Hello, I’ve been using Cubase 8.5 for months with no problems. All of a sudden, it started playing erratically, video player jumping over frames and showing black, no sound coming out, and then crashing the whole Mac Pro (El Capitan). I assumed this had to do with JBridgeM, as the auxillary hosts for the 32 bit VST bridge had often crashed. I updated to Cubase 9, as I hoped the VST Sentinel would solve this problem. It worked fine for about 20 minutes, and then the same problems started. When I start a new project, and stick to 64 bit, it seems okay, but I’m in the middle of a big film music project, and I need to finish the many projects I’d already started which had 32 bit bridged VSTs in them. Cubase crashes before I can even get into a project and remove the 32 bit VSTs. How can I salvage all of these projects so I can keep working on them?
Thankful for any advise, as the deadline is approaching…
I updated to Cubase 9, as I hoped the VST Sentinel would solve this problem.
Well if you let it do it’s job it would have blacklisted all your 32bit plugins and so fixed the problem
Have you got latest version Jbridge? I think he may have updated something specifically for C9…but if the problem existed in 8.5 this seems unlikely to be the root of the problem.
Might also be worth trying a safe start in case it’s a corrupted preference
If all else fails you could hide/rename your plugin folders to at least get the projects open (assuming a plugin is the cause)
If you have the time/patience you could then add a few plugs back to the correct locations and restart Cubase - Rinse and repeat until you find the rogue plug.
After much toil, the workaround I’ve found for the moment is to copy the old VST folder (all but VST 3) on the desktop, then hide it. I could start and run the older projects then in Cubase 9, but first have to erase all the VST instrument patches and build new ones. Pretty tedious work, but worth it to save the projects. Finding all those old sounds again is the hard part. Cubase certainly layed an egg when they decided to stop all support for 32 bit plugins, but it’s good for new sales to boost the industry I guess :-/ …built-in obsolescence.
What I would do is J Bridge all the 32 bit plugins if you have not already done so. Make sure that the 32 bit files/dlls are in a folder that is not on a Cubase 8.5 or 9 path but that the bridged dll’s are. I would open an 8.5 project without playing the project and replace all the 32 bit instruments with the JBridged versions with the correct presets. Save under a new name and then open in C9. As long as Cubase 9 cannot see a 32 bit plugin and only the 64 bit bridged version it should be fine.
Well…To be fair Steinberg are not the first DAW to do it & plugin manufacturers and no doubt Windows itself will probably go the same way eventually. You could equally say that your plugin manufacturers are to blame for this obsolescence by not updating their plugs to 64bit.
Didn’t you say you were already Jbridging these plugs in C8.5 anyway…so 32bit support is kind of a moot point in relation to this issue.
Just a thought…Have you considered installing 32bit Cubase 8.5 to try and salvage anything…Saved presets in 32bit Cubase should open in 64bit shouldn’t they?
Memory limit could be your problem with this I suppose.
This has proven to be the best way. I think the problem is that Cubase 8.5 & 9 loaded some of the old 32 bit unbridged effects, even though the bridged versions were available (I always took them from the JBrridge folder in the effects menu). When I hid those old effects out of the VST folder, I could start Cubase 8.5, and they were just absent. Then I could at least work in the project again, delete the old effects, and then open it in Cubase 9, and add the newer or bridged versions. Strangely, the Sentinel didn’t do it’s job in Cubase 9, it loaded the old effects, which just immediately crashed the program. But I’m happily saving all the projects now, so thanks for the good advice, people.
Might be useful to report which effects you think it was (if you know) that were causing the issue…for other users and indeed for Steinberg too if the Sentinel is somehow missing them. Thanks.
The offending Plug-Ins seem to be FET Compressor and Mutronics Mutron (from Softube) and Pure Limiter (from flux). I’ve since downloaded 64 bit versions of these, and they work fine, but Cubase still loaded the unbridged versions. Once I deleted them from the projects, they were fine. Also having some problems with Amplitude, which works in 8.5 but seems to crash 9, still working on that.
After going through the older projects and weeding out all the dubious VSTs, I’m still having strange problems and crashes. Working on a Mac Pro that’s only a year old, with 32 GB RAM and plenty of buffer. What’s shocking is that when Cubase 9 crashes, it crashes the whole computer, nothing on the Finder level works. For example, I’ve even created a new project to work in. I imported a video track with it’s audio. I can add the video to a video track, but when I pull the totally normal 48Hz audio onto an audio track…spinning color wheel, nothing works, computer crashes. I’m feeling really let down by Steinberg, as I’ve written support about these problems over a week ago, and still no reply. Support was always shaky with Steinberg, but this is really a new low.
It appears to still be the problem with auxiliary host crashing the bridged VSTs. I thought Cubase 9 Sentinel should isolate the dodgy ones, but it lets me load them from the bridged folder, and then crashes anyway. But then I can’t figure out if that’s the auxiliary host crashing the whole computer or Cubase. Crickets from Steinberg support.
