Proper audio engine: Gapless Audio!

the thing is that the gaps are introduced not only with adding plugins while play, but also adding/removing empty audio tracks etc..
Steinberg said they are on it on some point and the mission is not easy, but I’m not sure how high its prioritized, it was several years ago now.
seems they cant fix it with the recourses they put on it if any !
lets hope in Cubase 15 its already done.. in this time its kind of embracing for a company like Steinberg to have it as it is while all major DAWs overcome it already in some degree

Well, it is possible to solve this issue, for sure. It just might need a complete redefining of the internal dataflows and the design in general. When the internal datastructures have been good 20 years ago, and the tasks become more and more demanding, than there comes a time,
a) either tinker around with the existing structures, which will sooner or later end in a total nightmare and disaster.
or
b) completely rewrite the software, which can become expensive.

If they can’t fix it, than there is something rotten very deeply in the code, noone dares to touch.
Nothing new in the software industry…

The score editor is being re-written from the ground up - there’s a precedent.

Another strange one is if you have an Audio Event with a Transpose value set (from the Info Bar) and you either toggle Cycle or move the Left/Right Locators while Cycle is on, a short gap is introduced on that track. The locators doesn’t even have to be anywhere near that event.

THIS!!! Split it up and get the best of both worlds. Maybe give the user an option to toggle gapless audio on/off.
Make the playback Gapless. “Production”-Mode. Where you’re mostly shaping sounds in a broad way.
When you make changes that affect PDC display a “warning” in the corner like “stop playback for correct PDC”. Like in the Shaperbox plugin.
As soon as the playback is stopped cubase sorts it out.
Would be great for staying in the flow with clients in the room where PDC and subtle Phase problems should not be the focus. :smiley:
For mixing/mastering or critical work just give us the toggle option.

Hello Cubase team, and colleagues :waving_hand:

+1 For the “Gapless” audio! :slight_smile: Sometimes we need to insert virtual instruments, or processing plugins real-time, especially for live performances, while recorded audio track is running.
Please, consider this important improvement of the Audio Engine!

Best regards,
Thurisaz

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Any news about gapless audio?

Has anyone tested the C15 regarding this?

Regards

Still the same in v15

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This is one of the most requested features — I’m not sure why it hasn’t been addressed at this point.

Something as simple as removing a track shouldn’t cause a gap in audio playback.:roll_eyes: Not only is it annoying, it’s a total flow-state ruiner.

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its probably due to technical debt, the whole program is built on this audio engine that probably hasn’t been changed or updated for years (maybe decades) so, depending on how the program is structured, it could take a lot of effort to remake the engine.

Never worked at steinberg, just speculating. And even if this is case I’m all for this change even if it takes them a year.

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well, its a long time request (years) hopefully they are working on it for some time now to find solution and resolve this already.

i was hoping for it for Cubase 11,12,13,14,15 !! hopefully they gonna make it in 16 ! :grimacing:

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This issue is still not fixed at the end of 2025.

Wonder why…

This is embaressing for Steinberg and they still don’t seem to care about it.

They do care and there has been comments about gapless audio by Steinberg officials supporting it. Some improvements was already made a few versions ago.
It would seem that most people don’t realize what a massive undertaking it would be to rewrite a core component of a DAW that is in part based on decades old programming. Sure, at some point it might become inevitable but great care and planning will be paramount.

Personally I hope that when the day comes, it will bring innovation, future proofing along with rigorous beta testing before public release.

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As a customer, who is not a beta-tester and who is willing to pay for the software, I simply do not care about how much effort this is.
Since I do some (though much easier) programming, I believe to have some idea of the trouble this might be.

But as I’ve said: As a customer… I do not care! That’s the responsibility of Steinberg.

If it takes a year of most part of the developement team to get this done - do it!
Otherwise, it wont be long and Cubase et al is history, since the competition is strong.

(Just to clarify: To some extend, yes, I am a Steinberg-fanboy :slight_smile: - If I would not be, I would not write this.)

Nothing is stopping Hans Zimmer from working on the biggest films, Ian Kirkpatrick from making top 10 billboard pop hits, or Johnnie Burn at Wave Studios building an international multi-studio post-production company…

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People say this regarding all kinds of features they feel are crucially lacking.

I would love to have an updated audio engine with gapless playback. But the tbh, it’s not even in my top 10 of things I’d like to see Steinberg work on.

This can be said about the german car industry as well…

The world market can move suddenly very fast.
And then people might say things like: “We couldn’t have known this.”
Finally, it’s all about making money, right?

Essentially yes, though you could replace ‘money’ with ‘survival’.

Hence, why some of us don’t care for many “popular” but insignificant feature requests like Gapless or Clip Launcher… Some of us use the software to make money and put food on the table, feed children - and so it’s fairly annoying when smug users come in here pretending they can see into the future because they’ve done some basic code, threatening the end of Cubase because they aren’t getting the features they want to hobby around with while the rest of us are doing real work for real clients, real compositions…

I’m currently working on a tricky 300-track mix, of which gapless and clip launching don’t even make my list of 100. Something like ‘ custom track/folder track height limitations’ is magnitudes more important.

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Gapless is very low with me too. Is it really that embarrassing in front of a client? I would much rather see resources spent on addressing bugs, streamlining, and improving upon features that currently exist.

There has always been a distinct difference between prosumer desires and professional desires. Since ADAT, it seems prosumers have been in the drivers seat, and professionals are simply along for the ride.

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My vote, when the devs come back from lunch and look at the request list…. thumbs down for gapless audio. Not necessary.

Folders-as-groups….yeah, that always gets my thumbs-up for sure :slight_smile:

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