I often get Cubase crashes with large projects - even after a complete system rebuild things didn’t improve much.
But I have discovered that it is almost ALWAYS related to preferences.
There are some choices such as: open project with current settings or disable user prefs, which sometimes helps.
What always helps is trashing the entire Cubase preference folder [the one located at HD/Users/username/Library/Preferences/ ] and paste back a previously known good version (or even just allowing Cubase to create its own folder and then adding back my saved pref files like key commands etc…)
However midi devices (such as my Presonus faderport16) I have to setup every time… Or do I?? Does anyone know which pref file to reload whilst in Cubase or a way around this so I don’t have to rebuild the midi port structure each time I need to do this?
Hi,
Do you mean after every single Cubase start? Or after the preferences deletion?
No - not every single start, - but fairly frequently on trying to start a project.
With large projects Cubase bombs out just at the point you think it’s going to appear.
To clarify : If my project crashes whilst loading up as described above, (after weeks of troubleshooting culminating in a complete system rebuild - including fresh downloads of all my DAW software and a fresh OS) I have discovered that if I then trash the prefs and start the project again - it will nearly always load OK.
Except that of course I now don’t have any of my own settings loaded. So I made safety copies of various settings files - these largely amount to Key Commands, and my own preferences.xml file
There are things like port setup.xml and defaults.xml (which is clearly dynamic) which I can go back to as well.
As my OP states I have the choice to just delete the entire Cubase pref folder (because that is how a brand new installation of Cubase arrives as I’ve noticed) and Cubase will build a brand new fresh one. OR - I can re-instate a copy of my prefs folder which I took a snapshot of some months ago. And then reload the project.
But it is not entirely consistent, which is the main reason for my post - to try and find out where the Mackie device (or any other midi device) settings are kept. So that I can go a little further with troubleshooting these issues.
Typical setup:
All Cubase projects are typically 50MB or more, all include Vienna VEPro 7 (same machine) with about eight instances and typically 400 or so Cubase midi tracks. They typically take 4 or 5 minutes to load. [Everything on SSD, 128GB RAM 12 core Mac with Mojave]
I don’t use any Cubase instrument tracks - all rack tracks are driving VEPro 7
But there are usually a number of audio tracks (which are usually sub-mixes or “render in place”)
About six or seven Cubase effects busses is typical
Hi,
Just for info, the window, you described doesn’t mean Cubase crashed while start. It means Cubase crashed within the last run (or quit). Providing the .crash/.DMP file(s) to be able to resolve it might bring some light.
I think you mean the window with the option to disable user settings. Yes I am aware of this.
I don’t always get this. But it is likely that after a crash on loading as described, it will then show this message the next time I try to load. As I say it is not consistent.
Vienna usually crashes too and the VSL crash report almost always points at a Synchron instance (either Synchron player or Synchron piano, not always the same) but after long dialogs with their support and report sharing, this appears to be a red herring.
Cubase prefs is ALWAYS the key to getting it going again.
Cubase does not always create a report. I don’t know the criteria it sets - but reading other posts on this forum it suggests that Cubase has to be actually running first before a crash will produce a report. I guess I can see why that might be…
I have to say that this does seem to bear out my own experience. As I say it is not completely constistent.
I have four crash reports from Cubase since 9th Sept (about a week ago) - but in actual fact Cubase has crashed on load more like 15 or 20 times in that timeframe. More perhaps.
The last Cubase crash report (from earlier today) indicates a problem with Voxengo MSED VST (ie: not the VST3 version) - but I’m pretty convinced that’s not the REAL problem. I have removed it from the system though just in case.
Going back to my original post - what I am trying to find out here is where Cubase saves its Mackie midi setup data - so that I can continue to work with some workarounds.
Obviously it would be lovely to get to the bottom of the problem - but I’m hoping (as usually occurs) that eventually a new update of software (not just Cubase, but other stuff too) will make the fault redundant… and then there will probably be a whole new set of issues!! 
It was interesting (not the adjective I used at the time, I had a few choicer ones to hand) that updating Mac OS made absolutely no difference at all to the symptoms!! I honestly thought it it would… Even the system drive had been re-formatted.
I must also point out to go with that that these projects I’m having trouble with… many of them are many months old and older, and had previously behaved faultlessly, so it’s not a corrupt project type issue. And the projects are all on a separate SSD
Hi,
Mackie Control preference is stored in the Defaults.xml. My expectation is, the In/Out MIDI Ports are stored there too.
I’m thinking about your crashes. I’m thinking if VSL crash could be related to Cubase crash. By VSL, do you mean Vienna Ensemble Pro (VEPro)? If yes, does the server part crashes or th eplug-in? If the plug-in, I can imagine, Cubase is following.
Thanks. Yes I was thinking that defaults.xml might be the answer - only that’s the one which is most dynamic and I always feel that it’s most likely to have a gremlin in it causing the crashes.
What I might try is build my preferences from scratch again and then save the resulting defaults file out at that stage. The snag is that the file isn’t the same if saved out when Cubase is open. Clearly Cubase writes something to it as the program is closed.
In terms of the crashes…:
They often will crash together - but in (almost) all cases VEPro 7 is completely loaded first. Cubase then still needs to load up various extra bits (looks to me like aux paths and such) and then typically Cubase will crash. VEPro will follow.
And when I say Cubase crashes it tends to just evaporate - as stated elsehwere it doesn’t usually leave a crash log or note.
Within a couple of seconds VEPro falls over as well and DOES leave a crash log.
And yes… the server part crashes - the whole damn thing.
Hi,
Could you try to use Microsoft ProcDump utility, please? Hopefully, it will leave a *.dmp file.
Microsoft ProcDump - I assume that only works on Windows…
Hi,
Yes. Are you on Mac? Could you add your system to the signature, please? It’s quite useful information.