Issue - Plugin not deactivating even though grey / deactivated visually

Cubase
1

I spotted an anomaly.
Issue - Plugin not deactivating even though grey / deactivated visually.
I am unable to recreate the issue. This project has been saved numerous times, and I’ve made many changes to the various plugins.

  1. Working with existing project
  2. Place various mastering plugins on master bus
  3. Active/Deactive plugins.
  4. Ozone Mastering plugin was deactivated visually but still processing the signal and using CPU
  5. Removing plugin from chain fixed issue

I was trying to chase down why my levels were so hot and noticed it was limiting at -1, but even though every plugin was disabled, it didn’t change. It turns out the Ozone plugin was still running.

Not sure if this is Ozone specific or if it’s a plugin issue. Hopefully, I did the issue report correctly.

Windows 11 Pro Version 22H2 OS Build 22621.457
Steinberg Cubase Pro 12.0.40 Build 317
Izotope Ozone 9 Advanced (9.12.1)

2

This most probably is a pugin issue. I had a bugged version of a slate plugin once, which still had its saturation stage active, even when when it was turned off. An update of that plugin solved the issue.

There were also some reports about other plugins, that had similar behaviour and if I remember correctly, they also had to be updated!

3

I’m inclined to agree. I’ve reported it to Izotope as well. It seems like Cubase should be able to “force” that somehow, but I can appreciate the complexity of making everything work together.

1 Like
4

One possible way of deactivating Ozone would be to activate the delay compensation, bottom left of the project page IF Ozone is high latency, i know this is only a work around but …

5

Which button you are referring to by saying “Activate/Deactivate”?

6

image

I am clicking the bypass insert button.

7

OK, I understood. We have 2 different states to disable a plugin in Cubendo.

Firstly, the bypass insert button. For VST3 plugins it is handled by the plugin. It is depending on plugin to actually disable processing or keep it running but just pass audio. Usually, plugins keep running to be able to bypass the processing and then un-bypass without any glitches. Often there are cases when you want to bypass plugins in places with automation. Also for VST2, that is handled by the host, but the behaviour is the same, the audio is not processed but the calculation is kept running. This is how the function is designed and there are no problems with it.

If you want plugins to stop working, free CPU cycles and etc as you expected, you have to press it with ALT. That state change is disabled/enabled or simply ON/OFF. That guarantees the processing to be stopped. This state is not automatable as it causes a glitch with plugins with buffering. You can have disabled plugins in a channel and they will not use CPU cycles and you can keep them there.

8

Thank you. I discovered the alt-click after I made this post, which is nice to disable fully. I think it’s a glitch with Izotope Ozone because the plugin was bypassed, but it was still processing audio erroneously. I was using the VST3 version of the plugin for what it’s worth.

Regardless, turning it on/off did fix the issue. It was just very confusing during the session to have something processing the audio that visually was supposed to be turned off. Thanks again for the tips. I appreciate it.