Every time I try to record on cubase 14 it shows an error saying that there was audio dropout. I tried all the solutions I could find and what worked for me was getting the buffer size up to 1024, but it makes the latency go up to 100ms which isn’t ideal.
I’m not sure if it’s something driver related or if maybe I just need an upgrade.
FYI My system is running a ryzen 5 and 16 GB of RAM.
Hi and welcome to the forum!
Do you have a separate audiointerface? Which ASIO driver do you use (Studio/Studio Setup/Audio System and ASIO driver on the right side)?
Do you have plugins in your project that cause high latencies like limiters etc?
Does it happen in a new project, too?
The more info the better 
Hi, thanks!
I have a 4th gen 2i2 and I’m using the focusrite usb drivers (I updated them today).
On the project I’m working on right now I have 4 reverbs, and an eq and 2 compressors on a bass line I recorded (I had to record like 4 seconds at a time).
I’ve done some experiments and found that with a buffer size of 1024 it runs smoothly most of the times, but anything lower than that, even in an empty project, ends up stuttering and stopping every time I try to record.
Thanks for the info 
First of all, please make sure that you have picked the right ASIO driver.
Can you try to activate Contrain Delay Compensation during recording? It will deactivate all latency intensive plugins temporarily. It’s the tiny icon in the bottom left corner of your project window:
You can adjust the Constrain Delay Compensation threshold for plugins in the preference dialog (Edit/Preferences/VST). You can also monitor the latency for each channel if you want to.
Does this change anything?
Next thing:
Do you have any other applications which are running in the background?
Needing to use such a high buffer size can be a indication that your system resources are insufficient to handle / process the project.
What does the Cubase performance meter and Windows Task Manager or Windows Resource Monitor look like when you’re getting stuttering ?
Have you run latencyMon to see if there is a bottleneck? What changes have you made?
I’m using all the correct drivers.
I’ve tried it just now but the same thing happens.
I’m using cubase pro 14.0.30;
My computer runs on Windows;
I don’t have a dedicated GPU, I’m using the integrated graphics of my processor (I updated its drivers too).
The dropouts happen regardless of background activities.
The CPU stays arround 30-40%
The RAM stays arround 50-60%
Everything else stays below 5%
The only reason I’m not sure if it’s somesort of bottleneck it’s because nothing peaks.
LatencyMon says everything is fine.
I activated Steinberg’s power plan, tried tweaking the asio guard settings, updated my motherboards chipset, my graphics driver and my interface’s drivers, and tried freezing some of the tracks.
Hi,
it’s always best to run LatencyMon for at least 15 min to see if random spikes occur. Did you check over a certain amount of time?
Have you paused updates? I always pause and enable when it doesn’t matter. Then leave on a few hours to get stable again.
Something else is affecting this, as I don’t see how you can get 100ms latency with a 1024 buffer at 44.1/48k. The math on that would be around 10k for that kind of latency (if the web calculator is correct).
Makes me wonder what other effects are on the track. The specific output of the APM would also help in this regard methinks.
Ran it for 20 minutes, no cause for dropouts detected.
I don’t think the effects are the problem here, the issue persists in every project I create.
Anyways, on the project I’m working on right now I have 4 instances of frequency, 1 vst bass amp, 1 focusrite red 3 compressor, 2 UADx pure plate reverb and 1 IRLive Stereo.
The real time and asio-guard stay rather stable but when it stutters the graph just goes black for a few seconds, no peaking/dropout sign whatsoever.
The first seconds on the image portray this. I was already monitoring before and then it just flopped.
If the APM doesn’t show any issues, and ASIO-guard doesn’t report spikes, and latency mon hasn’t identified anything as an issue, and the overall system resource utilization is always low, then it could have something to do with the interface itself, its driver, or its connection.
Have you ensured you Device Manager in Windows doesn’t have any issues reported with component drivers missing or otherwise in a warning state? And you’ve ensured you’re using a proper USB “data” cable and not a “charging” cable? I would go through and switch ports, cables, and even interfaces if that’s an option just to get the physical continuum out of the way.
Is your audio interface USB plugged directly into your computer or to a hub? (Should be directlyinto your computer). Unplug all USB connections and then reboot.
More info on USB ports:
USB ports on a motherboard can connect either directly to the CPU or to the chipset. Ports connected directly to the CPU generally offer lower latency and potentially higher performance. Preferably you should have the audio interface connected to a USB port that is connected to the CPU. This information should be available in the motherboard user manual.
Is the Cubase performance meter Overload Indicator signaling red ? If it is, this could be a indication that the Cubase audio engine is restarting itself for unknown reasons.
What are your Windows Power settings set to ? These are known to cause Cubase performance issues if they are configured incorrectly.
These are too obvious so maybe missed them in the thread: disable your network, disable any virus program, stop any dropbox syncing.
And here’s a post from last year that might help you. It includes a reply of mine that might be especially applicable if your machine is a laptop (I may have missed it but didn’t see if laptop or desktop.)
