Cubasis 3 for Android Performance Issues - Please Read This First!

Cubasis
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Dear all,

We are very glad that the Cubasis team has managed to fulfil a long-term user request, to release Cubasis for Android smartphones and tablets.

Please note that the overall performance of Cubasis depends on various factors, such as the processor, disk speed, available disk space and RAM of your device in use, as well as the engine buffering setting, and the number of tracks, instruments and effects used in your project.

A few observations:

  • Older devices obviously reach their limits substantially sooner than current generation models
  • CPU-demanding instruments and/or effects significantly increase the system load and decrease the responsiveness
  • Running multiple apps in parallel can increase the system load drastically
  • Low values for Engine Buffering (located under Setup/Audio) can aggravate the problem, while higher values can help to reduce the system load (but increase the latency).

Important:
If you encounter problems, we recommend to open the “System Info” (last tab in the inspector), and start the project playback.
Here, if you encounter DSP spikes, read on to learn how to easily get around these issues.

Cubasis offers many options and possibilities to avoid performance problems:

  • Choose a higher Engine Buffering value in the setup
  • Update your device to the latest Android OS. For example, Android 10 might solve issues that exist on a device running Android 9.
  • Close all apps by swiping them away in the app switcher
  • Reboot your Android smartphone or tablet from time to time
  • Try using Cubasis while charging your device. Some devices decrease CPU speed to save battery power when they are not connected to a charger.
  • Use Track Freeze to render CPU/DSP demanding instrument and/or effect plug-in tracks into audio tracks
  • Where possible, insert effect plug-ins as send effects, to use a single plug-in for multiple tracks
  • Reduce the number of instruments and/or effect plug-ins used in the project
  • When using Micrologue, reduce its polyphony
  • Try to switch Studio Quality (under Setup / Audio) on (and maybe off again), this resets the audio engine and can lead to better performance on some devices.
  • If you experience stuttering while scrolling in the arranger, enable Low Waveform Quality under Setup / Arranger.
  • Make sure there are several GB (ideally more than 20%) of free disk space available. Disk performance is reduced if the disk space is close to full
  • Find a good balance of instruments and sounds that does not stress the CPU too much

We hope these steps are helpful to keep the performance of your Android device powerful, while putting your focus on making great music with Cubasis!

Best wishes,
Lars

1 Like
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hi,
nize to see cubasis on android.
regarding performance, i have a snapdragon 865 with 12gb ram in my oneplus8 pro. so performance shoulnd be a problem.
but i have no headjack!
and i dont think bluetooth will work good.
so how is the support for usb audio ??

will my ur242 work ?
will standart usb-c headphone adapter work?

how is the latency? will im able to play virtual synth from my midi keyboard?

so. will there be a trial version to test before spend 55euro ??

have fun
inteks

3

Hi inteks,

Thank you for your message.

will my ur242 work ?
will standart usb-c headphone adapter work?

Cubasis for Android offers limited audio and MIDI hardware support only, Steinberg does not currently guarantee full compatibility.

how is the latency? will im able to play virtual synth from my midi keyboard?

With current smartphone and tablet devices we’ve made good experiences, regarding real-time triggering the internal instruments, supporting low latency.

so. will there be a trial version to test before spend 55euro ??

For now, we do not offer a trial version, but are considering the options to release Cubasis LE for Android at a later date.
Such version would enable our users to test drive the app with a smaller feature set in demo mode.

Hope that helps!

Best,
Lars

4

i read this many times! limited audio support!

BUT the ur242 is a steinberg device. isnt it possible that steinberg test at least it own devices??

i cant test myself because there’s not test version of cubasis!

thx

5

So I’m enjoying the android version. I have cubase pro, cubasis ipad and now android too. Shame there’s no proq or waves but… Baby steps.

I’m allay having a bizarre issue on my Samsung galaxy s10+… Lots of pops and clicks on the internal speaker or wired headphones :

But if I use Bluetooth the audio sounds perfect. No pops and clicks.

And through hdmi on samsung dex audio is also perfect. Very odd!

Keep up the good work though… Nice version 1!

Screenshot_20200617-001135_Gallery.jpg
Screenshot_20200617-001135_Gallery.jpg3040Ă—1440 338 KB

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Hi inteks,

Thank you for your message.

i read this many times! limited audio support!
BUT the ur242 is a steinberg device. isnt it possible that steinberg test at least it own devices??

We are sorry not being able to give you a satisfying answer, regarding your hardware question.
You can give it a try to see if it works with your Android device and Cubasis. If required, there is a chance to ask Google for a refund.

i cant test myself because there’s not test version of cubasis!

As mentioned above, you can give it a try, and ask Google for a refund, if required.
So, no big risk… As of yet, many users seems to be satisfied with the performance of the app on Android, given their ratings and feedback.

In regards to a trial version:
We evaluate the options for a later Cubasis LE for Android app version, which will allow users to test out the app with a smaller feature set in demo mode. Further app releases are to be announced though our regular channels, once becoming available.

Hope that helps!

Best,
Lars

7

Hi Gibbonsderek,

Thank you for your message.

