I have the same issue with cubase 8.5 on windows 8 with a decent 8GB RAM PC.
It didn’t happen before, so I’m pretty sure it started with on of the latest updates.
Is Steinberg really looking at it ???
My system is basically not usable as of now, it drops or stops during recording !! with only one (!) instrument (driven by a midi keyboard) with the default config and one vocal audio (default settings as well).
Is Cubase really a professional software ??
Looking at this thread, I see many cases with very powerful HW getting the same issue, even with v9…
I am now seriously thinking of giving up Cubase for a competitor.
There has evidently been a conflict with Cubase, VEP and Kontakt for some time. They all deny it’s their problem and blame eachother. Im getting sick of this. Can’t get anything done, one week everything can run smoothly the next Cubase#s meters are going nuts. It’s almost like Cubase forgets to release CPU that’s not being used anymore. There are big problems with ASIO Guard. STILL… One of these three programmes causes serious problems and it needs to be resolved.
One thing i’ve noticed - i switch between templates alot for different purposes. I have a mixing template that requires alot of Plugins where i have to up the buffer count and use High ASIO Guard. I also have an orchestral template which has barely any Plugins running in cubase but VEP is connected with all the Kontkt Libraries. In that template i lower the buffer on the Mixcontrol to reduce latency and use a Normal ASIO Guard setting.
The very act of changing the ASIO Guard setting between one project and another (which changes it globally for the other projects) screws my projects up that were previously working pretty smoothly. CPU levels don’t go down. If i bypass all effects it still says CPU is at 50pc. Whereas in Task Manager i am barely using any CPU.
I havent had problems with drop outs and spikes, in a loong time.
I do scoring and a lot of heavy mix prossesing.
A few tips from me on windows setups.
Get the hardware sorted.
You dont want your sound interface on same bus with other components (wifi and graphic is the whorst). So check your irq/lanes.
You dont want your cpu or any of your usb ports too use powersaving scedules. So turn them all off and run at full power.
Is your sound interface supported by the onboard chipset?
Using dsp cards? They need same care as your sound interface.
Is your bios and drivers up to date with your windows?
Asio guard and hyper threading.
The asio guard is made to support hyper threading. HT slows down the cpu respons. So the asio guard is there to give the cpu some extra buffer, to get up to speed. The HT/asio guard combo will improve preformance when you start to use bigger cpu loads. It is not so good with low cpu loads, low latency direct monitoring or any real time audio with low buffer settings. Simply to the fact, that HT slows down the cpu acceleration. So I take HT off at tracking, and Turn it on at Mixing if cpu load is heavy.
Multicore support.
This is where Cubase have issues IMO. When you enable for multicore support in Cubase. It only works partualy.
Every plugin that I have with a multicore option in settings, dont seam too be handled by Cubase multicore setting. This is probly due to the fact the plugins dont take use of the multicore setting in Cubase.
So I enable it direct on the plugin. Dosent matter if it is a steinberg plugin or 3 party. But enabeling the multicore support from the plugin, drasticly improves preformance. So check your plugins and try multicore support direct from plugin.
Dont use more Cpu then you need.
When ever you arm a vst instrument. It will start monitor for a input and task the cpu extra.
So on a heavy project where you are mixing and just doing simple mouse corrections to midi and such.
Make shure to take off the arm track at select track option. It has bin the source for many crackle and pops.
If you are not tracking, The real time meter should be way lower then the cpu usage meter. If it is not. You are arming a track. Also there is litle point having a low buffer setting, when you are not tracking. So adjust it as you need it. Streaming samples direct from disk, will also task the cpu. But not that much. It migh smooth out a heavy project loading more samples to ram. I never hit that limit my self. But it can happend.
Dont enable more use of your sound interface then needed.
You dont need to use your wdm driver in windows, when you use Cubase. You also dont need to have the asio driver running in the back ground, un less you are using a stand alone program that needs the asio driver. Keep it as simple as possible.
So these are my few main tips.
When ever I help out a fellow engineer/musician with unstable real time preformance. It is usualy these things that are fault for the bad preformance. Rest is just software bugs, wrong settings/use of functions.
I just discovered this myself while trying to reduce real-time peak spikes. Whenever I highlight an Instrument track with record enabled, I get fairly severe real-time peak spikes. If I simply switch to an audio track (with record enabled or disabled), or disable record on the Instrument track, the real-time peak meter drops to almost zero! So, I unticked the “Enable Record on Selected MIDI Track” setting and now only enable record on Instrument tracks when I need to.
Thanks for posting all this info; it’s useful to know that this is not a problem specific to my system, but rather a problem with Cubase. Cheers…
I had this problem and it drove me crazy for a few months. I’m on 8.5 Win 64. What worked for me was:
Going into device settings and activating Steinberg audio power scheme SAPS.
Going into my Windows power settings and making sure that the SAPS was enabled when Cubase was opened. It should automatically revert back to whatever setup it was on before opening Cubase.
The weird thing for me was that originally, if I’d enabled the SAPS, I’d get the spikes. At some point it all reverted to normal and this is how I now have it set up.
Has this been fixed as have had this issue for years with 8.5 Pro and now it’s in 10 when arming midi. Seriously need this fixed or have a work around without being told to turn the buffer size up!
