We are pleased to announce that we have released a new version of the Yamaha Steinberg USB Driver for Windows.
The version 2.1.5 resolves a problem in which launching an application that uses ASIO or changing driver settings while audio is playing stops playback in a running application that uses WDM.
For detailed information, we ask you to refer to the corresponding release notes on the download page.
Best regards,
Stefan Schreiber
I can confirm that, after installing version 2.1.5. the performance on Cubase is a lot worse.
Using an orchestral template that was working with both 2.1.3. and 2.1.4. - with a random crackle here and there - and using exactly the same buffer size settings, with the new drivers everytime it reaches a busier part, thereās audio dropouts and sound becomes quite glitchy.
Hope you can get this sorted out soon.
I can also add that it seems that disconnecting all Midi Ports makes all peak issues gone. Currently Iām using a Korg nanoKey 2, a cheap Midi to USB cable (to connect the master keyboard because UR824 doesnāt have proper Midi In and Out), and Cubase has a bunch of SSL 360 related ports added that I disconnected.
Using both nanoKey and Midi USB already brings in the issues. In this case, Iām not sure if these are related with the drivers, or with Cubase 12 engine itself.
Has anyone addressed this? Seems to me 2.1.5 has made my audio completely unreliable - tons of glitches and even a weird effect like the bit rate is off somehow and the music races. I saw in the Windows control panel that the bit rate is hard set to 24 bit and I thought it was strange that there were no other settings available. There has got to be a problem with this version of the driver because my audio setup was fine before the date of the driver which is January 31, 2023.
Yeah, itās really strange.
Seems like Cubase is bottlenecking the available resources.
Windows Task Manager shows CPU never reaching above 80% on the main PC, and 60% on the secondary PC (using VEPro).
Disk reading is minimal on both, too.
Since I donāt use Cubase, I canāt speak for all the existing or adding problems with that softwareā¦
But for me, it seems that 2.1.5 might well have solved my issue of OBS just kicking my Yamaha AG03MK2 off the USB chain. Will have to do a few more livestreams to confirm, but it was rock solid this time.
It should be noted I also downloaded and installed new chipset drivers from AMD recently, which may have also helped. If youāre using Ryzen, maybe that might help your issues as well.
Wait and see. Iāll try out my AG03MK2 this coming week and see if it breaks again or not.
I have to correct my previous posts. Since Iām using a dual pc system with VEPro, the secondary one was actually reaching 100% use on a couple of its cores. It was enough to bring in the audio breakouts.
Since I opened the previous project file, I upgraded a lot the libraries from the secondary pc - orchestral libraries, with upgraded multiple mics all loaded. That way, I was getting different results. Guess Iāll have to upgrade the CPU on it.
The driver has no issues, sorry for that.
At last latest driver fix hanging issues
Yes finally theyāve released a driver that doesnāt cause issues - on this system at least (Windows 11 PC).
I had to update it anyway as the older 2.0.4 driver didnāt appear to support loopback. Now that Iāve updated to 2.1.5 itās all working O.K. I always run the driver in āstableā mode and havenāt had any serious dropouts in Cubase or lost audio from other devices.
Letās hope it stays this way 
Ah, it broke again. I give up. Back to Focusrite for me.
Ok.
I upgraded my secondary PC to a Ryzen 5950x, and itās nowhere reaching its full load on all cores (around 50%).
Still, Iām having the same dropouts.
Now, considering the current results, probably thereās some ASIO setting that 2.1.5. drivers that can explain the weird performance.
Yeah, ASIOGuard is all over the place. Without much reason, starts to peak, even when thereās not much going on. In a second itās mid to low use, and the other goes crazy.
Like I said, the secondary PC doesnāt go above 50% on CPU load, and the Cubase one around 75%.
That makes it impossible to work with two full virtual ochestral sections without lags and dropouts.
I might try to do a fresh install, just to assure that it was some messed up configuration somewhere, or even loose driver files that are causing it, but quite frankly, that should not be an option at all. Using both a Steinberg software and hardware solution, as an end user, Iād expect a better experience.
I did a fresh install a couple days ago. Installing all plugins from scratch too: guess itās a good time to do another wipe through unused plugins, and also the chance to remove weird loose files that some plugins leave when upgraded or removed.
I can notice that Cubase is a lot more responsive, Supervision spectre animation looks a lot more fluid now, all the time.
That said, the same dropout issues occur. Perhaps not that frequent, but enough to mess the playback.
I also noticed that, when using my orchestral template with a 1024 buffer size on the UR824 with Asio Guard connected, Asio Guard meter sits a bit above 50% when idle, while both Real Time and Peak Meters are just above 0%. When playing, Asio Guard increases a bit, but the other two will stay the same.
If I use 512 buffer size, I can see some action on Real Time and Peak meters. In fact, it currently seems a lot more stable than the 1024 buffer size, no matter what settings I put them both. It still has its clicks and dropouts, though.
To conclude, 2.1.5. is a lot more stable when it comes to system recognition, and I never had a single BSOD since using it. That said, I canāt use it with my current Cubase settings, because itās not reliable with an full midi orchestral / hybrid template.
I have found that the v2.1.5 has solved all my problems (I am using Steinberg UR816C as interface):
To date, no problems that I am aware of.
NOTE - I completely uninstalled the older version of the driver, and rebooted, before installing v2.1.5
While Iām happy that 2.1.5 works for some people, it rendered my Cubase system unusable (including other applications like SoundForge) just like it did for some people on this thread - more details here: