Sound cutting out while playing vst instrument

Cubase
,
1

Please help

Whenever I am playing a vst instrument and I have a few tracks loaded, the sound of the vst instrument i am playing would cut out (while playing live. works fine during playback) and sound like a very short staccato.

I have tried everything and I only have this issue with cubase 10 to 10.5

This issue is not present on cubase 9

2

Hi and welcome,

Could you try to increase Buffer Size, please?

3

Thanks for the reply Martin. I will do this and reply with results. However, my current buffer size is 228 samples. 48KHz
PC specs: Core i8 8th gen, 16gb ram, SSD drives

4

Hi,

If you are on Windows, you can also try to test your system by using LatencyMon utility.

5

Hi,
I did a test using Latencymon and I got this result

Please check image in the link above

Thank you

6

Hi,

It looks good. Then try to increase the Buffer Size, please.

7

Hi, Martin
I have been testing with a higher buffer size of 512+ samples and it seems to be fine.
Will update if problem persists

8

I think it’s safe to say that a high buffer size fixes this problem. However, I love the idea of running my audio interface at a low buffer setting; because my CPU can handle it lolz

Thanks for your help

9

Try freezing your other tracks (if you have not already) if they are also vsti’s or have plugins inserted, that could save some realtime cpu.
I can record at 256 buffersize in a larger project with lots of vsti’s, but all tracks freezed otherwise i am having pops and clicks.
And that’s an older PC, but no probs.

10

Hi,

I’m no expert, but I disagree your latency monitor results look good. They say your computer is struggling to manage real time audio and recommend you investigate your machine’s setting further (e.g. CPU boost, BIOS)

Steve

11

Hi,

Actually, you are right. I didn’t read it patiently. I just saw it’s more or less green.

12

Thanks everyone for the replies. I will try to look into the BIOS settings.
However, remember I only have this issue with cubase 10 to 10.5

This issue is/was not present on cubase 9, even on my old core i5 laptop

13

It may be the increased demands of 10.5 have made this issue noticeable on your machine. Your old i5 laptop may have been more optimised for real time audio than your new i7 laptop. In my limited experience I would say it is definitely worth trying to optimise your new machine. Good luck.

Steve.

14

Thanks for your contribution plectrumboy.

From the Latencymon results, I see that ACPI.sys is the culprit. I discovered that if disabled Microsoft ACPI-compliant method battery in the device manager, my Latencymon test comes out as normal. No issues.

This fix however removes my laptop battery indicator which does not sit well with my OCD so I will just carry on with higher than usual buffer settings.

I will be doing a test soon with acpi-compliant method battery disabled, set a low buffer size and see if the issue comes up or not.

15

:laughing:

16

I have done the test and the problem is still there even with good latencymon results. I think Cubase 10.5 is just more demanding on the CPU.
Hopefully this can be fixed in future versions. At least I can uninstall my cubase 9 now and run my ver 10.5 on a higher buffer size.

Hopefully I wont have to switch DAW altogether