Audio Dropouts.... HELP!!!

Cubase
#1

Good day,

I know there are a lot of posts about lag, latency and buffering issues,
but I want to post about it also. I have not had any issues with
audio dropouts until recently. I have not changed anything to my setup that
I’ve had for some time now. The dropouts happen when I try to record audio
(vocals). I have tracks loaded with audio playing just fine. When I arm a
track for vocals and record… the audio drops in and out on all tracks at
the same time. You can visually see the audio waveform blank out then
appear a second later. No issues with playback just when recording. I have
changed the latency settings up and down to no avail. This is now costing
me money. People pay me for recording and I can’t do that now. Please advise.

I am using Cubase LE8, MacBook Pro with OS Sierra, Lexicon Lambda Interface
and Mixars Duo MKII DJ mixer.

#2

Hi,

Make sure you have the latest driver installed, please.

#3

Hi Martin,
I downloaded Cubase elements 9.5 and still got the same issue. I did not know I had to download the latest drivers separately with a new downloaded version of Cubase. Do I need to just go to the Steinberg website for the latest drivers? If so do you have a link to the drivers?

Thank you

#4

He means the drivers for your hardware, like your audio interface and mixer. Updating your GPU driver may also help.

#5

When I troubleshooted I took the audio interface and mixer out of the equation and just used the laptop and I still had audio drop outs. The waveform was slow to update as I had the track armed and recording… thus the other tracks would drop out periodically.

#6

What is the Buffer Side you are using?

Unfortunately 4GB of RAM is not a much today.

#7

I’ve tried every buffer setting lowest to highest and I get the same dropout results.

#8

Could you start Activity Monitor? What does it say about Cubase? What does it say about other applications running simultaneously?

#9

It show Cubase CPU at 7.1, Videocode 2.4, videooutput2.4, videopreload 2.4 and activity monitor 1.8.
That’s all that I see running.

#10

There must be other applications, other processes…

And what about RAM? What about Disk reading/writing?

#11

I’ll check today when I get back home from work. But I will tell you I purposely don’t have a lot of programs installed/running on my MacBook Pro because I didn’t want anything slowing down my processes. I have 4 GB’s RAM. Serato DJ and Garage Band both work without any issues.

#12

Everything appears to be normal in regards to other apps running. I don’t see any abnormalities that I can tell. Any other suggestions? I’m at a loss and continue to lose money daily.

#13

Could you try to run Apple Hardware Test?

#14

Ok I will run the hardware test 2 hrs from now when I get home from work. I work from home on Thurs so I hope to be able to work on a solution all day with you as well. Thanks!

#15

The hardware tests (short and long versions) both came back with no issues.

#16

Sorry, I run out of ideas. Apart from the fact I would recommend to increase RAM and exchange HDD to SSD.

#17

This is very disturbing to me that this situation has come to this. To lose money and have no idea why this all of a sudden is happening has me really upset. I may just have to switch up to Pro tools and see if that works. Thanks for your help.

#18

You say you’ve not changed anything on your system but something must have changed for this to have suddenly started happening. If you’ve not installed any new software or hardware then the most likely cause is Martin has suggested a driver. It is sometimes the case that new drivers cause issues where the older ones did not. Remember also that these drivers are often installed automatically.

Aside from audio system drivers (check the dates on them to see if they may have changed recently) the most common culprits for sudden problems are graphics drivers. Try rolling back to an earlier version?

#19

Actually I stand corrected. I did just install software that came with my new Akai MPK Mini MKII about a month ago. Should I uninstall all of that new software?
Also, I really was feeling like it was a graphics drivers issue based on how the screen would freeze and then connect back again. I’m open to any and every suggestion. Thanks in advance.

#20

I would think it’s more likely to be the Video drivers than the Akai software so I’d start there. I’m not a Mac person so can’t go through rolling back or getting new drivers but I assume there’s plenty of info on how to do it in webland.