It does a body good.
Ive used Cubase for a long time aswell, and the thing about being a Cubase user is that you`ll have to wait, and hope, wait a little longer, hope, wait, and when the next update arrives it fixes some bugs and introduce some others, it has been like this for ages…
Still use Cubase for many things, its a great DAW, but not to run in front of clients imho, Im sorry, just to many setbacks over the years compared to another daw!
move along now
Unfortunately there’s no good link between running a flawless stress test designed to test the capabilities of the basic hardware of your computer and getting a flawless software performance. If your problem lies within the realm that prime95 covers then you’d most likely get bluescreens, restarts, total system freezing and the likes.
Also unfortunately, there’s no good way to know if a particular system will run a particular software (in the case of DAWs, adding the additional complication of audio interfaces and drivers) without problems, you’ll either have to buy from a specialized builder or scout around forums to see what systems other people run without issues.
I’ve also been using Cubase since VST32 and always on home built systems, either I’ve been lucky or Cubase has proven to be a very stable software. The few times I’ve had stability issues related to Cubase are, well, few.
The last big problem I had (recordings that got cut off randomly or got filled with buffer errors) took me a week to troubleshoot.
The culprit? The energy management on my graphics card. I imagine few people would hesitate to blame either their DAW software or audio hardware first for such a problem…
Now, to solve your problem, you need to give some good specs of your hardware and software and tell us how far you’ve gotten with your troubleshooting.
/A
move along now
I have had no real problems with Cubase 6 64bit.
I had the computer built for me and tested by a reputable Music Computer company.
The problems that I have experienced have been with other software not going 64 bit.
There is also the “Lanes” issue.
However I have been doing some major project work without any problem. I even upgraded mid project and imported mid-project!
I was very surprised and pleased.
Personaly I’m really happy with Cubase 6 … I run it on windows 7 64 bits and it’s rock solid. I tried it on windows xp before and it wasn’t as stable. Most of the time, when it crashes, it’s because of the plugins or the hardware and not the DAW itself. I work for a big studio in Montreal and it’s all protools 9 there … believe me when I get back home and open cubase I am in heaven. I hate AVID and their mentality and I think that the only reason why they removed the hardware limitation of protools 9 is because they were loosing a big part of the market with DAWs like cubendo and logic on the market.
Aloha
Just to chime in.
Got Cubase in 1993.
Been using it to make a living since 1994.
Some major probs with SX1-2.
No major probs since SX3. (xcept for that major graphics prob)
IMHO Cubase really got solid with C4 and has been so since.
No probs in front of clients.
I also use ptools/logic/dp/sonar/sebelius
I would like to use reaper but no scoring functions included.
{‘-’}
Yadda, yadda, yadda. I’m a professional and Cubase doesn’t work so instead of calling Steinberg support or writing a formal business letter informing Steinberg of the nature of my business and the problems I’m experiencing (in the detail that I refuse to divulge here) with their software I’ll natter pointlessly on a forum designed to be used by other users to inform each other of minor problems and fixes and update info from the manufacturer, and which can only safely be used to inform Steinberg of specific bugs and issues.
If your problems are that bad really, you won’t get them fixed here. Your studio needs serious technical assistance. This isn’t it.
I do mean well and that’s the best advice I can give you.
Also been a Steinberg user since vst32 days and still use it everyday, C6, “in front of clients” as well as Pro Tools 9.
Both have their issues and I have my workarounds, but C6 is 98% solid and gets used for both tracking and mixing. Though I prefer Pro Tools(non HD) for post, it can’t touch Cubase for tracking flexibility at the mo.
Obviously a level 5 error…
Everything pretty rock-solid here too…
5mins for a shut down is excessive - not acceptable. This has to be a case of something else on your system that is holding up/preventing Cubase from terminating its process in a swift manner. Really…!!
Here, its typically a few seconds to shut down Cubase (60 - 80 tracks, mostly audio; or, not a lot longer for bigger MIDI loaded projects of say 150 - 180+ tracks for composition). See sig for version and system specs.
Your system:-
- Any peripherals connected that you could do without…? Try disconnecting, see if things improve.
- Not connected to internet are you.?
- Any AV and/or firewalls at play…?
- A slow/‘dodgy’ external hard drive that could be holding ‘write states’ up…?
- And FINALLY, the plugin list used. At shut-down, any of these could be in some sort of bad timed loop waiting for something to happen (which, due to some coding issue, its not going to get…!) before it moves on and closes. All the while, Cubase is quietly also waiting patiently for said plugin to respond and then, when it still doesn’t receive any response after a few minutes(!), decides oh well, I’m going to shut down anyway. Leaving you with the impression that Cubase is just being so dumb, and wondering what the hell its hanging around for.
In short, sorry, but I can’t see that this is a complaint of Cubase per se.
I too have noticed that since C6, Cubase seem to takes longer
(than C5) to:
1-Close the Project Window
2-Close Mixer Windows (sometimes they never close)
3-Save/Quit.
