Since updating to Cubase 14 (currently on version 14.0.20, Windows 10), I’ve noticed that MediaBay seems to modify certain samples/loops without any action on my part. As a result, some WAV files are still listed in the browser but can’t be played anymore — not even in external players like AIMP or Windows Media Player (they throw error messages).
The frustrating part: this affects all my sample libraries, and I have no way of knowing which loops are broken. I’ve had to manually search, recopy, and retag files — only to see the issue reappear with others, including some freshly restored ones.
Anyone else run into this? Any real solutions?
I’ve already fully uninstalled and reinstalled Cubase 14 — so please no generic tips like “delete folders” or “rescan drives,” those don’t solve it.
Thanks in advance!
Mr. Tim
P.S. This reminds me of the VST3 transition, where years of carefully tagged presets suddenly became unusable — even though Steinberg sets the development standard…
Sure, I randomly selected a file after copying it again. At first, it works — but as soon as I try to tag even a single attribute, the file becomes unusable.
The file marked with “OK” is the untouched WAV from before MediaBay access — it works fine. The one without “OK” is the corrupted version, after I tried tagging it in MediaBay.
While I can’t run a DIFF right now, the first thing I see is that cursory review is identical other than these header changes: OK:
RIFFúb'WAVEfmt D¬ cue LdatadataÀudataÀuLISTVadtllablTempo: 75.0lablIF this is a Movie 01lablTempo: 75.0LISTXINFOIGNR Rock/BluesIAUTDieguis ProductionsICOP2013IANNAcoustic PopdataÂ&[ÿw¸6ÿúìÿ;N
NOT OK:
RIFFuicWAVEfmt D¬ cue LdatadataÀudataÀuLIST¨adtllablTempo: 75.0noteTempo: 75.0lablIF this is a Movie 01noteIF this is a Movie 01lablTempo: 75.0noteTempo: 75.0Acoustic PopdataÂ&[ÿw¸6ÿúìÿ;N
My first presumption is that given the copyright notice is missing in the header, there’s something else going on to mangle the file. Are all of these files copyrighted and intended to be used within some other licensed playback system? e.g Ableton AIFF files can’t be played anywhere but inside Ableton (unless you freeze the track and grab the temp file or export, etc).
No, there’s no limitation here. All samples are supposed to work with all common programs. The samples are intact at first. It’s only when I try to edit any attribute in MediaBay that the WAV file becomes unusable. In fact, it’s enough to simply click into the attribute field — even without actually making any changes.
Confirmed. Removal of the copyright header by editing the file in MediaBay mangles it. Edit: I should say “editing tags in Media Bay” not “removing the copyright header.” Changing the file in WaveLab or adding metadata in Fission don’t mangle it on my side, even with the copyright header removed - but since this is reproducible (MacOS on my side) I’ll bow out and let the professionals take over since you’ve got SB on the thread
If either of you guys wants me to test something, let me know.
I’ve been complaining about this on the Mac since Cubase 12 I think heh.
ALWAYS seems to happen when I decide to edit a bunch of WAV’s metadata, at some point MediaBay will decide to crap out and corrupt my files.
After that, I notice the WAVs wont play anymore, and if I go into the folder and look at them, the files are now blown up to 4GB.
I don’t know how many times I’ve had to use Time Machine on my Mac to restore entire directories of samples because of it heh. Seems to be fine for a few months, and then one day I’ll go edit a bunch of stuff and it destroys a few files here and there.
I’d say 99% of the files I’ve seen this happen with have no metadata initially, no copyright, no beats, nothing. Not even loop points. Its seems to happen more often if I grab a bunch of files at once and for example change all of them to 4 Beats or something similar. After going back through them to audition, I’ll usually find one or two that no longer play and got blown up to a useless 4GB file.
The problem discussed in this thread is only in 14.0.20. Feel free to send me files and reports for investigations as pm. I’ll check your posts for any issues meanwhile.
It was quite a while ago, but I believe the library was from this manufacturer: We Sound Human. Unfortunately, I don’t know which program was used to create the WAV files.
Maybe that helps!?
The good news I was able to send Joerg some info yesterday on it. Found my first one was also hitting this particular bug they are working on, but after that I was able to get it corrupt one of my files again into a 4.29gb chunk of useless 00000000 (checked it in a hex editor) so he’s looking into that one today too.
That actually happened in the Media Bay in Halion, which was supposed to be ‘trouble free’ too.
The corruption happens only on files that contains BWF chunks smaller than allowed. We will provide a fix that will ignore invalid BWF chunks and prevent resulting corruptions.
Given how destructive this bug is, you’re taking quite a long time to fix it. It’s a shame that Sononym can’t be integrated into Cubase directly or as a VST. I’d switch right away…
I have the same issue: when I tag a file with a Personal tag, the file becomes corrupted afterward. I checked in Explorer, in the Details tab, and there’s nothing left in the file descriptions.
This is a serious problem, and something really needs to be done quickly. Mediabay is an essential tool for me.
