Updated to Cubase 15 from 14, and it is not useable. Cubase 14 runs just fine, but 15…It will not even run a single vst instrument track in a freshly created project. During playback the GUI freezes and shudders trying to auto-scroll. This includes the meters, the performance panel, the track panel and so on. Though I do have a project from 14 that seems to work and I am still debugging on that. Of note, if I add a new track, it does not play….
If you would like, I have captured video of the issue that I can send to wherever you would like to review.
Interesting. I‘m running C15 on Tahoe as well (M1 Max with 64 GB RAM) and I‘m not seeing this. Does it happen with every instrument? What buffer size and audio settings are you using?
Yes. New, empty project, one instrument track - with quite a CPU-demanding plugin (OsTiris). Runs smoothly with no noticable glitches or any alarming readings from the Audio Performance Monitor @24/48, buffer size 64 samples. That is with an Audient iD4.
I guess that troubleshooting will be difficult without further information on your audio settings and hardware involved.
Additional troubleshooting on the project I was doing in C14. Everything runs smoothly, except if I add a string patch. The strings I am working with are VSL Dimension strings in the Syncron player. If I add that track to the C14 project that works, it will not playback the MIDI track data. It will play sound if I play the keyboard, but will not read the track data. I also tested with Kontakt 8 using Spitfire Audio strings but the result is the same. It is strange, it only seems to be when I add a new VST instrument track. I can not figure it out.
For Audio Hardware, I use an UA Apollo with UAD software v11.8.1 which is the latest for Tahoe. When the auto-scroll is glitching, the audio does not glitch. It runs and plays back correctly. Let me know what information you need, I do have a video showing the behavior.
Sorry for late response, was working. I just tested this and interestingly enough, going into “Mission Control” and back out ( did not select anything, only toggled it), it resolved that behavior.
Thanks for checking and coming back. We are working on a fix for this and until we release it you can do this “trick” as a workaround whenever you come into this situation.
Hi Arne. I have similar problem. I have purchased Cubase 15 Pro on 7th of November and I’m facing some major issues.
I installed Cubase 15 Pro on Macbook Air M2, MacOS Sequoia ver. 15.6.1
When I record a MIDI file and try to click on Editor (or double click on midi track) , the system freezes. Basically I cannot do anything and this program is currenlty useless.
Before I had Cubase 14 Element and all worked well.
I’m experiencing behavior very similar to what has been previously reported. When using Cubase 14 with my Apollo X4 (Gen 1) and Universal Audio plugins, the audio plays normally, but the plugin GUI becomes extremely laggy and stutters, almost like a “Christmas tree” flickering effect.
My setup is as follows:
MacBook Pro M3 Max (48 GB RAM)
Apollo X4 audio interface
macOS Tahoe 26.1
Cubase 14.0.40
It feels as if there’s a very high display lag, not only when showing plugin windows but also when clicking on items in Cubase. For example, even in the timeline, there’s noticeable delay when interacting. Given the specs of the computer, I wouldn’t expect this kind of performance issue.
I noticed in one of your posts you asked someone:
“If you have this issue, does clicking on the Mission Control icon in the dock fix it?”
In my case, Cubase’s interface runs smoothly while Mission Control is active (although I can’t actually see the plugins running there — they disappear in that mode). However, in normal mode, the plugin visuals freeze and stutter, while the audio continues to work fine.
Best regards,
Bruno Marques
P.S.: I’m adding a link to a short video that demonstrates the issue in real time. You can see how the audio keeps playing normally while the plugin interface and Cubase UI become extremely laggy and stutter.
Hi @Bruno_Marques ,
this looks like a different issue. If you close the plugin windows is the UI working as expected again? Then this points to some incompatibility with the plugins and you should contact the developers of the plugins.
Try closing (and/or disabling) that XP Pen application. It is probably putting too much load on the WindowServer–leaving not much for Cubase to work with.
Thanks for the suggestion! I tried closing and disabling the XP-Pen application, but unfortunately it doesn’t seem to be related — the issue persists even with the XP-Pen software completely shut down.
So, at least in my case, there doesn’t appear to be a correlation between the XP-Pen app and the Cubase GUI lag/stuttering problem.
Just an update — from yesterday to today, the issue seems to have resolved itself. About 12 hours ago, during late night, I gave up and went to sleep after restarting the MacBook a couple of times and trying what you suggested. Somehow, it started working again on its own today.
I’m running the same project as before, and everything is now behaving normally.
From the Universal Audio side, both the Apollo X4 and all the related drivers are confirmed to be fully compatible with macOS Tahoe 26.1, according to UAD.
Sorry, no idea. I still would guess that one of the plugins were bad behaving. Next time, if this issue recurs, you can close one plugin editor after another until the UI becomes smooth again. This will help you identify the culprit.
By accidentally turning off “Always on Top” on my Channel Settings I found out, that the
whole GUI starts to lag when the Channel Settings are covered by the Arrangement
Window. As soon as I closed the channel settings, the lag was gone.
It also seems to happen, when one Plugin entirely covers up another.
Hope that helps a little.
EDIT: It lags after changing the channel with the channel settings in the background.
Just wanted to pipe in to say that clicking on Mission Control did work as a work around. Very frustrating bug. I am grateful for all of the posts here as this helped a lot. I hope that there is a bug fix soon for Cubase.
Im having a similar issue with Cubase 14 on my MacBook Air M4 and on the Mac mini m4 with 26.1 (25B78) Tahoe
Specifically, when scrolling through the project timeline, the video and audio clips drag noticeably, causing a lag that disrupts workflow. This is happening with just audio tracks and a video track with no plugins. Its a fresh cubase install on both Macs
