NO rant , just facts Cubase 13 Audio engine Spikes compared to Cubase 12

Cubase
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Ok i know i rant a lot out of passion BUT in a professional manner :
I’m having major C13 unusable issues with C13’s audio engine .
This has been a dedicated Steinberg Daw for the last 20 years , no other use for the PC , just Steinberg software and third party plugins .

My System spec :
i7 9700k
32gb corsair lp 3200 ram
2 x Samsung evo 870 M2 drives
Rtx 3060 ventus oc 12gb
Rme FF800
Motu Midi

DSKTOP
DSKTOP1910×1071 294 KB

Method taken for installation of Cubase 13
Enable wfi
Download windows latest updates
Install the Rtx 11/1/23 studio drivers only , no bloatwares or Hd audio
Repair windows via Scannow
No Rme audio drivers needed
Motu Midi drivers the latest
Install Cubase
Remove C12 preferences and let Cubase 13 build from new then add my personal preferences

This is the C12 project that ive mastered , one of my own

C12 PROJECT PAGE
C12 PROJECT PAGE1897×983 410 KB

C12 MIXER
C12 MIXER1911×1075 257 KB

Here is a video showing you the stability of the C12 Asio on a 1024 buffer size

This is EXACTLY the same project created NEW in Cubase 13 with all the tracks imported from the Cubase 12 project via Steinberg track import system

C13 PROJECT PAGE
C13 PROJECT PAGE1916×1029 355 KB

C13 MIXER
C13 MIXER1916×1061 251 KB

Here is the Cubase 13 Asio meter peaking from half way to just about unusable with a project created in Cubase 12 , which wouldn’t load properly so i did the Steinberg recommendation of Import ALL track to new project created in C13 and this is the results

I have managed to track down something the blows the situation up but i don’t believe is the cause … Acustica Audio plugins .
This behaviour happened right at the beginning of C12 and it was reported and confirmed to be a Leak problem with Vst Reverb causing the issue and funnily enough the only crash ive had mentions Vst3 Plugin set
Cubase 13.0.10 64bit2023.11.3 20.01.14.265.dmp (3.0 MB)

I’m not here to Rant or cause trouble i need this issue rectifying as i Use Cubase every single day and have done for nearly 34 years ,so someone telling me to check graphics drivers doesn’t cut it especially as exactly the same project runs beautifully in C12
I’m actually finding it quite hard to believe that this is a C13.10 release and not a C13.0

Just in case someone mentioned the two disabled AA pre amps on the busses , they make no difference to this situation at all , there is no excuse for the amount of ASsio ramping as it makes projects unworkable .

I have also been through the complete setting of the pc as i found Nvidia enabled Hd devices . They have all been nuked
Win Update reset my power option and various back ground running things , my Latency Mon reads after 29 mins the mas of 75us so there is absolutely nothing else i can try to resolve this issue

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The same situation here, a big project (200ish tracks, 10 busses) runs to the limit, but OK in Cubase 12 with 512 buffer size, but playback will not even start when open in Cubase 13.
Disabling a few heavy plugins will allow it to start playback, but extremelly stuttery and crackly. The thing is that CPU is not even close to the breaking point, hovering around 75%, but ASIO guard fluctuates and spikes like crazy, in a manner that I have not seen before, not even in the early days of C12.

Also, my template opens and feels pretty smooth in C12, being built and balanced to behave well at 512 buffer size, but when open in C13 it feels sluggish, slow and crackles when trying to play midi.

I run it on Win 11, Ryzen 3950X, 64Gb, M2 sys drive, all SSDs.

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Ive learnt over the years to rebuild temples per version , last night i rebuilt a 8 buss 8 Fx buss template , loaded one synth and the asio spiked to half way , these buss and fx tracks had no inserts just tracks added , the post is on the foum and then i switched form one synth to another via the inspector ands all sound was lost , could not regain sound in that template , closed it reopened , no sound , opened another c12 project in C13 worked ok .
It’s a shame , i really wanted to like C13 , it seemed very stable but then i adjusted the Buffer size wihch cause my first crash within 24 hours of purchase .
I could understand if this was a general purpose machine but ive been working Steinberg machines for 20 year on windows ,i also know not to jump on the first release due to bugs but after the delay with more time to iron things out i thought great stuff .
Im sure Steinberg will get to the bottom of it but it’s the time it takes, if it’s another 3 months like with C12 then i really am thinking of changing after all these years due to the lack of hot fixes

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I sure hope I won’t have to rebuild my orchestral template, that will take a few days of dedicated work that I can’t afford to lose. Yes, there are very likeable things in C13 and issues will probably get ironed out. Meanwhile I still have C12 working, so that’s good :slight_smile:

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I hope not :see_no_evil:

Ohhh yes , stable as hell now , after a lot of faffing about and that my point . The continue fight when buying the latest version right up until the last update .
I’ll away use Cubase , BUT moving forward i want reliability now i’m getting too old for the fighting the Cubase Pc wars every Point update

Lets ohpe your Orchestral template holds strong

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Thanks H-C! Cheers!

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Maybe a bit early to draw conclusions, but Cubase 13 seems to work well on my 13700k Hackintosh. Smooth, low CPU usage, no ASIO peaking, my old projects immediately work, no crashes or weirdness. I just don’t like some of the GUI changes.

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To be honest i think most of the problems now arise from Steinberg concentrating all their time with the 12th/13th gen processors which has left us older CPu user with a bit of a problem , only time will tell . Steinberg made the Hybrid support one of the selling points but that doesn’t help my case

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Notice the same on i9 12gen. Also noticed delay lag on playback zoom (take playback on bar timeline click and drag down to zoom) can you check that? On C12 was instant.

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Same project uses 10-15% more CPU (according to performance meters) in C13 than C12.
And mine are small projects (about 20 tracks with several plugins)
Windows 10, Ryzen 3950x, SSD drives.

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Engaging one track of Steinbergs own Retrologue on 128 samples , peaks out of control , goes from a quarter of the Asio meter too unusable lol

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Little Unscientific test
A few of what i consider heavy CPU vsti contender , all active for input apart from Retrologue

all active
all active1243×691 150 KB

Turn off them all off , turn on one Retrologue and … bingo , Steinbergs own peaks out !

peak out retrol
peak out retrol1272×737 158 KB

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there is a new optimise CPU setting near the audio guard apparently where you can specify how the CPU reacts. I have a Mac M1 so I do not have it but I think if you have a hybrid 8 core or more processor you can specify low latency or balanced etc. Maybe that will help.

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I have an i9 13900k but I dont have this option. I saw it in Gregs video But I dont seem to have it…

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Under Studio Setup | Audio System | Advanced, what are your settings?

e.g. this:
image

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The only difference is 64 bit floating

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Does going back to 32 bit float processing precision help?

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Nope , i thought the same with Acustica plugins but nope , im sure when Monday comes round there will be others with the issue .

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OT I know, but I tried the Acustica freebie (“Fire the clip”) that came with the Steinberg Licensing intro, and it completely destroyed what was an otherwise stable setup. I couldn’t even uninstall all the bits it shat all over the disk and ended up restoring a disk image backup.

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Yeh they are not the best for installs But if you look at the video’s at the top , Both projects are running exactly the same amount of Acustica plugins , i know they are finicky but you would of thought Steinberg being some sort of partners with them would of made sure that their plugins are stable with C13 at least . I think AudioGridders on the cards now .