Hi all,
We are investigating the blacklist issues with 3rd party VST plug-ins with high priority. Here are some answers to the most frequently asked questions:
Why is your Cubase 10.5.11 crashing on start up?
Cubase is crashing because of unstable VST 2 plug-ins.
By deleting the “Vst2xPlugin Blacklist Cubase.xml”, the “Vst2xPlugin Whiteliste Cubase.xml” and “Vst2xPlugin Infos Cubase.xml” in your preferences folder a new plug-in scan is forced on start up and unstable plug-ins are moved to the blacklist.
The next update Cubase 10.5.12 will have an automatic plug-in scan on start up.
Why are some of my plug-ins now on the blacklist that haven’t been backlisted before?
After February 2020 all notarized applications have to activate the “Hardened Runtime”. Plug-ins that don’t meet the requirements of Apple’s new security system, seem to be unstable and are moved to the blacklist.
That is why plug-ins that haven’t been blacklisted on Cubase 10.5.0 are now blacklisted.
Here are some more official details on the Hardened Runtime:
https://developer.apple.com/documentation/security/hardened_runtime
Some users reported in the forum that the problem is solved by de-activating the System Integrity Protection of macOS. We are strongly advising against deactivating the SIP since this will lower the security of your system.
What is Steinberg doing to improve the situation?
Unfortunately, we are currently able to reproduce the instability on our systems in the headquarter with illegal cracked plug-ins only. If you are using illegal cracked plug-ins they will be banned by Hardened Runtime on macOS and we are not able to make them available in Cubase.
We have installed all the legal versions of the plug-ins that are reported to crash Cubase, but none of them are being blacklisted on different machines and systems. If you are having issue with legal plug-ins we need more information about your systems and plug-ins that cause the crash.
Please contact us via info [at] steinberg dot de and add „BLACKLIST” to the subject.
This is what we are asking for:
It would help us a lot if you could send us the crash logs. You find the crash logs here:
- In macOS, start the “Console” app
- Left side, navigate to “User Reports” (macOS Mojave 10.14) / “Crash Reports” (macOS Catalina 10.15)
- Look for reports created by either “vstscanner” or “vst2xscanner”
- Check the date, its only interesting to check for these entries within February, resp. this week
- Right click on one of them, select “Reveal in Finder”
- Then grab the relevant log files (according to date, etc.) and add them as an attachment to the email.
Could you provide a system report or a system information file please?
Could you create a screenshot of the blacklist entries found in Studio → VST Plug-in Manager → Blacklist?
Have all affected plug-ins been updated to their latest available versions? If so, which versions are these exactly?
Which VST2 plug-in paths are set in the VST plug-in manager (click the gear wheel icon at the bottom)
Could you send us the compressed Cubase preferences folder with the email?
What is Steinberg doing in regards to the performance problems on Windows and macOS?
We are currently preparing the next Cubase 10.5.12 update for both Mac and Windows that will be available in the this week. The update will address the performance spike/peak issue that has been reported in the forums.
Thank you for your understanding and please excuse the inconvenience.
Best regards,
Matthias