Cubase 6 keeps crashing. HELP

Hi you all,

I’m new in here, and would very much appreciate your help.

I’ve recently set up Cubase 6 on my iMac (i7, 4 GB RAM, OSX 10.6.4) to edit and mix a big orchestra project.

The project has 96 channels of Audio, 48kHz, 24 bit and contains 3 concerts of about 90 minutes each, where the file length is the whole concerts = 96 tracks of 90 minutes x 3.

My problem is that Cubase keeps having “hard” crashes on me. The program doesn’t freeze (although that happens quite a lot too, but subsequently it gets ok…) but it simply closes down, followed by an apple notice thereof.

Has anyone experienced a similar problem? I’ve heard something about Cubase running more stable on PCs. Any comments on this?

I’m running the audio files from an external 2,5" harddrive, USB 2.0. Can the reason be the speed/slowness of the drive?

Anything I can do to make the program perform better, deal better with the file sizes etc?

Best from Copenhagen,

Helgi Jonsson

96 channels of audio, are these in stereo? Then it would double your channel count!

I wouldn’t do this with USB2 disks, because 96 channels of audio would need a sustained transfer rate of minimal 15MB/sec (44.1Khz-16bit). I gues in your case it will be more then 20 MB/sec. Most usb2 drives can handle high burst transfers of 40MB/sec, but sustained transfers I only see a maximal 20MB on my own drives, I’m using a 7200 rpm 3.5 inch diskdrive with 32MB onboard cache, I suspect that this is the firs thing to check.

Can you transfer the project to your internal disk?

If you’re trying to do this at home then with that many tracks it’s likely way over ambitious.
2.5 inch drive at 5400rpm? Laptop? Audio tracks may be ok. Midi + sample libraries I’d say very risky.
My guess is that if you have to ask about these things then you’re not running a pro setup. You’d know.

My advice is rein in your track count and cut your concerts down to bite-size and join them up later for a mixdown.
Questions for yourself: Do you need that many tracks? Do the Projects have to be that long as you build them towards end-production?

Underpowered home setups and large Projects must have more forward preparation and planning taking all the resources at hand into account. And, if not working to movies, I’d put that 48 down to 44.1 / 24 bit.

Now please don’t tell us you’re on a deadline. :mrgreen:

I Rather would seek some help externally, When you cut up your project I would do it in Cubase itself (since it will not load), so find somebody who has a big system and try to load it there and cut it up into smaller projects.

By the way have you tried your internal disk, if it is only audio what your projects contains then it would make a difference so that you could succeed in loading it succesfully in C6, Strange that you did manage to record it all, can you shed some light how you came to have 96 tracks?

Hi guys,

thank you for your swift replies and thoughts.

I have now solved the problem by getting one of those Glyph drives (hardware RAID); runs like a charm now.

I’m only using the iMac setup to edit this project this summer, while away from my Studio in Iceland where I’m running a robust PC setup. The recordings are from concerts we did in June with the Danish Radio Chamber Orchestra and, no way around the high track-count. I also want to keep the whole album in one mixing project, as it seems to make sense to me musically. Reason for 48 kHz = film :slight_smile: Deadline, yes, but all in good time. :slight_smile:

Best from Copenhagen,

Helgi