So I’m enjoying the android version. I have cubase pro, cubasis ipad and now android too. Shame there’s no proq or waves but… Baby steps.

We are very glad to read that you enjoy Cubasis for Android. WOW… you seem to have lots of Cubase and Cubasis apps then… :slight_smile:

I’m allay having a bizarre issue on my Samsung galaxy s10+… Lots of pops and clicks on the internal speaker or wired headphones :
But if I use Bluetooth the audio sounds perfect. No pops and clicks. And through hdmi on samsung dex audio is also perfect. Very odd!

Indeed, this sounds strange.
Please have a look at our dedicated Cubasis for Android Performance article, and let me know if this helps to resolve the problem.

Keep up the good work though… Nice version 1!

Indeed, the team did a splendid job here, and we will do our best to keep it up…

Screenshot_20200617-001135_Gallery.jpg

WOW… impressive display and shot… :wink:
Enjoy using Cubase, Cubasis and the other Cubasis… :slight_smile:

Best,
Lars

8

Hi all,

To make sure we do not miss any issues, please create a new topic, instead of posting to regular topics.

Thank you
& stay well,
Lars

9

ok. i bought and tested it.

nize!
no performance issues so far.

but.
on my UR242 i can use LineIn ! and there is no option to select record source (usb mic,device mic …)

i tested with my numacompact2. witch is really good. it use midi-in and audio togeher with synth audio over keyboard audio out. i like it.

what really needed is an option to select record source !!!
meanwhile i use this → https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.nordskog.LesserAudioSwitch

have fun
inteks

10

Hi inteks,

Thank you for your message.

Please check if the following tutorial is of help for you.
While it has been created for Cubasis LE for iOS quite a while ago, the steps are nearly the same: https://youtu.be/j8t48FZSX60?t=107

Does this help to solve the problem?

Best,
Lars

11

i tested this.
and no. this doesn’t work on android.

12

Hi Gibbonsderek,

Thank you for your message.

Our engineering gave the issue a check (fresh Cubasis 3.1.0.20 installation), but cannot reproduce the problem:
Playback of Smear runs fine (around 50% DSP usage) on the Samsung Galaxy S10+ with 20ms engine buffering.

The device is updated to the latest version of Android 10 and has only Avira, Total Commander and a few other DAWs installed.

Do you have further infos to share, which might be related to the problem, or could be helpful in order to reproduce the issue?

Thanks,
Lars

13

Hi Lars, thanks for the E-mail pointing me here.
As far as I can see i’ve run through all the suggestions in the first message of the thread and nothing has helped.
So I have done some fact finding to work out a bit more information that maybe will help you work out what is going on.

I seem to be having the same issues as user Gibbonsderek as i also have an S10+ (5g) so i followed his line of fault finding for more information.

Here is what I have managed to work out.

on a fresh boot of the phone I loaded cubasis and then the demo track. I solo the baseline as its easier to hear whats going on (though any track including midi clicks).

Playing the track gave the occasional click… 1-2 per bar.
So i plugged in my USB headphones to try those… the audio stuttered very briefly but then continued from the speakers!! So no headphone audio.

So I then plugged into my laptop using Samsung dex (I assume you’re familiar, if not its a way to use the phone remotely via a laptop, a sort of docking station). The sound came out lovely through my studio monitors, crisp and clear… set to 20ms however here is where i noticed the first difference.
As I changed the latency down from 20ms I got stuttering/distortion… a totally different sound to what i’ve heard so far and the audio was un-usable… so had to raise it back to 20ms even 16ms was no good.(as expected… 20ms is good)

Next I moved on to my bluetooth speaker…
On this device audio was crisp and clear again! Now comes the strange part!!
Lowering the latency didn’t really do anything… the DSP % went up of course in the meter, but audio continued to be clear and crisp, even if i put the slider fully down to the off position!!

For some reason while playing on bluetooth i decided to plug my USB headphones in again, and to my suprise they indeed took the audio this time, same response as the internal speakers, crackles, and latency setting not really changing much other than a slight increase of crackles when you turn it right down. (the dsp % does raise though, so it is ajusting something)…

I have since typing the above, worked out that to swap to headphones i need to toggle studio quality on and off. but it doesnt change how each sound output behaves once working.

I hope that this is helpful, if you would like me to test any particular scenarios etc please don’t hesistate to ask.

Meanwhile I’ll just keep using cubase on the laptop until a solution can be found as I am home most the time at the moment anyway due to the virus.

Stuart.

14

MIXDOWN ISSUES

Hi I’m using it on a Huawei Nova 2 Lite.

No problems except when it comes to Mixdown.

  • Project won’t rename.
  • Files don’t appear in Mixdown folder unless you restart phone.
  • Then they often don’t even appear after that until you look in the project folder, then come out of the project folder and look in the mixdown folder again.
  • Or sometimes they won’t appear until you do another mixdown, then suddenly several files will appear.
  • Sometimes after restarting phone some of the tracks are duplicated and have shifted along the timeline.
  • If you move the mixdown files to Trash and then empty the trash can, the files are still there in the mixdown folder if you look in Windows, but the Trash can is empty.