[SOLVE] Why Aren’t Insert Plugins Included in Cubase Control Room Profile Saves?

Cubase
1

Message:

One year later, the issue still persists, and I’d like to share a few more thoughts based on my daily use of Cubase.

I’m surprised this hasn’t sparked more discussion, considering how frequently this can happen when switching Control Room profiles. Personally, I’ve stopped using insert plugins in the Control Room for anything other than headphone monitoring — which is unfortunate, since it’s a powerful feature for speaker calibration, listening tools, and more.

When switching Control Room profiles, the insert plugins in both the Monitor and the Global Insert sections are not preserved. This leads to two major problems:

  1. All insert plugins are lost when changing profiles, and we must reinsert them manually — a process that is easy to forget and disrupts workflow.
  2. If the audio interface is not powered on before launching Cubase, the profile is lost. Even after restoring the desired profile, the insert plugins are still gone.

This behavior discourages the use of plugins in the Control Room, which is ironic considering how flexible this feature is meant to be. In contrast, Wavelab allows users to save full master section configurations — including plugins — with each session profile, which is incredibly convenient.

I understand that some users may not face this issue often — perhaps because:

  • they rarely change profiles,
  • they don’t use plugins in Control Room inserts,
  • or they don’t encounter driver load failures at startup.

Still, for those who do use these features regularly, it’s a real limitation.
Would it be possible in a future Cubase version to include insert plugins as part of the saved Control Room profile?

For reference, here is the post I originally shared last year:
:backhand_index_pointing_right: Problems with Saving and Restoring Insert Plugins in Cubase Control Room Profile

Note: I also submitted this request in the official Cubase user survey on May 10, 2025, suggesting that users should be able to save plugin settings in the Monitor, Insert, and Cue sections of the Control Room — just like they can on individual track inserts. Hopefully this additional feedback helps support future improvements.

Thanks again for reading, and I’d appreciate any thoughts or workarounds from fellow users.

— Robert (Joliciel)

1 Like
2

It works for me.
I assume when you speak of CR profiles you mean a CR preset in the Audio Connections dialog.

3 Likes
3

Hi Robert,

like @Johnny_Moneto, I assume you are talking about the Control Room Presets under the tab Studio/Audio Connections/Control Room.
Each time you save a new preset it will be stored in the actual ControlRoomPresets.xml file which resides in your preference folder. Each file contains information about the insert plugins which are associated with that preset and they should be loaded - this is the expected behaviour and it works here as well (C14 Win 10).

Are you by any chance talking about Control Room Presets that have vanished into thin air all together? In this case you cannot see any preset in your audio connections dialog and the actual ControlRoomPresets.xml file will be somewhere around 30 kb. If this is the case, than you should backup your ControlRoomPresets.xml file once you have setup and stored all your different presets in a session that you want to keep.

If this is not the case - can you provide more specifics like OS, Cubase version etc?
Are there any specific plugins which display this behaviour? Here it works with stock and 3rd party plugins as expected.

2 Likes
4

Hi @Johnny_Moneto and @Reco29,

Thank you both very much for your replies!

Yes, I was referring to the Control Room presets in the Audio Connections dialog (F4) — and after trying again today, it actually worked! I inserted all my monitor and global insert plugins, saved the preset under the same name… and when switching back and forth between other presets, the insert plugins were preserved perfectly. I was genuinely surprised.

I have to admit — this might have been a classic Code 18 situation (as in, 18 inches from the screen :sweat_smile:). For some reason, I used to lose the plugins even after saving, but it’s now working as expected. Either I had previously forgotten to re-save the preset after inserting the plugins, or something didn’t register properly.

In any case, I’ve now successfully created and tested my profiles, and they do retain the insert plugins, both stock and third-party. I’ll also follow your advice and back up the ControlRoomPresets.xml file from my preferences folder — that’s very helpful.

Thanks again for helping me clarify this!
I’m glad I posted the question again — and even happier that I’ve now learned something I can confidently use in my workflow going forward.

Warm regards,
Robert (Joliciel)

4 Likes
5

@Joliciel Thank you very much for this really nice reply, much appreciated :slight_smile:
Glad that it works now :+1:

3 Likes