Bulletproof ASIO-Guard - Is this what I've been waiting for?

Cubase
#1

Bulletproof ASIO-Guard

The Steinberg Audio Engine has also been extended with the brand-new ASIO-Guard technology. Rely on our intelligent dropout-prevention algorithms and focus only on your sound — just like in the analog days. With this bulletproof technology our goal is to help Cubase users get the maximum performance out of their systems.

Maybe I’m a geek, but this could be the thing I’m most excited about for Cubase 7. Can someone at Steinberg give me some details on this? Is this similar to Reaper’s “anticipative FX”, whereby tracks are secretly “frozen” in the background to free up ASIO resources?

#2

I’m pretty excited about this too. +1 for more info. :ugeek:

#3

+1
{’-’}

#4

Yes yes yes +1

Not elevating expectations too high, but I am crossing my fingers this will improve OS X stability even a little - if not a lot.

#5

Exactly, it adds buffers to playback tracks (tracks that are not input-monitored). Especially under OS X this leads to improved performance!

Cheers,
Helge

#6

of all the stuff, and the surprisingly good upgrade between windows 7 and 8, this is also the thing i’m looking the most forward to, because I have some huge projects that I needed to freeze in order to export them without glitches.

Looking forward to seeing how my “problem children” will fare with this :slight_smile:

#7

NICE!!!
I’m assuming this is similar to the system logic uses?
I had to use logic for a while earlier this year and this was the thing that impressed me the most!

#8

This is really great news. Thanks Steinberg!

#9

Well this is good news, but as a Windows user I am interested in understanding how it will improve things for me. Is it just that OS X had more problems with ASIO load than Windows, so the impact of these ‘buffers’ is more substantial, or is it that there was different work done for OS X than Windows?

#10

My understanding is that it will prioritise incoming audio and VSTis being played from a keyboard say? and the rest will be assigned a larger buffer therefore lowering overall ASIO usage at lower buffer settings for recording… if it’s the same as logic that is…
Please correct me if i’m wrong…

#11

But it also adds latency for meta information. Panning, volumes,plugin controls etc. Is there any user settings for this latency?

#12

As an OSX user I am happy to hear about this.

But the HewlettPackard endorsement has me wondering just how much longer I’ll stay on OSX.

#13

That’s what I wanted to hear! :mrgreen:

#14

Questions still open:

  1. What does adding buffers mean? Is this essentially pre-rendering? What happens when I hit play and start tweaking effect parameters on the track? This sounds very cool but my inner-geek would like to know more.

  2. Why does this benefit the Mac more? It seems like a PC would benefit equally. And as a PC user, ASIO efficiency is still one of my biggest concerns.

#15

Excellent! This is the one thing that I was hoping for in Cubase 7!

#16

Will this solve the old and long Cubase “midi notes recorded earlier” issue as well?

#17

I would like to know more about this too. This could totally screw me because i do not use input monitoring. These hidden buffers equal more latency.

What happens when DM is disabled???

#18

If the video is an indicator, you don’t have to have it on. So, you should be ok. But, I wondered the same thing. If I’m input monitoring at a low latency, how the hell is it going to increase buffers on other tracks?

EDIT: by the way, I know it can anticipate and preload like VSTi tracks … that’s not what I’m concerned about.

#19

Is the Asio guard in any way related to the ‘Steinberg Audio Power’ Scheme currently in C6?

This feature has been removed from prefs (from what i can see in the C7 Videos online). I have this on and it makes a big difference to ASIO performance and CPU usage (even tho it adds 20% core temp to the cpu when engaged!). It also eliminates 80% of system noise so its very cool

Is this functionality still available in C7 ? in another prefs pane perhaps?.

#20

Say what?