Audio pops/dropouts even with an empty project and a single WAV file

[skander.chairat]

Hello,

I am experiencing a very strange audio problem in Cubase: I get pops/clicks accompanied by a very brief audio dropout.

The problem occurs even in a completely empty Cubase project with only a single WAV file, with no instruments or third-party plugins loaded.

The strange thing is that REAPER works perfectly on the exact same PC with the exact same audio file, and YouTube / VLC / Windows audio playback also work perfectly without any pops or dropouts.

My system

• Windows 11 64-bit
• CPU: Intel Core Ultra 7 265KF
• GPU: RTX 5070
• Audio interface: Focusrite
• Cubase 15.0.30 Build 284 x64
• I also tested Cubase 14 → exactly the same problem
• Sample rate: 48 kHz

Troubleshooting already performed

I have already tried all of the following:

• Completely empty Cubase project
• One single audio track
• Playback of a simple WAV file
• No virtual instruments
• No third-party plugins
• Tested using only the mouse → the problem still occurs
• Tested without using my MIDI keyboard / KeyLab → same problem
• Uninstalled and reinstalled Cubase → no change
• Tested with Steinberg Built-in ASIO Driver → same problem
• Increased the ASIO buffer up to 1024 samples → pops still occur
• ASIO-Guard enabled → Normal → problem remains
• ASIO-Guard enabled → High → problem remains
• Disabled all third-party plugins when launching Cubase → problem remains
• Reset Cubase preferences → no change
• Checked sample rates → Cubase 48 kHz / Windows 48 kHz
• Tested a simple WAV in Cubase 14 → same problem
• Tested a simple WAV in Cubase 15.0.30 → same problem

Tests outside Cubase

I also tested the same system outside Cubase:

• YouTube → no pops
• VLC / Windows media playback → no pops
• REAPER → no pops at all with the same PC and the same audio file

So the problem appears to be specifically related to the way Cubase handles audio on my system.

What exactly happens

This is not just a constant crackling noise.

At the exact moment of the problem, I can see the audio signal/meter in Cubase drop completely to zero for a very short moment, and then the signal comes back.

At that exact moment, I hear the pop/click and brief audio interruption.

It can happen even with just one WAV file in an empty project.

At this point I am running out of ideas and would really appreciate some help identifying what could cause this.

Could this be related to the Cubase audio engine, ASIO communication, or a Windows/CPU compatibility issue specific to Cubase?

Since REAPER works perfectly on the same system, I would really like to understand why Cubase is briefly losing its audio stream.

Any suggestions or known issues would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you!

[Starnaf]

Unfortunately I had/have similar issues - they started with Cubase 14 and got worse with Cubase 15. I had no performance issues in Cubase 13 and earlier versions. Check this thread:

Cubase 14 and 15 Pro drop outs all the time

Tell me what is wrong with Cubase 15 Pro performance? Look below - same PC, same exact session performance meter from Cubase 15 Pro vs Cubase 14 Pro. In Cubase 15 Pro drop outs all the time, asio guard high as hell - totally unworkable. In Cubase 14 Pro all is perfect and works smooth without single drop out. What’s going on??? The difference is HUGE! My PC - Dell Precision, Win 11 Pro, Intel i7 12700H, 64GB RAM. Cubase 15 Pro: [Zrzut ekranu 2026-05-06 215754] Cubase 14 Pro: [Zrzut ekranu …

In summary what helped me (but did not solve the problem completely) are following steps:

1. If you are on DELL machine - uninstall or disable Dell Support Assist
2. In Defender or your antivirus software - exclude Cubase.exe and the whole Cubase folder as well as you projects folder and VST libraries from real-time scanning.
3. Using Project Lasso as above - set Cubase to use only P cores of your CPU (I also excluded CPU 0 (zero) from being used by Cubase)
4. Using Park Control - unpark all your cores, (especially the E cores which Cubase is not using - will help to handle other processes in your system)
5. If you have enough RAM (64GB in my case) you can remove the virtual memory in Win 11. To remove virtual memory (paging file) in Windows 11, disable the “Automatically manage paging file size for all drives” option in System Properties, select No paging file, and set it. But be aware - if you have not enough RAM don’t do it.
6. Turn off PCI Express power saving in Windows, open Control Panel > Power Options > Change plan settings > Change advanced power settings. Expand PCI Express > Link State Power Management and set “Plugged in” to Off.
7. Turn off power saving for PCI USB cards/ports, disable USB selective suspend in Windows Power Options, uncheck “Allow the computer to turn off this device” in Device Manager for USB Root Hubs.

In general in my opinion (not only my opinion) most of performance issues in Cubase is caused by its poor multicore handling. Unfortunately (this is confirmed by Steinberg) there are no plans to improve it any soon. For details check here:

Core handling in coming updates for Win 11?

Is Steinberg planning to let Win 11 manage the core handling in future updates of Cubase/Nuendo? It is well-known that Cubase doesn’t do this brilliantly today, and that much can be learned from Reaper, which leaves the core handling to Intel’s Thread Director and the Windows scheduling, instead of - like Cubase - trying to achieve this on its own. To me, this is the one and really only area where I see room for major improvement in Cubase. It would be super useful if Steinberg could let the u…

[zybercop]

I’ve basically been having the same problem with my setup since upgrading to Cubase Pro 15. Have you managed to find a fix for this?

Intel 9 12900k, 64Gb Ram, Geforce GTX1050, , Focusrite Scarlett 2i2, Windows 11, Cubase Pro 15

[Greg_Purkey]

Im not Steinberg, however with a Nvidia card the first thing to check is that the installed driver is Studio and not Game Ready.

Based on other experiences here for years, that makes a substantial difference.

Fwiw, Im still using a old 1050ti, with 4 displays windows 10 and no issues. But studio driver!

[Starnaf]

One more suggestion - try to install Cubase ver 13 and see if this issue appears in this version. In my case all my performance issues I have in version 15 (like pops, clicks and audio drop outs) are gone when I open the problematic project in Cubase 13 - this version of Cubase is rock solid and stable for me and it is my final line of defense when I encounter performance issues in current version of Cubase.

[zybercop]

Ok, thanks for the input. I’m not sure about my drivers, so I have to do a check later today.

[zybercop]

I finally found the problem. I’ve been using my own template with pre-made plug-in chains on the channels and on the master output.

For every new project, I basically started by opening my previous song, then “cleaned” everything out and renamed the project for the new song. Apparently, doing it this slightly odd way meant that a lot of stuff was still being carried over and building up in the template/project.

Yesterday, I started a completely new, clean project from scratch instead. Suddenly everything was running smoothly again as I started adding audio tracks and stems. So it looks like the problem was hiding in my old project/template workflow all along.

[Dave_B]

Over the years, I seem to recall that sometimes a setting from an older version does not cleanly translate to the newer version. As you noted, this seems consistent that starting with default settings in the new version and going through the settings again fixes the problem.

I don’t recall the exact instances.