Cubase 5.5.3 ASIO spikes issue

Cubase
1

Does anyone know how to reduce or eliminate “ASIO spikes” in Cubase 5.5.3?
NOTE: The ASIO spikes even when the song is not playing.

I have re-saved the song several times, and re-started the computer several times, but the ASIO spike issue still occurs.

I am in the “Mixing” stage of this song, so low-latency for recording is not needed at the moment.

My system information is:
Windows 10 Pro 64-bit
16GB Kingston Hyper-X RAM
Intel motherboard DP55KG
Cubase version 5.5.3
Song Length: 2:26
Cubase Project audio settings: 48 kHz / 24-bit.

In Task Manager: The total CPU Use is only at 26% and the total RAM Memory Use is only at 27%
Cubase Task Manager: Power Usage says “very high” highlighted in a dark orange color - (but only for Cubase).

Drive “C” = Samsung Pro solid-state C-Drive (system drive where Windows 10 Pro is installed).

Drive “D” = Audio Recording files are stored on a separate Western Digital Black 7200 RPM hard drive.

Drive “S” = Sample Files for virtual instruments are stored on a separate Western Digital Black 7200 RPM hard drive.

Soundcard: Universal Audio Apollo Quad core “Silver” (Firewire 800)
Buffer size is normally set to 1024.

I just tried changing the buffer size to 2048 - but this makes no difference.

I only have 1 virtual instrument open, which is IK Multimedia MODO bass, which uses only 1 MIDI track.

The song is not all that long. It is approximately 2-minutes and 26-seconds in length.

  • I have imported 5 stereo audio tracks which are the full length of the song.

  • I have imported 1 mono audio track (bass) which is the full length of the song.

  • I have recorded 30 vocal audio tracks - which vary in length.

  • I am using a few effects plugins from the Universal Audio Apollo Quad core soundcard

  • Ampeg SVT bass amp plugin - is 1 example, except that these UAD effects should be processed by the Universal Audio Quad processor, so should not add any strain on the computer.

  • I was using the frequency analyzer plugin called “SPAN” by Voxengo.
    NOTE: I just completely removed the “SPAN” plugin, but the ASIO spike issue did not change.

  • I am using the 3 instances of the Klanghelm IVGI saturation plugin.
    I doubt this is the problem because I have used this in other songs without issue.

  • I am using some WAVES version 9 plugins, such as the SSL Limiter, and SSL Channel Strip
    I doubt this is the problem because I have used this in other songs without issue

What settings are normally changed that might reduce or eliminate the ASIO spikes?

I believe the ASIO spikes started when I imported the 6 full-length audio WAV files - which are 2 minutes and 26-seconds in length. All imported WAV files are at 48 kHz / 24-bit. And the Cubase project is set to 48 kHz / 24-bit.

Otherwise Cubase 5.5.3 is still working pretty good for me to record 3-minute songs using LOTS of virtual instruments, and LOTS of effects! (it just seems to be when I begin to import full length audio files that this ASIO spike issue happens). BUT it could be 1 of the effects I recently loaded, I’m not really sure.

Any assistance would be greatly appreciated!

2

Hi and welcome on the forum,

We don’t know, what ASIO Driver (Audio Device) do you use.

  • You can try to increase your Audio Device Buffer Size.
  • IK Multimedia plug-ins are quite CPU hungry.
  • Could you test your system by using LatencyMon utility, please?
3

OK thank you, I just downloaded, installed, and ran LatencyMon 7.
After it ran for a while, here is the message.

"Conclusion: Your system appears to be having trouble handing real-time audio and other tasks. You are likely to experience buffer underruns appearing as dropouts, clicks, or pops. One or more DPC routines that belong to a driver running in your system appear to be executing for too long. One problem may be related to power management, disable CPU throttling settings in Control Panel and BIOS setup. "

Buffer size is normally set to 1024.

