I just cant fathom this, Im using cubase 12.0.50 and yet again im suffering from audio performance overloads, its so frustrating. I have a highly optimised system, its just come out of the blue. Im sick and tired of this, its never ending issue after issue. Real time, asio-guard & peak meters are fluctuating wildly and shoot up into the red causing audio dropout and distortion, I now have a totally unusable system ! My system is optimised for audio, every setting that can be set was set, it was working fine, then bam ! now I cant use it. is there anyhting that can be done ? Im getting to the point where im consideraing getting a different DAW and just so bloody sick and tired of these never ending problems. Has ayone else experiencved something like this ? what on earth can I do ?
Something must have changed between then and now. Question is what.
Since you’re not sharing any specifics about either your system or your issues or what you have done so far to try and solve it, it is really hard to guess what that could have been.
Have you installed any new software since? Any OS updates? Any driver updates?
Those would be the first things I would look at.
A good idea, if you aren’t doing them already, is to create regular system backups. Especially after any installs or OS updates so you can easily revert back in case one would break something.
Im asking loads of people this what seems a silly question but do you us Supervision as permanent plugins on your inserts ?
I dont mate
Additionaly at what @mlib said (it would indeed be helpful from you to give us your system specs, including the audio interface ones…) :
- Did you test your whole setup with this ?
- In case you are using the Pro version, is the Control Room feature involved ?
- Have you tried to deactivate ASIO Guard ?
- At what latency values is your audio interface set (tracking and mixing) ?
- For what kind of projects are you experiencing audio overloads (plug-ins involved, VSTis used, routing…) ?
These, to have a better view of the whole problem…
As @cubic13 and @mlib outlined, we have nothing to go on and latencymon will provide you with a clue.
I know Windows, I am presuming your are on Windows and not Mac, and every MS update breaks something or re-eanbles a process at start up that I have disabled for the sake of perfomance or the inconvenience it causes.
If you can revert to a previous install that you were happy with, move forward slowly. Yes it is a pain backing up everytime before an OS update or a software install that might affect the audio chain. But one soon gets tired of re-installing from scratch.
I know that me saying cubase works fine here is no help but it does. Hopefully we can see the differences between your set up and the setup of those of us that don’t have a problem and point you to a solution.
Hi guys
thanks for all your suggestions, sorry, I should have added my system specs
windows 11
12 core processor
64GB RAM
ive run latency mon and that checked out fine (Ive run it in the past so I know my system is fine for audio)
As I mentioned, I basically optimsed everything I could for audio and my system, was fine
I Had upgraded ozone 10 & nwutron 4 so Ive uninstalled those
I also upgraded Arturia V9
with Ozone gone, it seems betrter so Ill try reinstalling and see what happens
there is still an issue with ASIO-guard though, I have it on the highest setting and its still fluctating although at a lower level
whatever the culprit, cubase just isnt ‘right’ it was working ok, now the audio performance is all over the place
even mastering a track was causing dropouts and its only 1 audio file !
Can you perhaps go into more detail?
Which motherboard, SSD or HDD, which CPU model?
Intel(R) Core™ i9-7920X CPU @ 2.90GHz, 2904 Mhz, 12 Core(s), 24 Logical Processor(s)
ASUSTek STRIX X299-E GAMING Motherboard
6TB SSD
Been a while since I used Intel CPU. I had audio drop outs and noise even with balance output (UR22 mkII) on AMD platform until I did a bios update. Whislt the two platforms are diifferent, do you think a BIOS update might work for you.
The latest:
https://www.asus.com/us/supportonly/rog%20strix%20x299-e%20gaming/helpdesk_bios/
has some system stabilty improvements , just a thought.
I Uninstalled my sound interface driver
uninstalled Nueron 4
uninstalled Ozone 10
rebooted
reinstalled my sound interface driver
sample rate set to 44Khz
process buffer 1024 samples
USB buffer 4ms
reinstalled neutron 4
reinstelled ozone 10
system now seems to be working within acceptable parameters
asio-guard still fluctuating not not overloading,
real time & peak are now low
go figure 
appologies for ranting a bit, I really appreciate the advice you guys gave, its just very frustrating when this happens and you have to spend a lot of time tracking the problems down, even though im not really sure what actually caused it in the first place 
Windows is a strange beast, the order that apps are installed can even cause issues. I dislike Windows (I really should say Microsoft) with a passion. Windows aint so bad.
My first use of Windows was Windows for Workgroups 3.1 and that wasn’t exactly wonderful, but it seemed easier to troubleshoot. (I have forgotten much obsolete knowledge). I use Windows because there is not a Linux port of cubase and I do like a bit of gaming.
Now that you have acceptable performance, backing up the OS drive before installing anything that might mess with the audio chain or USB, presuming you have USB sound, is the only advice I can offer.
Hi there. Cubase is full of bugs. No matter what you will do will ever fix a problem in its entirety.
I have a perfectly working system. One day the Cubase file will work fantastically. Usually at the end of my work, all is well, open the file the next day, and for no reason ,all goes to hell.
I believe that Cubase has serious problems which create Cubase file and Cubase (program) corruption. Once the corruption takes place there is no turning back, but for the option of formatting your main drive, and re-installing everything again.
I have cloned my freshly installed Windows and all applications installed to try and avoid this.
No idea what is going on. I honestly don’t think Steinberg knows either…
I tried to migrate to Studio One but it was like learning a whole new program all over again…
Are you using External Effects or Instruments?
no everything is ‘in the box’ 
Try to delete preferences from the Safe mode console.
I deleted preferences and increased the buffer size. Nothing, then CB crashes, I reloaded with safe mode, I then deleted personal preferences again.
I then reloaded, to my amazement, (same stuff in the Cubase session as before) on the Audio performance window, the ‘Maximum’ indicator doesn’t move and the same goes with ‘Average’.
And this with ASIO guard at normal and Audio power Scheme being turned off…
Same everything, go figure…
Ive used cubase since it was Pro12 & Pro24 for the Atari ST, then when it actually becamce Cubaae (1989 I think)
Then moved to PC versions, had a break for a while then ‘parked’ it at cubase 4 for a while and started using it again from cubase 9. Its never crashed as much as it does now. Lots of times it just doesnt shut down so I have to CTRl + Alt + del to manually shgu the process down. Ive just been using it moments ago, changed the EQ settings in a plugin -crashes and froze, so had to manually shut it down again. I have so many audio performance issues now with dropouts and distortion. This cannot be classed as a professional DAW anymore, there are just too many issues with it that really hamper the creative process
Can you not go back to CB 11?
for some reason cubase 11 wont even open anymore
