So Weird! Warbling guitar track. Cubase 11 - I feel like I am going insane

Hi Cubase users. Let’s see if I can explain this to some reasonable detail:

Decent size mixing session on C11 (80 tracks), CPU holding up well (24 Core Skylake and using an M.3 drive / 64GB RAM), Stable ASIO setting and buffer of 128 for mixing.
One track is a 4 measure count of electric guitar - no issue with the recording, I can hear the track in the waveform editor with no issues, but when I play it back in the mix, it “warbles” on the fading out note.
So, I removed all compressors from the chain (track and group), and even removed the amp sim, the track still does the “warbling”, BUT if I put the track in Listen mode, it behaves normally with no artifacts at all.

What am I missing? Been using Cubase since V3 or so, and never had an issue like this.

Thanks in advance!

Hi,

Do you have any plug-in on the Stereo Out or Monitor Channel/Bus?

Hi Martin,
I only had a tape plugin on the submix buss, and nothing on the stereo out (except a meter), and I did disable those. My confusion comes from the fact that in “listen” mode for that track there is no issue.

Thanks for your reply.

Hi,

Could you share the project (maybe just the affected track), please?

Are you sure there is no pitch change in the infoline or a pitch algo selected, or in musical mode or Vari Audio enabled?

I may be able to share the track file, but first I’ll check what LoveGames suggested. There is a tempo change right before this track kicks in, but I pretty sure that the track was recorded at the post-tempo change. I won’t be able to get back to it until tonight.

Thanks to all for your suggestions!

It’s really the only possibility in mind, especially if the file playback normally in the editor.