I had already tried changing the buffer size to 2048 - but this makes no difference.
(And 2048 is the highest the buffer size can be set)

By the way in Task Manager: The total CPU Use is only at 26% and the total RAM Memory Use is only at 27%. Cubase Task Manager: Power Usage says “very high” highlighted in a dark orange color - (but only for Cubase).

Do you know how I can “disable CPU throttling settings in Control Panel”?

How do I find out which ASIO driver I’m using?

4

Hi,

Sorry, I don’t know, I’m not Windows user.

You can see it in the Studio > Studio Setup > VST Audio System.

5

I figured out how to “disable CPU throttling settings" in Windows 10 Pro.
However, it didn’t help my problem. But here’s how to do it:

If you use Windows 10 Pro, it’s possible to disable CPU throttling settings in the Local Group Policy Editor.

  1. Open Start
  2. Search for gpedit.msc and select the top result to open the Local Group Policy Editor.
  3. Browse to the following path:

Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > System > Power Management > Power Throttling Settings

  1. Double Click the “Turn Off Power Throttling” Policy
  2. Select the Enabled Option.
  3. Click the Apply Button.
  4. Click the OK Button.

Once you complete the steps Windows 10 will stop limiting power on all apps, regardless of which power mode configured on your device. So this didn’t make any difference on my set-up, but maybe will help someone.

I’m going to attempt to find which ASIO driver I’m using next.

Universal Audio Apollo has “Input Delay Compensation” - which I might need to adjust.

6

I have confirmed that the ASIO driver Cubase is using, is the Universal Audio Apollo Firewire ASIO Driver.

In Cubase 5.5.3 this information is found in Devices > Device Setup

Audio Priority = Boost
Multi Processing Box = checked
Disable CPU Energy Saving Box = checked
Disk Preload = 2 seconds
Adjust for Record Latency Box = checked

7

Hi,

Try to increase your Audio Device Buffer Size in the Studio [Devices] > Studio Setup [Device Setup] > UAD ASIO Driver > Control Panel, please?

Try to run latency Monitor again, if it provides some more advice, please.

8

There’s only 1 more buffer size up that the Universal Audio Apollo Quad can go, which is 2048. I have tried increasing the buffer size to 2048, that doesn’t make any difference what-so-ever.

After increasing the buffer size to 2048 (which it’s still set at right now), I just ran LatencyMon7 for 30 minutes and got the same message:

"Conclusion: Your system appears to be having trouble handing real-time audio and other tasks. You are likely to experience buffer underruns appearing as dropouts, clicks, or pops. One or more DPC routines that belong to a driver running in your system appear to be executing for too long. One problem may be related to power management, disable CPU throttling settings in Control Panel and BIOS setup. "

I have not done anything in my Intel motherboard BIOS, but I would prefer not to mess with the BIOS if at all possible.

I confirmed that I have the 64-bit version of Cubase 5.5.3 installed, because in Windows 10 Pro 64-bit, the Cubase5.exe file is located in C: > Program Files > Steinberg > Cubase 5

(and there is no Cubase5.exe file located in Program Files (x86) - which would be the 32-bit location.)

9

FYI - I ran LatencyMon without Cubase even running at all, and after around 5 minutes I got the same error message I had been getting recently.

"Conclusion: Your system appears to be having trouble handing real-time audio and other tasks. You are likely to experience buffer underruns appearing as dropouts, clicks, or pops. One or more DPC routines that belong to a driver running in your system appear to be executing for too long. One problem may be related to power management, disable CPU throttling settings in Control Panel and BIOS setup. "

So I did some searching online and I found more detailed information about how to actually use LatencyMon (since I am new to using it).

This article says I need to look under the Processes Tab and click the Hard Pagefaults column so that the processes with the highest numbers are presented at the top of the list in ascending order. And that if a process is generating a lot of hard page faults during audio playback then it might result in dropouts.

This article also says I need to click the “Drivers” tab, and try clicking the “DPC count” or “ISR count” column headers so the largest figures are at the top. Interrupt Service Routines (ISRs) and Deferred Procedure Calls (DPCs) are mechanisms used by Windows to urgently run some important driver code, and in some situations this may prevent an audio (or other) application from running, resulting in more sound dropouts.

