Possible Clue: Cubase8 no audio with 18i20

Hello.

I recently reported a problem of not getting audio with Cubase 8. I wish to show an interesting observation that temporarily solves the problem. This is a software problem that only happens in Cubase 8 and not in Cubase 7. I have tested/confirmed this.

Please see image #1 file. Please note the small speaker icon that shows in the Windows 7 Ultimate task bar. If I mouse click that speaker icon it will expand and show-up as seen in image #2 file. The audio in Cubase 8 will start to work properly if I click the mouse button anywhere so it causes the volume slider button to minimize. This can be done by clicking anywhere in the Cubase program or clicking on the border of the volume slider window. Once the slider window is minimized, I can hear my audio speakers make a short noise which seems to indicate a connection is being established. After that, Cubase 8 will output audio properly.

Once again, this problem never happens with Cubase 7. I believe the USB audio driver is not getting loaded or unloaded properly when used with Cubase 8. I am always able to start Cubase 8 and it loads the driver and I’m able to record and see audio input activity from the microphones. I can record things but it will not play audio out to the speakers. It seems to work only after I open then minimize the Windows 7 speaker icon.

I hope this helps you…

Ray


Hope this helps…


Here is additional information about this problem. The other post about pressing the Windows 7 slider button works sometimes -but I now discovered, it does not work all the time.

I have discovered another “trick” that seems to help and is more reliable than tweaking the volume slider button.

See image 3. First, open the devices window, select the Device Setup and then the Focusrite USB driver and press the control panel button. This will bring-up the 18i20 user interface. Notice at the lower right corner of image 3, there is a highlighted blue box that says “HW Control”. This control allows the interface to be controlled manually by the panel knobs or through software control. By pressing the button on/off a couple times, Cubase is able to properly send audio to standard output and audio can be heard from the speakers or headphones. It makes no difference if you leave the HW Control button asserted or unasserted… you just have to click it a couple times and it seems to start working.

I’m new to recording and Cubase is my first program for doing this. Since support for Cubase is through this forum, are there any steps I need to take to officially report this issue? The problem could be with both Cubase 8 and the Focusrite USB driver or 18i20 software (although this problem never happens with Cubase 7). I much prefer to use Cubase 8 because of the improved window management.

Anyhow, I hope these work-arounds can help others with similar problems.


Ray