So I am stuck with 6.02 (see sig) on my laptop because
I use this machine live on stage and I need to be able
to quickly close one song and then load another.
I use .04 on my desktop where closing and loading is not so critical.
C5 on both machines does not exhibit this behavior.
But then after reading Puma0382’s post I now realize that
this may be a 3rd party issue. In my case SampleTank/NI stuff.
I’ll try doing a few songs with just the VST Collection (O NO MISTER BILL!)
just to see if the prob clears.
{‘-’}
SB has been informed of the issue the OP stated. They were informed over a year and a version ago. And nothing. What is he supposed to do?
There is nothing on his system that is holding up/preventing Cubase from terminating - it’s not just him. It’s everybody else:
Aren’t you in that thread?
Opto > try “run as admin” option - that should take care of the shutdown problem.
Cheers.
Yes - you know I am; an early squabble there, re a held power button ‘shut-down’ scenario only.
And I’m not questioning the problem/complaint; just where the culprit/solution may lie. I still say its the system, not Cubase. It has to be (obviously) some interaction gremlin - so ok, Cubase is not off the hook entirely; but, someone needs to help pinpoint system differences. I mean, my version of Cubase is EXACTLY the same as everyone elses. You having the issue (occasionally) with no project loaded, with a project loaded; with or without plugins etc, etc., and then there’s the many, many others having no such problems, same Cubase, similar hardware etc, etc, doesn’t therefore mean it HAS to be a Cubase issue for SB to resolve. That’s all I’m saying.
I can just take an example from today, used the SMPTE generator, and then used the “set the timecode at cursor”
Worked 40 min and then it used the old settings, I had to reload the song, its always this small things that you never bother to tell because next time you load up a sesssion it works!
Ive tons of glitches to tell, 6.02 I can say is very good anyway but…
Like the smpte generator, I set timcode at cursor, didnt work after 40 min (then it was back to old values) and it didnt work after I tried to set it again, had to reload the whole song then it worked again!
Bouncing audio seems to work, but when you try to open up that song again it doesnt recon the fileformat?? No solution more than to record it again!
Video engine was fine in 6.02 but not in 6.03 (this is one thing that has to work for me everytime, there is no space for experiment and let cubase users beta test it) maybe things is better n 6.04 but never dared to try it yet!
And I still get blue screens once in a while (though not very often) and then you always have to defend Cubase as a Pro recording software, and I´ve always done that but as OP says, Im beginning to get tired of all this now!
SB has been informed of the issue the OP stated. They were informed over a year and a version ago. And nothing. What is he supposed to do?
What? The OP contacted support and / or wrote a formal business letter outlining the specific serious problems he’s having?
What’s the point of a professional businessman vaguely moaning on a general forum? Even here they need specifics, breakdowns and descriptions. This just sounds like a collegeboy crying to me. Telling the forum you are a serious businessman with buggy sofware you can’t use with paying customers is not going to get anything fixed if you can’t describe the faults in a businesslike way.
I’m a pretty terrible businessman but I have been known to drop many programs like a shot if they get in the way. New versions very rarely fix anything regarded as generally serious. Too much is built in at source.
If Cubase is getting in your way. Drop it. It’s as simple as that. Steinberg has your account details. If they don’t see you buying the next version they’ll want to know why especially if you’re joined by (apparently) “everyone else”.
Puma seems to have got it about right. I don’t see why some have it hard-wired that it’s got to be Cubase all the time, every day.
Cubase, along with many other large programs can take time to shut down. Depends what else is going on in the system. Updates, virus checks and Windows maintenance throw many spanners around.
Doesn’t matter to me too much as after I shut Cubase down I put the kettle on and clean up the studio and wind up the wires, check the books and so on. Usually takes much longer for me to shut down than Cubase.
And if something serious does happen with Cubase I always check my system out thoroughly, hardware and software. It would take me weeks to shout “Bug!” for sure. Even on a clean machine there’s usually about thirty (plus many more typically) other programs you don’t see milling about all doing their toilet in the registry. That all impacts on anything large and complicated like Cubase. And that’s besides “Services”.
You can do stress tests all you like and have had the computer taken aboard the space shuttle to count black holes but if you don’t check the Task Manager and the registry now and again you can end up with some funny problems.
You know, I am one of the first ones to usually say that an issue is not app, but system related (see old forum) - but not this time. There are too many people with too many configs who have this problem. And when you (well, me) takes out all of the variables (sound card, plugs, VIs, etc) and has this issue after a clean OS/Cubase/nothing else install, what’s left? The OS.
Well, he may not have, but I have.
Cheers.
move along now
May not be what you want to hear, but Cubase 6 has been the most stable Cubase for me in years. I regularly run huge 100+ track, 100+ minute projects – sometimes for 18-hour marathon stretches that include video – without a single crash or hiccup or dropout, at a comfortable 128-sample latency (easily lower than that on smaller projects). It’s been an astonishing experience of reliability and performance, to be frank. I feel like the combination of Windows 7, the maturity of drivers and Cubase have coalesced into a perfect storm of DAWesomeness, and I’m sometimes scared when I think I might have to upgrade this system in the next year! 