Here is the article:

There are many possible reasons why a PC might suffer from audio glitches, like pops, crackles or dropouts. And so troubleshooting the problem often becomes a matter of trial and error, where you’ll maybe close down every possible background process that you can in an effort to find anything that might help.

LatencyMon offers a much simpler solution. The program uses Microsoft’s Event Tracing for Windows technology to monitor what’s happening on your PC, and in just a few minutes can produce a detailed report that will highlight some of the processes and drivers that are the most likely cause of your audio issues.

While the LatencyMon author has focused on sound problems, the program has more general uses, too. Essentially it’s just telling you which processes are making particularly urgent demands on your CPU, and so if you can remove a few of these then you may see performance benefits in other areas, too.

LatencyMon is straightforward to use. Just launch the program, click the “Start button”, then play some audio and confirm that you’re getting dropouts. (Or, if you’re just looking for more general performance-related information, simply leave LatencyMon running for maybe five minutes.) Click “Stop” when you’re done.

Next, click the “Processes” tab, then click the “Hard page faults” column header so that the largest numbers appear at the top. Hard page faults occur when a program needs data that isn’t resident in physical RAM, and so Windows has to read it in from the paging file, instead. This is a time-consuming business, and so if a process is generating a lot of hard page faults during audio playback then it might result in dropouts.

Exactly how many faults qualify as “too many” is hard to say, but the report will at least show you which processes are generating them on your system. Let’s say the main culprit turned out to be MSMPENG.EXE, the Windows Defender and Security Essentials engine; turning off Defender (if you had another antivirus solution installed) or trying another security package altogether may be enough to solve the problem. More generally, installing more memory if you’re short, or closing down RAM-hungry applications should also help.

Next, click the “Drivers” tab, and try clicking the “DPC count” or “ISR count” column headers so the largest figures are at the top. Interrupt Service Routines (ISRs) and Deferred Procedure Calls (DPCs) are mechanisms used by Windows to urgently run some important driver code, and in some situations this may prevent an audio (or other) application from running, resulting in more sound dropouts.

Again, don’t worry too much about the number of DPCs or ISRs, just look at the files that are mostly responsible. If you recognize some drivers that you’ve installed (that is, they’re not core Windows components), then maybe removing, upgrading or reconfiguring them will help to reduce your problems.

And even if LatencyMon has only specified standard Windows drivers, like usbport.sys or tcpip.sys, then this will at least give you some clues about what’s going on. If you’re currently using a USB or wireless connection to get online, then try switching to an Ethernet cable, if possible – it could make all the difference.

10

Based in these two statements I would first look at that drive.

11

Update: In 2 of my Cubase 5.5.3 song projects, removing Uhe Diva VST synth (after rendering it as a stereo audio track), got rid of the ASIO spike problem.

12

Update: My Drive “D” = Audio recording files has been switched to a Samsung 860 PRO 1 TB solid state drive, which does help the computer run faster, BUT did not solve the ASIO “spike” problem. So far in 2 song projects the solution to the ASIO “spike” problem was to remove the Uhe Diva VST Synth. I solo the Diva Synth and render it as a stereo audio WAV file track within the song project. I keep the MIDI track intact, but remove the Diva Synth Plugin and the ASIO “spike” problem went away (in those 2 song projects).

On another newer computer with Cubase PRO 9, Intel i7 CPU, ASUS x99 Deluxe ii motherboard, and 64-GB of Kingston Hyper-X RAM at 1333 Mhz speed, there is also an ASIO “spike” problem when Uhe Diva synth is running. Again in this case I solo the Diva VST synth track and render it as a stereo audio track within Cubase, and while keeping the MIDI track I remove the actual Diva VST Synth plugin and the ASIO “spike” problem stops. - (this may not be the solution in every song project - but it’s worked for 3 song projects so far). I also just found out there is a “multicore button” on the Diva VST synth, which was “OFF” (in my case), but I have not yet tested to see if turning that button “ON” will make a difference.