In Cubase 14.0.41 ( and even in 14 ) on Mac OS 15.4, I experience audio dropouts during recording when I sing a little too loudly as if I have a noise gate in the track, but without noise gate… regardless of the frequency, buffer size, or sound card… I didn’t have this problem before… how can I fix it?
what kinda dropouts? I associate dropouts with asio problems, a computer which cannot handle realtime operations.
but from you explanation you give I would assume you are talking about your signal is clipping so much that is cuts. maybe just turn down the input? could it be that simple?
The problem is that I’ve lowered the input level to -12 dB, and it cuts out abruptly when I sing a little loudly… very strange… regardless of the microphone or audio interface…
So those are not what we usually refer to as dropouts when the computer cannot handle the processing load anymore, but “silence” or a gap that gets inserted when you sing too loudly.
Is this present in the recorded file or is it just on playback?
If only on playback, do you use control room and maybe have one of those safety limiters on there that shut down when the signal exceeds 0dbFS?
If the gap is present in the recorded file, have you tried recording in another application to see if it is related to Cubase at all?
Yes, it’s a silence that only occurs in Cubase when I sing too loudly. I tried it with QuickTime, and it doesn’t happen… I don’t use Cubase’s voice monitoring when I sing. This phenomenon is in the recorded file. There’s no gate or limiter.
Just to exclude every possibility, have you made sure that there is nothing on your inout channels?
yes, I’m sure. Deleted all, and even started with an emply file.
I just have deleted a lot of file to free hard disk space. Tomorow I will try with another Audio interface and maybe with the C15 trial.
I am fairly sure that the C15 trial won’t help, as I am also sure that this isn’t a specific C14 problem.
You can of course always try starting Cubase in safe mode with preferences temporarily disabled and see if that helps.
Good suggestion, thank you very much. I’ll try and let you know.
Hello, I tried again today… in fact it’s not the loudness, but the frequency range…. when I sing in low ranges it’s ok, but when it’s in high frequence ranges the sound cuts…
I am sorry, but that doesn’t really make sense…. There is nothing in Cubase that would do that by itself. Even with plugins, that would be a strange behavior, unless it were a frequency dependent gate?
But I don’t think we canreally help you anyway unless you provide way more information, maybe some screenshots of the project with the audio clip to show what you mean, or maybe even upload a zip of a simple project with one track an one recording where your issue happens.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1r2iOPQwFGqGyzJiIRQpfoaZZ2VFqYKc4/view?usp=sharing. I agree with you, that doesn’t really make sense. You can find here a little video…there is nothing else in cubase than my voice.. no plug-ins… Very Strange… here is the Cubase file also… thanks for your help Cubase - Google Drive
that might be the weirdest thing I have seen in Cubase. Most certainly something that do not happen here. I cant even think why this would happen inside cubase and work in Quicktime. most certainly it is something inside Cubase when that is the case, like you say one can clearly see it cuts on higher frequencies and not lower.
Yep, that is really completely bonkers… it’s not that the signal suddenly drops out, it properly fades out. Well, nearly, there is some kind of weird distortion in the fade out.
I cannot begin to imagine how that could be an problem inside Cubase, though. I mean, a fade out based on some frequency? Cubase (or whatever else) would have to do a detection of the fundamental note first, like a tuner.
I am wondering if that is not a red herring… Did you record the exact same phrase into Quicktime?
The note in your file is a “b3”. Is that the pitch where the effect always happens? Say if you sing the f major scale from “f3” upwards, with all the notes sung the same way and length, is the “b3” always the point where the issue happens?
If possible, can repeat the same test with something else you can record, maybe an instrument?
Or maybe a better setup would be using a sine sweep (a sine wave that rises in pitch from 20-20Khz). This is often used for testing audio, as it removes a lot of variables from testing and is a consistent, precisely reproducible test.
- use Sweep Tone Generator Online Free Web App Tool, Download Sounds in WAV to generate a sine sweep (20-1000Hz for 30 seconds should be ok), download that.
- import that file into an empty project. set the output routing of that track to a free line output of your audio interface (if you have none, unplug your monitors and use one of those.
- plug a cable from that line out to a line input in of your interface.
- create a new track in the project with the input set to that line in, set the track to record enable
- hit record. the sine sweep should go to the line out back to the ine in and be recorded on that new track
If you have another computer or smartphone/tablet which you can connect to the line input of your interface, you can also use that and play the sweep directly from the web site.
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Hello, yes, I tried with QuickTime and the C15 Elements trial, and it worked fine. I deleted C14 and downloaded it again, and now there’s a problem… it’s the higher frequencies that are affected. I’m going to try deleting everything related to C14 and downloading it again… otherwise, I’ll buy C15. I have no instrument to record for instance. I will try sweep tone generator later if the problem is still here.
I am having the same issue, Quick notes doesn’t cut out, Long Notes at High Frequency It keeps on recording but it kills the signal when I sing to high.. It’s so weird. We have gone through 3 different sound cards, changed buffer and all that and nothing is working. We own a huge production company and we still can’t figure this out.