I'm desperate. Does anyone know how to read crash reports? Also, a workaround for the crashing on open problem.

I get some (about half and half) existing projects that open sometimes and crash Cubase other times. It’s very hard to get my work with tight deadlines done in time with an unreliable DAW, and I need to find out what might be causing the issue (which didn’t happen prior to 9.5, by the way). These project were loading just fine before, then suddenly make it crash, without any new plugins having been added to Cubase. Very relevant: When I see where the sessions crash when it’s loading and then re-create the instrument/track where it crashed then import the data from another version (after deleting it in a session that I load up but don’t enable, from another session), it’s fine and stops crashing. For a while. Then it sometimes happens again. So it might not a plugin since it works fine some times. I’m just incredibly frustrated right now and have to find out what the issue is so I can continue to do my paid work reliably.

Steinberg Support is pretty much non-existent (have they lost money and have laid off tons of people or something?). So! Does anyone here (a mod?) know how to read a crash report?

I found a temporary workaround, for anyone who is experiencing this problem:

  1. Pay attention when the session is loading so you can see at which track/channel it crashes.
  2. Load up a different session.
  3. Load up the problem session, but don’t activate it.
  4. Disable the tracks in the non-activated session that are where it crashes (to be safe I also disable one track below the one that caused the crash). Save the un-activated project in that state.
  5. Enable the project, and enable the tracks that you disabled. Everything will be fine, at least for a while.

When doing this, you can save and re-open the project again without issue. Until it happens again, which it might at some point. Cubase seems to be mucking something up sometimes here, corrupting something. This is the only workaround that works for me at this point, until they fix the issue – it seems others are experiencing it, too.

OK then! I looked through them and saw tons of Kontakt 5 listed in a lot of them, with a few other plugins randomly listed in one or two lines only here and there. But Kontakt 5 is 100% essential for my work, and I have the latest version of it, so…? Do other people have these issues with Kontakt? But really, I don’t know how to read the crash logs correctly, which is why I was asking if anyone here can and is willing to help.

Hi
Sounds awdul, and I have no idea how to read a crash report. But, since you say it didn’t occur in 9.0 (if I read you correctly) why don’t you just use Cubase 9?

I’m so used to and dependent on 9.5 features, otherwise I would.

Hey my man… I know this isn’t an ideal solution… but I ended up loading all vst racks like kontakt and others in vienna pro (on the same machine side by side with cubase) for every session because I always had random luck with large amounts of VSTs in native cubase… Native Instruments VSTs seemed particularly weird about caushing untraceable crashes…

Check into maybe adapting your 9.5 workflow to work sidebyside with Vienna Ensemble Pro 6 if you seriously cannot figure this one out. MANY of us depending on kontakt have converted to that solution (basically half of the pop producers I know and ALL of the composer friends of mine). Bounce in place still works (best to play and record the loopback though for timing) and is most convenient if you just use ONE stereo group for each instance of Vienna Ensemble Pro in cubase. and load racks of kontakt to your heart’s content.

The only thing I can think about is check the RAM usage of cubase when things are going crazy. The only thing that cubase 9.5 does SIGNIFIGANTLY different than the other versions is DIRECT OFFLINE PROCESSING. It works differently in cubase 9.5 and may be a potential source of the trouble. Perhaps the session is getting out of control in the background WITHOUT you knowing.

Easy way to check is:
1.) SAVE THE ENTIRE FOLDER OF THE SESSION TO AN ARCHIVE DRIVE BEFORE DOING ANYTHING BECAUSE DAMN THIS STUFF CAN WRECK YOU
2.) Open the session… click FILE → BACKUP UP PROJECT → check the last three options so it’s basically trimming down the entire session to JUST the current file versions of everything…
3.) Close everything
4.) Open up the session from the BACKUP FOLDER you just exported… try jerking around the session and see if it is more stable.
5.) If it IS… then you know where to focus your attention.
6.) If it is still suck… then DAMN. Sorry dude.

One more thing… When I was running cubase WITH VST instruments back in the day… I remember I needed to SAVE AS A NEW COPY pretty much as a habit… that way I could roll back within a few minutes of changes… the reason was… if a VST caused a crash at any time… I would need to open the PREVIOUS save to the one it saved.

The rule was if cubase was crashing and tried to save the session POST-CRASH… it was basically permanently jacked. the only hope was to roll back to the previous save and load back the session. Perhaps you had a basic crash (which could be normal) but then cubase or you tried to save the file AGAIN during or right after the crash… then basically ruined you permanently. So get used to the keyboard shortcut ctrl+alt+S.

The only other two fixes was to:
A) try “backing up the project” and slimming down the session like I already told you or
B) save the vst presets and settings from the RACK… REMOVE ALL THE VSTS so it was blank… then close session… close cubase… the open cubase… open the project… one-by-one load back fresh VSTs to “recreate” the rack you need for the song. Definitely try that if you can’t get it to work any other way. It is kind of a pain… but might be the only way to “fix” the busted project xml lines that are causing your crash.

Experiencing the same problem. Random projects not opening and instead hanging.

Red flag!!!

Thank you so much for your detailed responses.

I do use VE Pro for scoring, but also have instances of Kontakt in the actual Cubase session when I need to do significant automation with it. I don’t do that with any orchestral elements, only other stuff here and there. For song production, using VE Pro is not a good situation for me because it can really slow me down since things change so much more quickly as far as instruments, routing, etc. I need total fluidity when doing songs and the ability to have multiples of one synth instantly if I suddenly need it, for example, or new unusual routing with an instrument, and also the ability to immediately be able to automate those synths deeply in Cubase, as another example, all on the fly with other songwriters or producers in the room with me.

I’ll try your advice for Cubase – thanks again.

Just very brief, but maybe it helps: Quite some years ago I had this problem and it was related to some plugins acting up. Once I removed all my plugins from the respective folders (probably …vstplugins and the VST3 folder) I was able to start the session again - put the plugs back individually or in groups - see when the problem comes back. A very time consuming pita and, but what else could be done… Once you know the reason you can find a solution, bounce it, kick it out or whatever. Looking back I assume it might have been a problem with the amount of available ram, maybe having more ram or reducing the session (bounce and kick out the vst / vsti) helps? I believe I have not experienced such problems any more in a strict 64-Bit OS environment and with sufficient ram, maybe that is not just a coincidence.

Michael

This looks like the same issue as the below.

Mike001

Cubase Pro 9.5.30, Windows 10. I just installed a new harddisk. Afterwards, I couldn’t open Cubase projects anymore. Cubase would load a good chunk of the project and then stop at a random track. Unresponsive in Task Manager.

Turns out that Native Instruments couldn’t find its data directories anymore. After I fixed paths using Native Access, project opened in Cubase again. I also opened ILOK and similar maintenance programs. Of course, Cubase should show better error messages, but perhaps somebody else can fix their problems when CUbase doesn’t load by fixing useir plugins.