🐞 SpectraLayers Pro 11.0.70 ARA Freeze with Drag & Drop in Nuendo 14.0.30 (Windows 11)

[nabw]

Product Info:
• SpectraLayers Pro 11.0.70
• Nuendo 14.0.30
• OS: Windows 11
• CPU: Intel Core i9-12900K
• RAM: 64GB
• GPU: RTX 5060 Ti
• Running SpectraLayers via ARA (Extension)

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Issue Description

When using SpectraLayers via ARA within Nuendo, I’m encountering serious responsiveness issues — specifically temporary but significant freezes — under certain operations. These freezes eventually resolve after 5–30 seconds, but they disrupt the editing workflow considerably.

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Steps to Reproduce
1. In Nuendo 14.0.30, apply “Extension > SpectraLayers” to an audio event.
2. Open the event in SpectraLayers ARA.
3. Edit a layer within SpectraLayers.
4. Drag and drop the edited layer back into Nuendo’s Edit Window.
5. Nuendo freezes (temporarily, but for a noticeable amount of time).
6. Attempting to reapply “Make Extension” on the same event causes another temporary freeze.
7. Interestingly, using “Remove Extension” avoids the issue entirely.

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Additional Notes
• This behavior did not occur in Nuendo 13 using the same (or earlier) version of SpectraLayers.
• In Nuendo 13, responsiveness was significantly better, and drag-and-drop operations were smooth.
• The issue appears specific to the Nuendo 14.0.30 + SpectraLayers 11.0.40 combination.

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Expected Behavior

Drag-and-drop and extension handling between SpectraLayers and Nuendo should be smooth, responsive, and free from long freezes or delays.

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Actual Behavior

Temporary freezes (30 seconds - a few minutes) happen during common ARA operations, especially when dragging layers back into Nuendo or using “Make Extension” again.

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Questions
• Is anyone else seeing this behavior on Nuendo 14?
• Is this a known regression?
• Are there plans to improve ARA stability in the near future?

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Professional Context and Feedback

I’d also like to emphasize a broader concern: there are currently too many ARA-related issues.
While ARA is an excellent bridge for cross-DAW workflows and a smart move to reach users of other platforms, Cubase and Nuendo — as Steinberg’s flagship DAWs — must support ARA features natively and reliably.

As a professional film dialogue editor, I rely on a range of noise reduction tools, but SpectraLayers has become my go-to solution due to its unmatched precision and reliability.
In my work, I handle over 10,000 audio clips per project, performing fine-grained editing directly via ARA.

In film dialogue restoration, we don’t rely on fully automatic AI output — we rely on intelligent separation technology, where our engineering skills and precision truly matter.

That’s why stability and responsiveness with SpectraLayers inside Nuendo is not just a feature request — it’s mission-critical.

Thanks in advance, and I appreciate any insights from the community or development team.

[ctreitzell]

Welcome to the forum
Wow, impressive stuff

@nabw

In film dialogue restoration, we don’t rely on fully automatic AI output — we rely on intelligent separation technology, where our engineering skills and precision truly matter.

I’d like to hear more about this. I’m supposing you mean that you don’t just run a preset and let that result go out the door? In my work, the recordings were done by me on location. So I always run “unmix noisy speech” and then manually fine tune the Good Noise verses Unwanted noise. My preferred DAW doesn’t support ARA, so I work standalone. And from all I read about ARA issues, I’m pleased with my workflow.

Anyway, I suppose that’s a discussion for another thread.

I will say I have stayed with 11.0.40 build395 for months and only last week went with the 0.70 update…which has been exhibiting similar issue to versions beyond 0.40. I still haven’t rolled back, though.

[nabw]

Thanks for your reply — I really appreciate hearing about your workflow as well.

Regarding AI-based processing:
What I do isn’t like SuperToneClear or Waves Clarity, where content is synthesized or “filled in.”
Instead, I focus on enhancing the quality of the original sound I recorded, through careful separation, not generation.

I do use some SpectraLayers presets as starting points — but it’s often a painstaking, layered process, sometimes with three or more overlapping separation passes to isolate the target sound just right. It takes time and precision.

That’s why, honestly, I try to avoid the extra steps involved in working with the standalone version.
My ideal setup would be to work natively inside the Nuendo Edit Window, with full integration, minimal friction, and no need to bounce audio back and forth.

[Kay_Thomsen]

Hi, in order to have all components correctly updated and installed, please download first and install the latest version of SpectraLayers 11.0.70 from the SDA. If the mentioned crash remains please refer again to that topic. Thanks a lot. Kay

[nabw]

Apologies for the confusion — in my original post, I mistakenly wrote 11.0.40, but I was actually referring to the latest version, 11.0.70.

I always work with the most up-to-date version of SpectraLayers.

[Kay_Thomsen]

Hi nabw, thanks for info. Is it possible to send us a created crash dump? If possible on your side, please also check, if your disk space has still enough disk capacity using the ARA working directory. We recommend to have at least 50 % of disk space free to work with projects within ARA environments. Thanks and cheers Kay

[nabw]

Hi Kay,

Thank you for your reply.

Just to clarify — there was no crash in my case.
The issue occurs when I drag and drop a layer from SpectraLayers into the Nuendo Edit Window.
Nuendo then freezes during the file copy process, but it eventually recovers after about 2–3 minutes.

I’ve confirmed that the working directory has over 50% free disk space, as you recommended.

