My Cubase 14 pro freezes randomly every session. There is no obvious cause or set of circumstances that lead up to this. I’m only using a few tracks and plugins yet have 64g ram on my windows 11 PC. I contacted waves, who helped me update all my video, audio and midi drivers, and then after examining two dump files after a freeze, declared it was nothing to do with their plugins. They suggested I sent the dump files to Steinberg support. I have tried to do this, but their upload page in the Support |Request page times out before the dump file is uploaded. I have Initiated two support requests, but have heard nothing from them fo almost 2 weeks now. I am severely frustrated, especially since I reacently paid for an upgrade to v14.
Are Steinber support staff always this slow and uncommunicative. I think it is a discrace- once they’ve got your money, then just ignore you.
Hi,
sorry to hear that you’ve got trouble.
You can upload your crashfiles here in this forum so we can have a look at it.
Have you by any chance an NVIDIA graphic card? In this case, make sure that you use the Studio Driver.
There’s also the possibility to contact telephone support which is always a great alternative.
I’m in the same boat sadly. Cubase 14 is completely unusable for me on my Mac Studio due to weird audio issues and constant crashes. I posted the other day that support is very difficult to reach. I found a support email and submitted a ticket, but am not hopeful for any type of response.
I’ve been a Cubase user for six years, paid for every update and now I have a completely unusable product and feel completely abandoned by the company. Very disappointing and frustrating. I’ve given up aside from hoping to see others experiencing the same issue I am and maybe, finally getting some attention from support.
Yes thank you. I have the latest NVIDIA studio driver.
I have tried uploading my dump files, but they are too large, there are around 2.5 - 3.5 GB. They were created using Task Manager at the Waves technician’s advice.
I have just found some smaller ‘Freezedumps’, presumably generated by cubase, here are a few of them…
Cubase 14.0.20 64bit 2025.5.8 12.28.55.522-freezedump.dmp (846.8 KB)
Cubase 14.0.20 64bit 2025.5.15 18.09.07.360-freezedump.dmp (1.6 MB)
Cubase 14.0.20 64bit 2025.5.15 19.32.52.040-freezedump.dmp (1.5 MB)
Cubase 14.0.20 64bit 2025.5.16 17.16.51.258-freezedump.dmp (1.5 MB)
Cubase 14.0.20 64bit 2025.5.16 23.31.16.427-freezedump.dmp (1.6 MB)
I sent some of the larger Task Manager generated files to Waves, in case it was a problem with their plugins. They had helped me previously in loading all the latest drivers to my system. But after examining the large crashdump files, they got back to me and told me that the freezes had nothing to do with their plugins, but would say no more other than to upload the dumps to Steinberg. The Waves people were very quick in responding and very helpful in sorting out my drivers and redistributables and getting them all up to date.
They are mostly just indicating Cubase crashing as far as I can see but one is referencing wdmaudio.
What audio driver do you use?
I use the Steinberg ur824 interface (which has had the software updated) with the latest yamaha usb driver.
The dump files seem to show that the MIDI output driver is hanging when sending MIDI data. Normally the sending of midi data should be very fast, but there’s something preventing the data from being sent. This means that one thread blocks all the others and Cubase hangs.
I’d suggest disconnecting all MIDI interfaces and enable them one at a time to see which one is causing the problem. If you’re using USB devices, try using a different USB port. In the Studio setup > MIDI Port Setup dialog, try switching between the DirectMusic and WinRT MIDI drivers.
Hi thanks for that tip, I’ll definitely try that. Don’t really know much about midi and mainly use it internally for Instruments and drums. What is DirectMusic and WinRT and how do you switch between them?
Many years ago, probably around the time of Windows 1995, Microsoft created a MIDI API called MME. That API still works – it means software written a long time ago can still run. Then there was a new API called DirectSound (which is now about 25 years old) that was a bit more integrated with DirectX for gaming. It supports MIDI but didn’t really become popular. Now there is a newer API for Windows 10 called WinRT. I think this has better support for device discovery and low latency BlueTooth devices.
As a user, you shouldn’t need to worry about it – any of them should work, but the WinRT has more modern features. However, reality is messy and sometimes you might have a new device that doesn’t work well with the old API, or an old device that doesn’t work with the new API, or some driver on your system that prevents one of them from working.
So I suggest just trying them one at a time until you find something that works well on your system.
Thank you very much Paul for your time and knowledge.
I have a Sub Zero SZ-MB44 4i4o usb midi interface. As you suggested, I disconnected all connections to it, including my vintage Korg Triton, my Helix guitar processor and my Lexicon and TCElectronics hardware FX units. I also clicked the ‘DirectMusic’ switch in the midi setup as neither were on.
I then ran cubase for hours without a problem. I just thought that I had got somewhere, when Cubase froze again. So I unplugged the midi interface from the computer by pulling the plug, and cubase instantly started working normally again. Which I guess proves your point, but by then it was very late, so didn’t manage to test further.
I’m not so worried about connecting up the FX units or the Helix, but I sometimes use the Triton as a masterkeyboard. Is there a way of completely wiping the midi setup in cubase and starting again, as there seems to be loads of, maybe, virtual? midi ports, when I was trying to use an old Novation for accessing Quick Controls?
Once again thanks so much this has been going on for so long and I’d been getting rather depressed about it all.
Simon.
I think if you untick the ‘Visible’ column then those interfaces aren’t used.
These devices are using the Windows MIDI driver, so try turning on the WinRT MIDI option and see if you get a different set of devices.
If you have virtual MIDI devices that you aren’t using then the drivers are still there and they can still cause problems even if applications aren’t using them. You’ll need to remove them from the Windows Device Manager. Or check if there are updates available.