. When I took my break, I totally forgot that RX was hanging around, as it wasn’t in the foreground on my screen (not sure if it was behind some other window, like a browser or minimized or …). I turned my MIDI controller and MOTU interface off during the break (very typical for me – saving on power at expensive energy use times).
When I came back, I powered the controller and audio interface up again, waited a little while after both were fully up, then double-clicked on the project’s CPR file in File Explorer. Cubase had the “missing ports” dialog.
I’m pretty sure I’ve seen this situation on at least one other occasion when using RX Connect. I can’t see any good reason for an issue (and it’s not something I saw on my old system with Cubase 14). It’s not like RX was using the MOTU interface, nor would it try to grab it when it becomes available.
But I am thinking there may be some relationship to other audio applications’ being used, and perhaps being open, when Cubase starts. The other day when I had it, I’d been watching a YouTube video in Edge, so it was the browser playing audio. I’m pretty sure that does not happen every time I’m playing audio in the browser when Cubase starts. I wonder, though, if there may be some applications, or some specific types of uses of other audio interfaces (i.e. in my case the computer’s built-in interface) that somehow make a difference here.
Just checking now my RX audio settings, it looks like I’m using the MME driver:
It’s late tonight, but this might be something I can experiment with next time I get a chance, including checking to see both if I can find a repeatable recipe and, if so, if Cubase 14 has the same issue on this system (e.g. if maybe there is something different in the basic Windows driver setup here than I had on Windows 10 – it’s a different motherboard, and a newer RealTek audio interface than the old computer had).
My thinking on a potential recipe is twofold:
First, just try having RX 11’s audio editor up (maybe not even doing anything, or maybe just loading an audio file and playing it briefly) then powering up my controller and audio interface, waiting to see that they are fully live, and starting Cubase.
Second, if that isn’t sufficient, load a simple test project with some audio inside Cubase, use RX Connect via direct offline processing to make some minor tweak, send it back to Cubase, save the file, close the project, exit Cubase, and start Cubase again (without closing RX). A variation on this (e.g. if that doesn’t create the problem), would be to power the audio interface down after shutting down Cubase and power it back up prior to restarting Cubase.
