Cubase 10.5 HiDPI on Windows 10

Cubase
#10

Yes I have a couple of months ago and my complain was that Native Instruments Kontakt 6 scaled ugly small on my 4K monitor with Cubase HiDPI.
The answer from Steinberg was that the problem was caused by Native Instruments Kontakt and I should contact them to solve the problem.
I did contact Native Instruments but NEVER got an answer from them!

I understand FishCorp’s frustration, because now I’m also forced to work without HiDPI in Cubase 10.5.12 with blurred fonts.
Now, that is a customer friendly option, isn’t it?

#11

I was talking about PPI, not the pixel count. I’m just curious why people want to use scaling. I use a 4k monitor in my studio, but it would never occur to me to buy one that will require scaling before I can use it for music production. I’m not defending Steinberg. This obviously must be fixed (the same can be said for sampler track, mixer snapshots, ara support, audio alignment, etc.). I’m just curious about this problem. Are people using 4k laptops?

#12

Personally i just find high PPI content easier to read. Currently i’m running 2 x 24" 1920 x 1200 displays at the studio. I imagine you have a large 4k display, if you’re comfortable with 1:1 scaling. My laptop, however, has a 15" 4K screen, and Cubase (the parts that are actually HiDPI) looks amazing!

The only showstopping thing preventing me for grabbing new 4k displays for the studio is the inability of Cubase to scale up HiDPI-unaware plugins. Ableton Live does this, same goes for Studio One. I’m not asking for magic - just a simple checkbox in the plugin-manager (like Ableton btw) that scales up plugins 2:1.

Lots of plugins are built on the JUCE framework, which finally seems to have HiDPI on Windows under control. However - Native Instruments seems stuck, in regards to their back catalog of plugins, and so does a lot of other smaller plugins developers. UAD also comes to mind … (at least on Win; not sure about OSX).

I bet the real issue stems from Steinberg using Qt as the interface-framework, which pretty much puts it out of their control, unless they fork the code. Ableton as well as Studio One seems to have a custom windowing system already!

In any case - making HiDPI a selling point of a product, then not delivering a usable implementation (when everybody else is able to do so), is just not … well … not ok!

#13

Agreed - all Steinberg needs to do is 2:1 scaling for HiDPI-unaware plugins like Ableton and this issue is solved. And check that if you drag the plugin from 1080p to 4k it resizes as it should.

There are just too many plugins that will never be scaled, and musicians should be able to use legacy plugins just like we do vintage equipment. Native, Waves, Arturia, Korg, etc…

We should all submit official support tickets for a HiDPI Windows fix - maybe we all write the same text about the HiDPI bug and they will pay attention by the multiple requests. Like a HiDPI petition.

If it is a selling point of a product, it must function properly. Any modern DAW needs proper HiDPI for the variety of monitors out there.

STEINBERG INVENTED THE VST, so their DAWs should support their own amazing invention better than other DAWs.

Even MusicRadar.com’s review said HiDPI is buggy at the very top of their NUENDO review! Steinberg MUST know this is a huge issue?!

https://www.musicradar.com/reviews/steinberg-nuendo-10

MUSIC RADAR NUENDO REVIEW

OUR VERDICT
Nuendo offers lots of power to those working with picture, game audio and VR, all the while keeping Cubase users happy

PROS
ARA 2 support
Video cut detection
Video rendering

CONS
Audio alignment features need further tweaking
Price
HiDPI support is still limited on Windows

#14

My problem is with vst plugin guis when using windows scaling. For example, nexus gui is unusable at 125% in Cubase but looks absolutely fine in reaper…

I do get the impression from reading around that Steinberg are completely aware of the situation and are working on it…

#15

Well Cubase got an update and no HiDPI fix was mentioned, I am using Nuendo, did anybody install the new update and check if they SILENTLY fixed this?

I seriously doubt it if it wasn’t in the release notes… but it is worth a try???

#16

I tried the Cubase update to see if they silently fixed it by some miracle, but of course HiDPI is still tragically flawed on Cubase/Nuendo on Windows still.

Looks like I need to use Ableton for my plugins to work until this is finally resolved…

#17

It is a pain to see how incredibly long Steinberg leaves this halfbaked Cubase UI unfixed!
This behavior really alienates customers.

#18

I find myself quite happy using my 4k display in native resolution along Cubase 10.5.

If you are using Windows 10, I would suggest to try out if this fixes your problem. I have no scaling issues with any plugins, had them before just as you described.

Cubase 10 looks actually really nice on a 4k Display and it scales nicely, it seems that Windows can cause these scaling issues.

#19

But if you do that then you can’t use windows scaling…

#20

Exactly. Because Windows 10 scaling is broken.

#21

It is, but without it, many users are struggling to deal with Cubase’s small fonts and icons on 4k displays!

