Distorted clipping which shouldn't be there - Cubase 9

Hi,
I’m on Cubase 9.0.40 (Windows 10, Audient iD4, newest drivers) and have been experiencing annoying audio distortion issues for a while that I haven’t had before. I don’t have them in every session, but when I do, they occur everytime the stereo out audio signal goes near or over 0db (the distortion of the signal already starts before it goes into the red). It also happens when there’s a limiter on the master bus. The distortion sounds unpleasant and horrible, like when your buffer size is too low and your CPU usage is maxed out - definitely not the regular digital distortion you get when the master bus is too loud.

It HAS to be a Cubase issue, 'cause it’s neither my monitors nor my PC or interface. I tried different monitors and the same problem occurs, and I also recreated the scenario in Reaper and it didn’t distort like it did in Cubase - Reapers clipping sounded just like you’d “expect”, and how I knew it from Cubase before I had the problem.

Any help?

Hi,

To me it sound like an Audio signal feedback.

Hello.

I’m experiencing the same problem with Cubase 9. When I try to use limiter on a track I always get “crackling” when limiter kicks in. I tried to reproduce the problem with consistent test tone. The result was “clear” distortion of the tone. Signal was not clipping at all and CPU ussage was low too.