Mixdown has 100db spikes, but playback doesn't

Cubase
1

I’ve checked the playback thoroughly on a 17 minute recording that I’m trying to export. Every instrument and the stereo output all are under 0db, but when I export with audio mixdown, random instruments will hit 100db. It’s a different instrument or group of instruments every time that causes this to happen.

Thus far I’ve tried closing and restarting, changing the audio driver to the Steinberg ASIO and back to the generic, removing auto-makeup on the compressor, and just exporting as WAVE instead of MP3, but this is a consistent issue. Is there anything that can be done to remedy this? I didn’t have these issues with Part I of this piece, but am reliably having it with Part II now.

Windows 11 / Cubase Pro 11 / MSI Stealth

UPDATE: I’ve tried using the real time export, but it’s leaving out tracks that have music in them. Like, I get that this is a huge score, but this has not been this much of a problem on something like this before.

2

PLUS 100 - One Hundred - dB spikes… ??
Can you post a screenshot, please? How do you measure these spikes? Which plugins are involved? Have you tried a limiter on your output?
…100 dB :thinking:
Not sure if the term spike seems appropriate here. Attack?

4

It’s hard to describe. Basically what happens is a track such as Tuba or Bassoon II will show a max output of +100db after using the mixdown when in playback the maximum for any track is -6db. The sound on the exported WAV/MP3 is like a microphone dropping on the floor in random spots where these instruments aren’t even playing.