I know that this has been discussed countless times in other threads, but after doing several searches I didn’t find any information about this issue specifically targeting Cubase Pro 10 on Mac. I’m sorry if I might have missed something and in that case I’d appreciate a link to that particular thread.
Anyway, my problem is that ever since I got my new machine (iMac i9, 1 TB SSD, 72 GB RAM on Mojave 10.14) coming from C8 on Yosemite, Cubase 10 has been running like sh*t to the point where I’m seriously considering moving to Logic. There are a lot of issues, but let’s concentrate on the GUI lag in this thread.
I am using a lot of VSTi:s, mostly Kontakt-based but also orchestral/choir libraries hosted in proprietary sample players by EW, Spitfire etc.
However, the problem starts already when only using maybe three or four instances of any “heavier” orchestral plugin loaded. As soon as a musical arrangement begins to take form and the number of parts/regions of recorded MIDI-material starts increasing in the project window, Cubase’s GUI starts lagging (the project pointer jumps instead of going smoothly, clicking/dragging is extremely slow, bars and seconds are displayed with constant frame drops, the spinning ball keeps reappearing etc.) and the more instruments/tracks/parts I add, the more severe it gets to the point where everything just becomes a sluggish mess.
Interestingly though, there are almost never any CPU spikes or audio dropouts and the performance meter stays at around 30% maximum, the iMac is dead silent, no fans kicking in and there are still plenty of RAM left in the activity monitor. Note: I don’t use VEPro, so VSTi:s are loaded directly into Cubase’s own rack instrument slots.
I have tried different combinations of instruments to see if there might be a conflict with any particular plugin or library, but to no avail.
Also, there are no audio tracks, freeze tracks, disabled or previously disabled tracks, or any sound processing plugins used in the projects apart from two reverb channels which don’t seem to affect the performance regardless if they’re active or not.
I might as well add that I am extremely finicky when it comes to installations, updates and computer maintenance. Everything in my studio rig was installed accordingly on a clean MacOS, on a brand new computer using only legit software.
So, does anyone have a clue about what’s going on?
No I’m still on 10.0.50 and as for the 10.5 upgrade, I simply refuse paying Steinberg for fixing issues in regard to basic functionality that shouldn’t have been issues in the first place. There are no reasonable buts or excuses as to why Cubase Pro 10 performs so incredibly bad on a popular not to say plenty powerful system released within the same timeframe. Either that, or there is some strange and unexplained “magic” going on inside my machine because 10.0.50 seems to work really well for you obviously. May I ask if you’re using orchestral libraries, and in that case how many instances of them do you usually load up?
Have you altered the settings for ASIO guard in any way?
I do orchestral arrangements for pop stuff now and then, max 20 Kontakt/Falcon/ST4 instances with the usual suspects(Spitfire/NI orch/etc).
No problems with my i9 rig(comparable to your iMac)
Are your VI’s up-to-date? Maybe rescan your VST fx and instruments?
Also, there’s settings in Kontakt for the number of cores/memory server etc. Check these.
I apologize for the late response and hope you all had a great start in the new year.
zipb: Yes, as stated earlier I am extremely finicky with my setups, making sure that everything is up to date and runs as smoothly as possible. Hence, every single plugin in my system has the newest version. Also, I have experimented with Kontakt settings to no avail.
chi_mike: Thanks for replying and as for your question my iMac has the 580X GPU.
I reinstalled Cubase on my machine (just the app, I didn’t do a full wipe-system-reinstall) and it’s been operating slightly better since, although I still get the same GUI hiccups, just not as frequently and severely as before.
Been working on two new projects lately featuring a lot of Spitfire Symphony Orchestra and HZ Strings and the problem remains.
Does anyone with the same computer specs and symphonic composing habits experience the same issues?
I might as well add that I’ve got Logic Pro installed as well and when using the same plugins (Kontakt, Spitfire, UVI Workstation etc.) in heavier projects, the GUI runs very smoothly compared to Cubase.