Hello. After using Cubase 6 for a while, I’ve begun to make my songs more complex, and as a result I’m experiencing a couple problems in Cubase. Before I begin- I use a macbook pro with an intel core i7 2.66 ghz processor with 4 GB of RAM and a 5400 rpm hard drive. Cubase 6 is set to 64-bit mode by default. I would think that would be enough but apparently not:
1> A lot of times once my song reaches a certain level of complexity, the rainbow pinwheel of death appears randomly after dragging a midi note, and always after saving. Sometimes this is accompanied by crashes, but thankfully it usually just freezes for a short 5 seconds.
2> Sometimes all sound drops out and makes a sound loud enough to upset the clipping meter.
3> Sometimes notes are not played at all- Oddly enough it helps to use extra states of the same VSTi and distribute instruments between multiple states…but usually I have to do this after using 7 HALion Sonic SE outputs. (Out of the 16)
Of course the number of notes all depends on system specifications, but are my specs really not good enough? I was unlucky enough to get this laptop before the better new model came out, but it certainly was expensive… I will be getting an imac in the future to replace my laptop as my primary music composition machine, but I can’t do that too soon. Also what horrifies me most with this problem is that I am only using HALion Sonic SE…and I want to be able to utilize Native Instrument VSTi such as Kontakt, Battery 3, and Studio Drummer.
As a final note: I am still using Cubase 6.00 and haven’t updated to the latest version…to be honest I fear MORE problems are to be found in updates, so don’t bother unless everything seems fine. I haven’t confirmed that… In short, I need to know if the problems I am experienced are caused by bugs that have already been fixed in updates, or if they are caused by something else. I’m looking forward to responses.
In any case, so long as you rename your Cubase 6 app (e.g. to “Cubase 6.0.app”), then you can still install the latest update, and still keep your v6.0.0. So you can at least find out if the update solved your problems.
(You might also want to make a backup of your current Cubase 6 Preferences folder)
Thanks that’s not very risky, but I was hoping someone had the same problems as I did…It seems to get worse and worse. Another symptom: Audio extracted from a video gets more distorted the more I add to the song. This might apply to all non-midi audio, That would be disastrous! I hope someone has some idea about what is going on.
Yes the problems are still in 32-bit. I will try to find it myself, but where exactly is the buffer setting that you are referring to?
There isn’t a 6.02 download on the Steinberg site either- only 6.03 and I’m not sure about THAT version.
EDIT:, I can’t seem to find any specific buffer setting…hmm Can you tell me where it is?
I’m using my built in soundcard by the way…probably is the underlying cause of all of this but I can’t do much about it. Maybe I need some unknown BETTER driver?
EDIT: I found the buffer size changer and set it the way you recommended, but nothing changed…odd.
It’s the CPU. When Cubase is idle it already uses 60% of my dual core i7 processor. (out of 200%) The pops and clicks are apparently caused by the CPUs struggle not to overload. The point in my latest project where there are the most notes playing at once causes the CPU to spike to a huge 180% and sometimes higher. This is the cause of the audio dropout and simultaneous clipping. Raising the buffer actually DOES help, but there’s more latency. I shouldn’t have to deal with that.
So, unfortunately I underestimated the requirements of Cubase and got an expensive un-upgradable laptop from Apple. Genius! Even worse, two months after I purchased it a newer model came out with a quad core, which probably could have easily handled Cubase… at least in comparison with how easily MY laptop handles Cubase. What a complete waste of money! It looks like I will have to either get a high performance iMac, or abandon Apple entirely in favor of a custom built PC. I wish I didn’t have to deal with this nightmare…
I’ll probably upgrade to Cubase 6.0.3 later today or tomorrow, but it won’t fix the problem.
I’m hoping that someone with the same computer might know what to do. Several people are telling me that what I’m experiencing on my type of machine isn’t very normal. Maybe they’re wrong, but perhaps not.
Your problem might that you use the internal sound card. You could take your computer to some music store where they will let you demo a USB audio interface.
You should of cause run the latest version of Cubase.
I am not sure how big and complex your projects are, but heavy use of ex. NI VI´s will of cause put quite a bit of strain on your CPU.