#22

It is very strange that even 10.5 did not bring the hidpi scaling fix. My Cubase license has been about a year unused, since I bought it new, because it cannot be used. I have 50" 4k monitor with 150 % scaling in Win 10, and I watch it from about 1 m distance. Everything else is scaled perfectly. Using Cubase in hidpi-mode with 100 % scaling is too small to my eyes, because eyes start to hurt. 125 % or 150 % would be optimal. Normal mode hurts, because it is blurry. Bitwig since version 2 has scaled properly on 4k, including all 3rd party plugins as well. Why cannot Cubase handle this?

There is absolutely no excuse for users to defend Steinberg about not implementing this feature. There are always studios that use old displays, but 4k is standard in 2020, has been for many years now. It has to work, otherwise the software is obsolete. Why look at low resolution representation of the DAW, when you could have crisp graphics, like most other software? Cubase 10 was advertised having a new graphics engine with hidpi!

To me it sounds like Steinberg is doing these final updates with minimal effort, just to sell a few more licenses, before they stop supporting the software. Maybe it is not a high priority at Yamaha? I have never been as disappointed about any purchase. Money totally wasted.

#23

Exactly.
It is completely up to Steinberg to fix this.

The proposed solution does not work well here. As it is now, I either have to use Windows scaling (like 125%), with bad proportions and display failures of plugins in Cubase, or I use native resolution and have no proper, well readable font display. And even if I try some font tricks, I run into other display problems (like fonts becoming too big for proper working of popup windows). The present Steinberg UI is utterly half-baked: simple as that. It has to become more flexible, or it simply doesn’t work as it should!

A well visible display is an utterly basic key experience when working with Cubase, and I’m really annoyed to see the failure of fixing this again and again, since MUCH too long now!

#24

This fatal flaw has persisted for 19 months, been discussed in 1100+ posts on these forums + Gearslutz and even pointed out as a major con in magazine reviews.

Matthias Quellmann posted a survey about HiDPI December 2019, so they obviously must be fixing it this major issue but why so long?:

https://www.steinberg.net/forums/viewtopic.php?f=283&t=175848

I find it ridiculous that they also say that “If you rely working with video, disable HiDPI in Cubase.” at https://helpcenter.steinberg.de/hc/en-us/articles/360001589520-Cubase-10-HiDPI-support-on-Windows-10 ; when they advertise it for pro video/game studio use and all video/games are 4k 60-120+fps and even 8k in 2020!

It is absolutely agonizing to see that this tragic GUI bug on their flagship products Cubase+Nuendo is a lower priority than other minor fixes and new releases of their many non-DAW niche products since November 2018.

Surely Steinberg’s team must use their own product on a 4K Windows machine vs Mac to realize the severity of this issue themselves… As a programmer, I know this is not a difficult fix and they can just follow what Ableton/Bitwig/Studio One have implemented quickly.

Does anybody know Senior Management at Steinberg to raise this issue that has been alienating and infuriating many customers for 1.5+ years? :angry:

#25

Yea, we deserve a fix ASAP. This is silly. I have considered Studio One, have been for a while, I don’t care what I use as long as it’s solid.

#26

Could you please share a screenshot of your editing window? I got the feeling, you have it scaled on 200%. Even with the solution you described, there seems not to be a solution to scale to 150% 4k (which is the only real advantage of having such a big screen for me).

#27

I will expose this company everywhere because it does not respect any of its customers and if the solution is not available before the 11th update
I will not buy the new version (11) and I will transfer all my sessions to Studio One

Just notice the difference

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#28

I work with Cubase 10.5.20 (High DPI on) on a Dell 4K monitor with a resolution of 3840 x 2160 in Windows 10 scaled at 200% and I tried your Windows High DPI settings and variations, but none changed the fact that my Kontakt 6 window and fonts are very very small and I cann’t read them, even with my glasses on. In Studio One 4 no problem at all. So in Cubase back to NO High DPi with blurred eye-tiring font!

#29

Blumentopferd that does fix SOME plugins from cropping, but not all. Especially when dragging between monitors and monitors of diff resolutions. Also, the plugins like Native Instruments, Korg, Waves are way too small and unusable. Also remember 4k screens are popular in 15" like in laptops, 27, 32, 48, 55, 65 which is why there should be proper scaling % options.

They still need to fix this properly like Ableton/Studio One/Bitwig et al.

Without a PROPER Steinberg fix we will have no HiDPI or blurry fonts… It is also unfortunate that many big plugin companies cannot update their older plugins (Native Instruments/Waves/Korg/etc), especially Native Kontact and Komplete Kontrol - I’ve asked!

However, its exponentially easier for a half dozen DAWs to work with legacy non-HiDPI aware plugins then redevelop the thousands of legacy plugins because many of the plugin developers + GUI asset artists are probably no longer working for the companies. Many plugins have a lot of hand drawn art to look like the equipment etc. that cannot scale easily like a vector based plugin.

Korg actually responded to my request to update to HiDPI and scaling their legendary plugins and say they will work on it, and they are one by one! Waves just has too many, so I doubt it’ll ever happen and Native Instruments I think is having financial problems but they definitely need to update Komplete, Komplete Kontrol, Kontakt, Massive at least IMO ASAP.