Cubase 12 crashes on startup

Hi All.

I was one of the very frustrated customers who had to go buy another fail-safe DAW so my own customers didn’t run away from me on the wake of Cubase 12. Cubase 11 was working fine but as soon as I started to do some manual interventions per Cubase Tech support, to get C12 to work, C11 would not work.

Then something extra-ordinary happened yesterday. Steinberg tech called me (THANKS ADAM) and spent more than an hour on Teamviewer with me and did everything possible to successfully fix the problem. Even though everything wasn’t fixed yet, Adam was willing to spend hours more seeing me through the end. I was the one who let him go since I -more or less- know my ways around my computer from an IT perspective.

I’ve been with Steinberg (Cubase+Nuendo) since Cubase version 2.0 (1998). So it was heartbreaking to see an upgrade causing that much damage since I didn’t want let go of Cubase for human-emotional reasons. But that call from Steinberg Tech through Adam gave me another good reason to remain a Cubase customer.

Thank you Steinberg. Thank you Adam. Both C11 and C12 start well now (hoping they will work fine as Cubase had for me since about 25 years.

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I have the same problem in iMac late 2015 macOS Monterey updating Cubase Elements 9.5 to 12.

I removed all files related to Groove Agent and the problem persists.

I am having catastrophic crashes in Cubase 12 Pro the last few days. It happens when I’m trying to open a project - gets just about all the way through the opening process loading the tracks and Mix Console then Cubase craps the bed and quits hard before the project gets open.

I’m on a real Mac running Monterey 12.2.1 with plenty of juice.

Cubase 11 was typically quite stable, so I am getting very frustrated with 12. The weird thing is 12 Pro was seemingly working fine for a few days, then boom, it’s now literally useless.

Here’s the text of the safe mode message that comes up during my crashes:

The application was terminated with an error while executing the following file:
/Applications/Waves/*/WavesLib1.128_13.0.framework/Versions/A/WavesLib
com.WavesAudio.WavesLib1.128-13.0.13.0.0

If anyone knows a fix, I would greatly appreciate it!!

Did you work out a solution?

Same here,
problem already started in C11, only occasionally, no solutions from steinberg support after sending crashlogs, now with C12 at every start. The trigger is the cubase12.exe, long before any VST2 or VST3 scan starts.
Can work on with "Use current program preferences.
Tried all other options - not a solution here…

Well the most recent crash when trying to load a project gave a message indicating it was an issue with Groove Agent rather than Waves this time. So I re-installed the latest versions of Groove Agent and Halion and so far so good in that I have been able to open projects without it crashing again for a few days. I don’t have much confidence in C12 yet though as I lost a week of work and productivity.

Yes I’m having the same problem however it says the issue is with Kontakt.
So frustrating

It is still crashing on startup, even after the maintenance update.

interesting, I get this messege when i start up that it cant find halion sonic or what ever… its annoying I just go ignore and go on but maybe it could be the resault of some of my crashes. dont find it likely but willing to try, how did you uninstall it completly? just delete HALION sonic.dll?

Adam, please call me… I need this teamviewer call asap… before I spend more money on my computer guy. I love to hear this kind of support but have not had this first hand ever with steinberg since the local support for steinberg in Iceland they know nothing about this software. Ive been using it since cubase 4, cubase 12 just has been a disaster… tbh first time ever that I relate to the Pro tools endless crash word on the streets but now with cubase

At the moment, 12.0.10 seems a solution here, no startup crashes since I installed the update…

Hey,

How did you solved this?
I have a mac desktop pro 2019 with Big Sure and every once a while cubase quits. I download the new cubase 12 update but still have the same problem.

Hey,

How did you solved this?
I have a mac desktop pro 2019 with Big Sur and every once a while cubase quits. I download the new cubase 12 update but still have the same problem.I really appreciate your help

@Ramin_Kousha: can you send me the crashlog? Thanks!

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Hey Erick
how can I send you the crashlog?
Also I noticed each time I get different type of report or list…

Windows 10 Pro 21H2. Cubase 12 Pro 12.0.10
RME interface, latest drivers and bios.

  1. Fresh Windows 10 21H2 install

  2. Fresh Cubase (first ever on this machine) 12 Pro install (activated yesterday)

  3. Hangs when (randomly):

  • showing welcome/news/project select popup window
  • while loading last project
  • after loading the project
    It just becomes totally unresponsive. Dump file points to wdmaud.drv.

2nd install (full reinstall) - Let’s waste some time
1st run - WOW IT WORKS! Almost! Hanged after 1 minute.

2nd run - The application was terminated with an error while executing the following file: freeze (oh, meanwhile I’ve downloaded WinDbg to see what dmp file contains)

3rd run - The application ended unexpectedly

I’ve sniffed around wdmaud.drv and found out that ESI M8UEX drivers were in conflict / causing troubles. I hope, that case is closed for now.

Please install the Cubase 12.0.20 update and let us know if there are still stability issues.

https://forums.steinberg.net/t/cubase-12-0-20-maintenance-update-available/