I tested this on two different systems:

System 1:
• SpectraLayers Pro 11.0.70
• Nuendo 14.0.30
• OS: Windows 11
• CPU: Core Ultra 9 285K
• RAM: 64GB
• GPU: None
• Disk: Over 50% free

System 2 (as mentioned in my original post):
• SpectraLayers Pro 11.0.70
• Nuendo 14.0.30
• OS: Windows 11
• CPU: Intel Core i9-12900K
• RAM: 64GB
• GPU: RTX 5060 Ti
• Disk: Over 50% free

In both cases, this freezing behavior does not occur in Nuendo 13.
That’s why I strongly believe the issue lies on the Nuendo 14 side, rather than in SpectraLayers itself.

As a side note (and I understand this is a broader topic):
If Nuendo supported SpectraLayers natively, rather than through ARA, perhaps issues like this wouldn’t occur in the first place.

Thanks again for your attention to this.
Please let me know if there’s any other information or testing I can provide.

Best regards,
nabw

[nabw]

Hi Kay, just a quick follow-up:

In System 1, I had cloud sync apps like OneDrive and Google Drive installed, which might have been accessing the Documents folder.

To rule out any interference from those services, I made sure System 2 does not have any file sharing or sync apps installed.

The freezing issue still occurred in System 2, so it doesn’t seem to be related to OneDrive or Google Drive.

Just wanted to clarify that for your reference.

Thanks again,
nabw

[Kay_Thomsen]

Hi nabw, we will try to investigate that issue. On two of our Windows 11 systems here, SL 11.0.70 and Nuendo 14.0.30, the freeze cannot currently be reproduced. So you have still the Nuendo 13 version installed right? As a work arround, can you also please try to re-install both versions, Sl 11.0.70 and Nuendo 14.0.30 via SDA and then try the same action again? Thx Kay

[nabw]

Hi Kay,

Thank you for the follow-up.

Just to clarify:

The second system was completely reinstalled from scratch — a clean installation of Windows, with only Nuendo 14.0.30 and SpectraLayers 11.0.70 installed.

So no, Nuendo 13 is not present on that machine.

If time allows tomorrow, I’ll run some additional tests on the first system, which still has Nuendo 13 installed.

I’ll check how SpectraLayers 11.0.70 behaves there and report back.

On a side note, may I ask — is there any internal discussion or intention at Steinberg regarding native integration of SpectraLayers into Nuendo (i.e., without relying on ARA)?

I must be honest: I’m increasingly frustrated with the limitations and instability of the ARA workflow.

Thanks again for your support. I’ll keep you updated.

Best regards,

nabw

[Kay_Thomsen]

Hi nabw, we are aware to optimize the ARA implmentations for future versions.
Best regards Kay

[nabw]

Thanks for the update, Kay. I appreciate it.

Just a thought — the session I’m currently working on is quite large:

It references around 24,000 files, with a total size of about 360 GB.

Opening the Nuendo project takes about 3–4 minutes, which seems unusually long.

That said, I’m using very fast storage on both systems (high-speed NVMe SSDs),

so I don’t think disk speed is the bottleneck in this case.

I’ve also noticed that during certain operations — such as dragging and dropping a layer into the Edit Window, or applying “Make Extension” or “Remove Extension” —

Nuendo appears to only use a single CPU core, based on Task Manager readings.

I’m not sure if this is expected behavior, but I thought I’d mention it in case it’s relevant to ARA performance.

Thanks again!

[nabw]

Hi Kay,

Following up on my previous message — I’ve done some additional testing, and it turns out the issue doesn’t seem to be version-specific to Nuendo 13 or 14.
Apologies for the earlier assumption.

Test Results:

I was able to reproduce the same freeze when copying a layer into the Edit Window even in Nuendo 13.

That led me to suspect the project itself may be a factor.
So I ran a test using a much lighter session — just 60 MB of audio data — and in that case, no freeze occurred during the same drag-and-drop operation.
(This was tested on both of my systems with Nuendo 14.0.30 and SpectraLayers 11.0.70.)

Problem Project Details:

Here’s some info about the film project where the issue happens:

• Audio files referenced in the Pool: 25,528 files
• Total pool size: 324.81 GB
• Format: Broadcast WAV, 48kHz, 32-bit float

When working on this session with ARA integration, the freeze occurs when copying layers.
So now I’m wondering — could this be a limitation or performance bottleneck within Nuendo itself?

Thanks again for your time, and let me know if you’d like me to share any additional data or test further.

Best regards,
nabw

[Kay_Thomsen]

Hi nabw, thanks again for your answer. We are investigating that topic concerning the audio size and ARA integration.
best regards Kay

[ctreitzell]

@nabw

Audio files referenced in the Pool: 25,528 files

the dreaded pool
this has always scared me away from Cubase
I want to control the source files and manage them as I see fit
yeah, I have to load job specific prefs every time I change a job

I do own Cubase; I just have never really used it. My main DAW is SAWStudio for audio (film) and Reason for music

[nabw]

Thanks for the reply, ctreitzell.

For me, sessions of this size aren’t really that scary — I’ve worked on many like this over the years.

After discovering SpectraLayers, I started relying less on third-party tools via Direct Offline Processing, and began to expect more from Steinberg’s own tool.
To be honest, I already knew from the start that ARA might be the weak link in this setup.

I use Nuendo because I want to get things done quickly — conforming, editing, ADR — all in one application.

Also, when I’m working on dubbing stages where Pro Tools is still involved, I rely on the high precision of the SyncStation for accurate sync.
(Well… it’s discontinued now, but I still depend on it. )

Sure, I’ve always known that better PC specs can boost efficiency — and that’s exactly how I’ve worked for years.
But lately, I’m starting to feel that Nuendo itself is becoming the bottleneck, not the hardware.

Anyway… this is getting a bit off-topic.
Sorry about that