I have Cubase 10 and have recently bought the Babyface Pro. In general very happy with latency etc, but I have a problem when changing buffer rates in a project.
If it is is a small project with not much in it I can change buffer rates and the project continues to function smoothly.
If it is a more complex project ( with the performance meter showing 2/3 filled) I can play the project back at any buffer rate, but once I set the rate I cannot change it while the project is open or else the performance meter goes blank and there is no sound output on playback - nothing on the meters. This happens if I am both decreasing or increasing buffer sizes.
I don’t understand why this is happening in projects which aren’t really maxed out in terms of load. The fact it is not happening in projects with low loads suggests my settings are correct, and it has something to do with the loads, or perhaps a particular plug-in - I have’t gone through all of them yet.
I can live with this behaviour but would rather not if someone has a suggestion.
As a side note, which may help others, I was initially frustrated when I first installed the Babyface as even with low latencies of 3ms I was getting delay. I couldn’t work out the problem until I eliminated plugins one by one. I found the Oeksound’s Soothe plug in was the culprit. As soon as that was taken out there was no latency at all. It must be doing something strange with regard to that.
I’ve had that issue with multiple soundcards in the past, since cubase SX3. multiface, fireface 800, raydat… and other soundcards like TC impact twin.
It hasn’t occurred to me in a few years, since I built the computer I now work on. So stay enthusiastic about it, you could very well fix it down the line!
In my experience it was mostly connected to heavy CPU load. I also found that it was always more prone to happen if I was applying a strain on the computer in real time (example, doing the switch during playback). Taking the time to pause recording or playback, give it a few seconds, switch buffer size, come back to it after 5-6 seconds. I recall that this helped, somewhat.
I’m taking for granted that you are working on a windows system…
But here are a few things I would like to eliminate, starting with the obvious:
-Make sure your USB drivers are up to date
-make sure you are using a USB 3 port
-make sure that in your power scheme, USB ports cannot be disabled for energy saving
-in device manager, right click every USB port appearance, and disable this option there also
-Do you have MMCSS enabled in the RME driver? It should be for cubase.
-make sure your power plan is set to minimum CPU at 100%
-might have to do with EIST, turbo boost or C-State being turned on in your BIOS
-try it with network adapter disabled in device manager.
-Right click your computer folder, properties, and in performance, make sure your computer is set to ‘‘optimize background services’’
Then as you said, sometimes it can be a plugin issue. Some can jeopardize the stability of the whole thing, and some certainly add some latency as you found out! That’S pretty common
HT is NOT supposed to help with DAWS in general, especially with the lowest latencies.
From my understanding, it’s best for system stability, and cpu strain in general other then the small latency compromise. So you can try it both ways and see for yourself.
EIST: even in steinberg power-scheme, with CPU on 100%, this function can still affect performance and stability. So having it on or not, depends on if you want to save energy with general CPU consumption, vs TOP performance. If you use your computer for your DAW only, disable it. If you use the computer to do everything, leave it on but make sure you use steinberg power-scheme or have cpu use set to 100% in the power scheme in use in cubase
Then, with some asus boards and intel chips, a recent fix has put a hit on CPU performance, so it might also be worth it to look into that.
God damn I wish the tech part of a DAW was simpler, it would make the whole thing much more appealing
I have a similar issue with an rme fireface 800 running in windows 10. Did you ever resolve your issue? Please report back if you find a solution. Thanks.
Sorry not in front of my computer, but disable any Windows audio in the RME software.
Use a different audio interface for Windows sounds, and keep RME asio only.
That solved some strange issues with no audio or highly distorted audio at lower buffer settings for me.
OK, I thought I’d already tried this strategy with no success, but I tried it today and for some reason it worked like a charm. YMMV.
I changed the sample rate and the usual thing of the audio performance meter disappearing and no sound happen.
I simply unplugged the USB cable from the Babyface - a dialog then pops up in Cubase asking what alternative ASIO driver I would like to use. I thought I had already tried this and the only result I got by doing it was Cubase freezing and crashing. This time, however, the dialog box popped up, and without doing anything else I popped the cable straight back into the Babyface and the dialog box disappeared. The audio performance meter then sprang back into life and I got sound. I then tried changing the sample rate a few times and each time Cubase worked fine. I did not need to take the cable out every time, or at all. It seems to be stable and functioning at the moment. We’ll see how we go.