Will I ever get this balance of reliability and performance again? But then I just go back to slamming the system hard all day and all night, and it just keeps ticking…
I’ve learned through many cycles of frustration and agony, though, that a DAW is only as reliable as the hardware it’s running on, and you have to eliminate the hardware as the weak link… and my system is tightly configured for DAW-only use, dedicated to Cubase and Wavelab. I don’t have anything (including drivers) installed on here other than the DAW and selected plugins and drivers that I know work reliably. I don’t even install such things as Adobe Acrobat or Flash (I use another computer for all that stuff). Nothing that isn’t directly related to the DAW goes on the DAW. Period. Even on my laptop DAW (which is almost as reliable), I’ve disabled every device that could interfere with latency and tweaked it so I get ultra-stable DPC latency, for example.
I’ve also given up on all bit bridges (except VE Pro if you want to consider that a bridge of sorts), and just stick to either pure 64-bit projects or pure 32-bit projects (depending on whether or not a plugin I need is x64 yet). I stick to known, proven firewire cards (TI based of course), solid enterprise-type graphics cards (using Quadro NVS cards currently with good success), the best-rated power supplies I can get (using the best rated Corsair, Seasonic and Silverstone power supplies right now), etc… and I keep Windows as simple and streamlined as possible. Plus, I no longer overclock. Once I started taking my hardware dead seriously, the results have been… well…
INSANELY GOOD!
Shockingly, PT9 has been almost as reliable. I can get it to hiccup and cough with certain video codecs when doing post, but in general it’s been almost as impressive as Cubase 6 for stability. It seems this round of DAWs are working beautifully, at least for me. I run PT9 with similar reliability on a similarly-tweaked and dedicated system.
I think the key in my case has been the selection and configuration of hardware, drivers, etc. I know some people just have trouble after trouble, and I totally understand that frustration, having been through that at different times in the past. But with a totally clean installation on top-flight hardware, very careful attention to detail with the hardware, software and driver installation, it’s possible to get a system that is amazingly solid.
If you just can’t get your system to that level of reliability, even after trying everything you can think of, then I’d humbly recommend you hire a DAW builder/consultant to help… someone who has a proven track record of getting a DAW working beautifully… someone who knows the ins and outs of everything… from the BIOS, drivers, services, DAW apps, plugins, etc., far better than I do… or simply buy a fully-configured/tweaked system from a DAW vendor with the software pre-installed. There are vendors that will do that for you. I’ve done both (gotten professional DAW consulting and also purchased custom pre-configured DAWs) with great results when I’ve been desperate. I ended up learning a ton so I could feel more confident on my next personal, custom build. I hesitate to name names, but in the US, I’ll at least mention ADK Pro Audio (I’m not affiliated with them in any way) – they have at least two people I’ve had lengthy interactions with (possibly more that I never talked with) who know how to get a DAW working better than I ever imagined possible. There are several other pros lurking on various forums and that you can find via Google, etc., that I know of and have talked with over the years with astonishing expertise. Ask around in different DAW forums, these guys will pop up, and you can DM them and offer them a consulting job to help you. It is worth it to seek those people out and frankly, if you’re a pro, you don’t have time to “beta” test all the components of your system. Just hire a pro or buy a pre-built system and get back to what you do… producing music!
Anyway, this is all meant in best wishes so you can get a system running the way you need it to. As a pro, your requirements and expectations are higher… and thus you may need to approach the hardware/software config from another perspective than a regular consumer and hobbyist user. I assure you, it is possible to get there… and when it works as reliably as I’ve had it working for this generation of DAW apps (specifically C6 and PT9 in my case), it is a true pleasure to use these programs and get work done.
Good luck!
EDIT: BTW, I’m not suggesting that the main DAW software isn’t the culprit sometimes… I should have mentioned that… there are always going to be bugs, etc… but in my many years of frustration (and many DAWs I’ve built or bought), I’ve found that in most cases, there is a hardware, driver or configuration issue that is causing the problem before the DAW app… and in the case of Cubase 6 and Pro Tools 9, I’ve found this to be even more the case for some reason. Even something like a power supply, believe it or not, can have a direct effect on the stability of a project in some cases, especially under heavy load and low latencies. I’ve had everything like that happen to me, including sticks of RAM that pass memtest beautifully, but still give me problems until I switch them out. Minor configuration changes with Windows, or even with a version of a specific driver can have an impact. A DAW consultant I hired told me not to use so-and-so version driver because he knew it caused more DPC spikes than an older one, for example… the list goes on and on… and frankly, it’s a black art. Either you’re lucky, or you’re a natural magician, or… you need to get some help from someone who is… in order for you get the max out of your system… especially if you are a pro, you don’t have time to mess around with all these little headaches.