I am guessing that there will not be an update before 9.5 in the autumn. It is disappointing that there seems to be no effort to address some of the irritating issues that we have complained about.
Number one for me is the seeming inability I have to move between projects within Cubase without freezing/crashing at some point. Surely to goodness this issue should have been put to bed by now. It has been a known issue for a long time. Is it really too much to ask that annoying issues such as this be dealt with quickly and efficiently.
This is a super amateur problem with Cubase, and as you say it has been there for years. I’ve seen it happen/heard about it happening with everyone I personally know who uses Cubase, on both Windows and Mac. I don’t know if it’s RAM not properly dumping in between projects or something else, but no other DAW I’ve used or tried has this problem. For those of you who haven’t experienced it, you probably haven’t loaded projects that are large enough to set off when being loaded in a row. If the projects are small/smaller I can do a good amount in a row before the crash, but when I get into large projects (scoring, big song mixes, etc.) there are always issues after I’ve loaded 2 - 3 projects in a row.
It’s a very significant issue and it majorly got in the way for me all of the time. I’m really pessimistic after seeing how many very basic issues like this have been around for years and still don’t get fixed, so I wouldn’t expect anything at this point in time (says the cynic in me!).
Thank you In_Stereo for your post. I have just noticed that all the “thanks” seem to have gone on this new Forum!!! Yet another source of dissatisfaction - especially as many Forum regulars have built up thanks over many years.
I am sure that this is all about ram. As you have pointed out smaller projects do not suffer this problem. However the projects do not need to have a great number of tracks if you are using a lot of effects and a few VSTi’s. I can’t believe that Steinberg has let this one go for so long. Especially as it will affect the more serious users. Actually this is probably my biggest issue with Cubase. I do wish that someone from Steinberg would chime in and tell me that something is being done about it, eternal optimist that I am.
When I looked/searched back in the forums about a year ago I saw multiple posts from multiple versions spanning quite a few years back talking about this. It’s a basic building block for a professional DAW and it needs to be put front and center, I agree.
Perhaps we ought to do a survey to find out how many users on the Forum are affected by this problem. Surely Steinberg are aware what an issue this is.
If you’re going to set up a survey (which seems like a sensible idea) it would probably be worth trying to quantify project size in some way (tracks, VSTis, number of effects etc?). I’ve never suffered from this problem and though my projects aren’t as big as many I see mentioned here I don’t know if that is the reason.
Yes I see your point. I will have a think about that.
The issue with my projects is that I use a lot of sample heavy instruments. For example BFD3, Kontakt, M-Tron and Rapture Pro being the main ones. I often use multiple instances of Kontakt. I have to say that for me Kontakt has always been problematic with Cubase and I am open to this being a primary cause of the issue.
…thus to make an even more complicated survey, you probably need to have Kontact as an option.
FWIW I don’t have Kontact and wouldn’t say my recordings were sample heavy at all. So maybe you just need to completely change your style of music to avoid crashes…not a big ask is it?
Yeah I should stick my finger in my ear and play folk music, or country. Maybe I should just take up macrame instead - no I don’t know what it is either. And no there is nothing wrong with folk or country music. However I have watched the “Mighty Wind”.
Actually Cubase does not crash for me if I just shut down and load a new project from scratch. Annoying but I can live with it.
I use Kontakt a lot, as well, but I experience this problem in pure mix projects also, which don’t use Kontakt.
To properly do a survey it would require saying how big one’s projects are in general, agreed. I never experience the problem in smaller projects, even those with Kontakt…with small projects I can load up tons of projects in a row. When they start to get bigger RAM-wise (due to plugins and/or samples, etc.) then the issue is very prevalent and very showstopping.
This is why I feel it’s got to be some kind of issue with RAM not getting dumped or something related to that.
I do the same thing – I’m in the habit of doing that now with the big projects, and for me it’s quite bad when you’re used to a fast and efficient workflow (I was used to being able to switch between any project without having to restart the DAW, from years on Pro Tools and when I briefly was using Reaper). Not good when I have clients in the room and we’re looking at multiple cues in a row – I’m not kidding when I say that I’ve received this question more than a few times: “Why do you have to re-start the program every time?”.
It’s not something you should need to do with a Pro piece of software, right?
I think I’m going to have to work out how to create a poll with the new forum.
I need to think about how big a project has to be and how to measure that. How much RAM is being used and how many effects plugins and instruments are being used. The power of the computer - desktop/laptop.
That’s the hard part to figure out, yeah. I think a poll is a great idea – unfortunately a lot of polls here are not constructed well enough to fully help the situations.
OK, I just tried loading up projects back-to-back while looking at the Activity Monitor to see RAM usage, and some of it - but not all - gets dumped in between projects. I tried loading up a 1.5GB RAM project right after a 13.33 RAM project, and there was still 2.93RAM in the smaller project, so it didn’t all get dumped. When I load that smaller project on its own with a fresh start of Cubase it’s only at 1.5GB. My notes seem to show that with smaller projects it’s not much of an issue for a while. But it can’t fully be a RAM thing as far as the computer itself because my computer has 32GB of RAM. Hmmmm!
Here are some checks I was able to do just now (yep…it’s a slow day and I’m a nerd!):
Start: 3.63 GB - plugins and audio only, no VSTi’s
different project: 7.14 GB, with VSTis (incl. Kontakt)
different project: 2.56 GB with VSTis (incl. Kontakt)
CRASH: different new project: crashed loading at 1.34 GB two VSTis, not Kontakt (project is 1.67GB RAM when loaded fresh)
Start: 1.34GB two VSTis, not Kontakt
different project: 6.35GB, tons of VSTis incl. Kontakt
different project: 10.43GB, tons of VSTis incl. Kontakt
CRASH: different project: crashed loading at 4.61GB, tons of VSTis incl. Kontakt (project is 5.33GB RAM when loaded fresh)
Start: 10.43GB, tons of VSTis, incl. Kontakt
CRASH: + different project: crashed at 8.3GB, tons of VSTis, no Kontakt (project is 13.33GB RAM when loaded fresh)
Start: 3.02GB lots of VSTis incl. Kontakt
different project: 3.18GB lots of VSTis incl. Kontakt
different project: 3.63GB lots of VSTis all audio, no VSTis
different project: 2.93GB lots of VSTis incl. Kontakt
different project: 4.39GB lots of VSTis incl. Kontakt
different project: 2.56GB lots of VSTis all audio, no VSTis
different project: 4.37GB lots of VSTis incl. Kontakt
different project: 1.33GB lots of VSTis incl. Kontakt
CRASH: + different project: crashed at 1.37GB lots of VSTis incl. Kontakt (it’s a 9.33GB RAM project when loaded fresh)
Sorry but are we talking about, Cubase crashing when you load more than one project and switch between them.
Or load a Cubase project, close the project and load a new one ?
The latter I have no problems with.
or 
country. Maybe I should just take up macrame instead - no I don’t know what it is either. And no there is nothing wrong with folk or country music. However I have watched the “Mighty Wind”.