Cubase LE AI Elements 12: sound issues and sound driver issues

Cubase
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1

Hello,

I’m entirely new to Cubase, I only just purchased it yesterday, and I have little to no knowledge about sound drivers and Cubase.

When I start Cubase and open a new project, I experience the following issues:

  1. As soon as it’s open, I cannot play any other audio on my PC. If I play audio on the internet or directly in a media player, I hear absolutely nothing anymore. Closing Cubase usually makes the sound come back, and one time I had to open another audio volume app, before the sound came back again. How to I avoid that?

  2. I cannot set up my audio connections properly.
    When I open the audio connection settings (for example by clicking on the Audio Input, or Audio Output label, then I can set the Audio Output:
    I selected the “Generic Low Latency ASIO Driver” (only available option), and the Device Port “Lautsprecher (Realtek (R) Aud 1” appeared, so I assume it worked?
    I’m not sure, since all my other sounds are blocked, and I wasn’t able to produce any sounds in Cubase yet.

However, when I try to set the Audio Input:
When selecting the same “Generic Low Latency ASIO Driver”, absolutely nothing happens. So I have no audio input and cannot record anything.

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How can I fix all those bugs?
I did not find any comprehensive and good tutorials and any information on the topic.

2

What audio interface are you using? You need to make sure that’s selected rather than using the generic low latency driver. Go to your interface manufacturers website and download the latest drivers. if you have issues with the latest drivers try older ones. To locate drivers, open google and search “make and model name drivers” and go to the official website & follow the instructions.

in windows

Also make sure you have the correct audio output set in windows.

you can do this easily by pressing the windows key, click settings on the left pane or search “settings”. Once the settings windows appears click “system”, and then “sound” which is located on the left pane. Change the Output to you audio interface. Then scroll down a little and select “manage sound devices”. This will open another window showing all sound devices. click on, and disable all that you aren’t using.

In Cubase
(at the top) Go to Studio> Studio Setup>ASIO driver – then select your ASIO audio interface

Within the same Studio setup menu, you can enable “release driver when application is in the background” - personally i never have to do this because i can always play sounds from other programs when cubase is open, which im assuming is because i have my audio interface set as the ASIO driver in cubase.

If you dont have a dedicated audio interface, try updating the Generic low latency driver. you can do this by pressings the windows key and typing “Device Manager”. then click “sound, video …” & right click driver and go to update or uninstall – for ones youre not using
you can also disable onboard audio in bios but if youre not advanced with computers dont bother

1 Like
3

Hello Qbaked,

I do not currently use an audio interface. I intended to compose and play around on Cubase using my computer keyboard, as I have done with other music software, and maybe at some point use a small midi keyboard. I don’t have the intention to get an audio interface.

When I go into the Windows audio settings and deactivate unused audio outputs and inputs, I get an error saying “Audio renderer error. Please restart your computer”, when playing for example a youtube video. So that does not seem to work and I undid that.

When I go into “Go to Studio> Studio Setup>Audio system”, the only available ASIO driver that I can select is "Generic Low Latency ASIO Driver” and “No Driver”, so nothing I can change here.

When ticking “release driver when application is in background”, I can play other sources again! So that worked, thank you.

But all the rest is still not working at all.
It also doesn’t let me import virtual instruments…

Also I use Windows 11 btw.

4

Sounds similar to an issues I’ve had previously.

There’s a few things you can try because you’re not using an external audio interface.

( I’m on windows 10 so this flight be slightly different for you)

Firstly, Make sure your windows 11 is up to date, and check the additional content tab.

Windows key > search “settings” > update and security>check for updates. (It’s possible that you will receive an option along the line of “additional updates”, have a look in there because these updates are usually for sound , & video drivers etc & aren’t automatically installed. I had to do this recently.

If that doesn’t work, you can find the make of your motherboard by doing the following:

Windows key+R (this will open run.exe) > type “msinfo32”, press okay — this will show you your system information. Within the “system summery” look for “baseboard manufacturer” & “baseboard product”. This will help you identify your motherboard manufacturer and thus enabling you up to search their website for updates (maybe even audio updates)

Secondly, after you’ve done that Go back into the sound menu, the click on device properties under the output section.

You should see a few tabs (general, level, enhancements… etc)

Go to the enhancements tab and tick “disable all”

There are also “exclusive mode” options, disable “allow applications to take exclusive control of this device” — beware though, I think this might cause some issues with cubase. But it’ll allow multiple applications to use your audio driver at the same time. At which point you wouldn’t need to enable “release audio driver when in background” within cubase, because doing so stop you from before able to hear anything from cubase unless it’s in focus.

Then go to the advanced tab. Set the default format to what ever you’re working with in cubase (for example 24bit, 44100hz) — you can change your cubase project settings

If all of that fails, buy a used audio interface. Windows does let you use more than out sound device at once, so you can route audio from programs through different devices & channels.

Also you could try downloading ASIO4ALL which is an audio driver and see if that works better and the generic ASIO . https://www.asio4all.org/

5

This is all incredibly difficult and time consuming and clumsy.
I do not have time for that.

What is the best way to return the product?

6

Id recommend sticking with Cubase, its the most powerful DAW by far. You’ve only just purchased it and want to quit at the first hurdle :grinning: there are many solutions to your problem

Id recommend buying an audio interface & i assure you you’ll have no issues. using onboard sound cards isn’t the recommended & most of them are plug+play so u dont need additional drivers for some. I know you said you dont intend on doing so, but its an essential piece of equipment & youre putting yourself at a disadvantage by not using one.

You’ll be buying equipment you can use for the future. so see it as an investment towards your music career. You’ll be expanding

7

No, this is just badly described or marketed by Steinberg.
It was not presented that it would be so complicated to even start using the software.

I don’t mind hurdles, but this is too time consuming, also there’s no guarantee it’ll work with an audio interface. This is not the right moment for it.

Steinberg should do a better job, if they cared about their customers.
I assume I’m just not the type of clientele they’re looking for.

I just hope they’ll be fair enough to reimburse me.

8

It is not complicated but you need to learn some basics, don’t expect the software to do everything for you.
Also, you need an audio interface.

9

I only expect the software to run normally, not to learn in my place lol.
Okay, I see, I also read somewhere else that Cubase requires an audio interface to run VST instruments.
Complicated, oof. Other DAWs don’t necessarily require that.