Cubase 13 Pro Bug? Audio stays panned from Auto LFO after Auto LFO is deleted

Steps to recreate the behavior:

  1. Create an audio or instrument track with notes/sound
  2. Add the Auto LFO MIDI Insert
  3. Set Auto LFO to affect panning
  4. Play the audio/instrument track until some panning has taken effect
  5. Remove Auto LFO

I find that the audio remains panned in the last position that Auto LFO had it in the stereo field, despite there being no pan settings activated anywhere in Cubase - none in the mixer, automation lanes, Surround Pan, nor in the Key Editor panning lane nor any MIDI Insert.

A workaround fix:

  1. Create an automation lane on the instrument/audio track
  2. Automate the sound back to the center
  3. Delete the automatiion lane.

The audio is now centered again.

However, surely this is not the intended behavior? Surely deleting Auto LFO - the only original cause of panning - should return the audio to its centre default?

Do others find this happening?

My system is Windows 11.

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That is the way it is designed to work. Might be unbelievable to you but this is how MIDI works inside Cubase in general.
AutoLFO generates MIDI messages that alter the setting of the receipient. Removing AutoLFO leaves the receipient set to the last received value. Since MIDI 1.0 is non-bi-directional there is no way to see the current settings other than on the receipient itself.

Works like that since the 1980’s.

Well I’m very sorry to hear that, and I certainly haven’t encountered it any time in the last 13 years of DAW use, but I guess it’s because no other tools I’ve used work that way, and in Reason most tools with similar functionality work via CV, not MIDI panning. But when you say, “Since MIDI 1.0 is non-bi-directional there is no way to see the current settings other than on the receipient itself,” I think what you really mean is there is no way to see the current settings anywhere at all. There are absolutely zero places to see it. You just end up with panned audio with absolutely no visible cause. Very primitive.