CB 10 Unstable & unusable (for me)

I really hate to make this post, but…

I’ve used CB6.5 for a few years now and had not one single, serious problem. No crashes, no freezes, all plugins working within CB 6.5. Totally reliable!
In contrast, I’ve had CB10 for 3 days now, and so far had 3 major problems, which result in numerous freezes and crashes.

Thankfully, I’ve not started a serious project, but only clicked around, seeing where stuff is, and seeing what’s changed since 6.5.

  1. A piano plugin which I have used often in 6.5 won’t load and causes 10 to freeze (I started a topic: “Piano plugin woes”, so far, no solution)
  2. If I accidentally double click some plugins in VST Instruments I get an error message (see attachment) telling me “A serious problem has occurred” and telling me that I have to restart CB10.
  3. If I click something within a plugin, CB10 will often crash and instantly disappear (I’ve attached a dump file for any techs that understand them)

These aren’t isolated instances, in 3 days (probably 3 hours in total) I’ve lost count of the times CB10 has just inexplicably given up.

On the same machine 6.5 runs like a dream.

I know for many CB10 is as stable as a stable thing! As for me… I’ll be sticking with 6.5, for now!
Cubase 10.0.20.187 64bit 2019.5.19 0.47.37.237.dmp (822 KB)

All the issues you report are to do with stability of Cubase 10 alongside your existing plugins.

Unfortunately the .dmp file you posted does not really show anything useful except, perhaps, to someone at Steinberg who has access to information on the internals of Cubase. All I can conclude is that Cubase attempted to access an invalid memory location (presumably an invalid pointer dereference), though I do not understand how and why this came about.


It might be one or more of your plugins are causing the instability in Cubase 10 on your laptop. Just because a plugin worked in an earlier version of Cubase does not mean that plugin is ‘off the hook’ - this is especially the case if you were running the 32 bit version of Cubase 6.5 as one or more of your 64 bit plugins might be defective without you knowing. It might also be that improvements in Cubase’s internals means it calls your plugins in a more demanding way (especially a more re-entrant way).

Your other thread suggests the issue might be a stability difference between your laptop and desktop machines rather than a defective plugin. You’re not using an audio interface, which means that you are using the driver for your built in audio hardware plus either Steinberg’s Generic Low Latency ASIO driver or, if you have it installed, ASIO4ALL. This is not going to be as performant and perhaps not as stable as an audio interface with its own ASIO driver. My experience is that the stability and sometimes the security of these drivers is questionable, especially when it comes to the sound ‘enhancements’ that laptop manufacturers often include (Bang & Olufsen, Dolby etc.).


I would start by seeing if there is any upgrade for the audio drivers from the system manufacturer. If not, there might be an upgrade on the Windows Update servers - open Device Manager (via the right click menu on the Windows logo on your taskbar is one way), find the device under “Sound, video and game controllers”, right click over it, “Update driver”, “Search automatically for updated driver software”.

If that doesn’t help with your problems, try disabling the ‘enhancements’ on that audio driver. To do this, open Windows’ Settings (one way is to click the Windows logo on your taskbar, then the cog icon at the right hand side), System, Sound, then “Sound control panel” at the right. In the Playback tab, right click over your built in audio device and choose Properties. If there is an Enhancements tab, check the box to “Disable all enhancements” (it might be “Disable all sound effects” in some drivers) and click OK. If this doesn’t make a difference then you can always re-enable any enhancements by reversing this process.

If things are still not reliable, it might be possible to use a generic driver in place of your existing driver, but that is really getting beyond the scope of fairly generic advice.


If you do not have ASIO4ALL installed, it might be worth installing that and seeing if it is more stable that the Steinberg Generic Low Latency ASIO driver on your hardware.


An inexpensive audio interface is not going to match the features and quality of a high-end interface from the likes of RME (who I use) or Universal Audio, but it might still be a step up in terms of reduced latency and increased stability. Something like a Steinberg UR22, Native Instruments Komplete Audio 1 or 2 or a Focusrite Scarlett Solo or 2i2 might be worthwhile - in the UK all these are in the £80 to £110 price bracket. I have no experience of any of these interfaces, but each seems to get some positive comments. I have less of an idea whether any of the Behringer interfaces are any good (Behringer products seem to be a mixed bag when it comes to quality and performance - their newer stuff is often pretty good for the money though some Behringer products are not great), though they are a particularly low cost option.

You may be able to find a second hand interface for very little money - many people start out with one of these inexpensive interfaces and upgrade later on. However, I just checked eBay UK for the Scarlett 2i2 and most of the Buy It Now listings are for almost as much as buying a new second generation Scarlett 2i2 from Amazon UK. I suspect those that do upgrade often hang on to their previous interface as a backup or to subject to the rigours of being carried around in a laptop bag.

Hi David,
Thanks for your reply.
I have hooked up a Focusrite Scarlett 2i4 (2nd gen) interface, which I use when at home. All drivers are up to date. I’m afraid the same crashes and freezes still occur!
When I have time I intend to install the first C: drive image of Win 10 that I created using Acronis TrueImage (I’m a strong believer in creating drive images on a regular basis), which is a basic Win 10, without the usual accumulated stuff, and no vst plugins. I’ll try installing plugins one by one, and see how that goes.
Thanks again.

Hooking up the audio interface almost conclusively rules out the issue being with Steinberg Generic Low Latency ASIO (or ASIO4ALL) and/or the drivers for your on board audio.


Considering the limited support life remaining for all client versions of Windows other than recent builds of Windows 10, I think this may well be a good time to move forwards. All the systems I am responsible for apart from one are now on Windows 10 1809 (I will start to evaluate 1903 when it becomes widely available) - the one hold out is on Windows 7 Pro still. I will move that to Windows 10 in the months to come.

If you restore your Windows 10 image, I’d upgrade to 1809 or, if it’s out and you’re feeling brave, 1903 and install all Windows Updates and driver updates before proceeding. To my mind it makes sense to set up a system that can be left ‘as is’ for as long as possible before being forced to move forwards. Each version of Windows 10 has an 18 month support life.

Thanks David,
This evening I was prompted to update Win10. This I did, to version 1809. The issue re: TruePianos persists :frowning:
I was able to install an “as new” version of Win10 from a TrueImage file. I installed CB10 with its included svts. I then installed the problem TruePianos plugin… it worked!
I then reinstalled my recent drive image, deleted all svts from their various locations, installed only TruePianos, attempted to load plugin… freeze!!! :frowning:
My brain is now starting to hurt.
I think maybe it’s time to contact Steinberg support!

Hi there

This is the second time I’ve seen mention of a problem with truepianos, yet I used it a short while ago (yesterday) without any problem at all. Hmmmmmm, not sure…,

Best Regards, Dave

Hi Dave,
I think you’re referring to post “Piano plugin woes” which was also started by me.
This post wasn’t meant to highlight a couple of other issues I have with CB10, but has inadvertently become focused on the Truepianos svt again. :confused: