Stutter/Pause on first playback when instrument first plays.

Cubase
,
#1

Hello,
Cubase Pro 10.20. Win7, i5 4670k, 16GB, Scarlett 2i2 SSD system, HDD Steinberg Content.

Recently installed C10 and on almost all tracks I have bad stutter/pausing on first playback of a track (even simple ones with a couple of instruments) when an instrument first plays. Affects all instruments to some extent - Kontakt, Repro, GrooveAgent etc.
Doesn’t do it at all on 2nd playthrough.

ie - the track will start playing ok, first time it plays a note for an instrument, pauses for half a second or so then carries on.
This always throws out the timing of any arpeggiators etc, so I have no choice but to play the track right through with stutters, then play it again without.


What is really baffling though: I have Cubase Pro 9.5.50 installed on the same machine, in the same locations and on the same disks - and it NEVER does it.

Checked that C10 copied preferences from 9.5 when installing. ASIO settings identical. Utterly puzzled.
Any ideas?

#2

Hi,

Make sure your plug-ins are up-to-date.

Try to increase Buffer Size of your Audio Device.

#3

Hi,
Thanks for the reply.
I’ve tried increasing the ASIO buffer and all plugins are up to date (well, K5 instead of K6, but still latest version of K5).
Makes no difference.
Same buffer size in C9.5 works fine with no pausing, only affecting C10.


It’s almost like Cubase 10 isn’t initializing instruments properly when opening a track and only initializes them on 1st play (as soon as the transport reaches that instrument).
Where 9.5 initializes them all fine and lets me play through with no pause.

I’ve looked everywhere and can’t see any setting about pre-load or pre-buffer or pre-cache, but there has to be something different in that respect between C9.5 and C10.
Anyone?

#4

Hi,

Double check ASIO-Guard settings in the Studio Setup > VST Audio System, please. Is it the same in your Cubase 9.5 and Cubase 10? Do you use 32- or 64 bit float Processing Precision in Cubase 10?

#5

Both set to “Normal” ASIO Guard and 32 bit float in both.
I’ve been through every Studio Setup page as well as preferences and checked every tick and entry one by one, both are identical. :frowning:

#6

Hi,

Could you try to trash (backup before) Cubase 10 preferences and start Cubase 10 again, please?

#7

Thanks for the suggestion
Will do later today when back at workstation. Will post feedback once tried.
Cheers.

#8

Hi,
Tried creating a whole new profile, all reset (though little was changed as I don’t mess with preferences at all except a couple of minor personalisations).
Still happening.
Checked DPCLat and no spikes while it’s happening. No CPU or RAM spikes either. Performance monitor showed no massive increase.
Checked that any Kontakt instrument was fully loaded into memory before playback.

Any more ideas?
Thanks.

#9

Hi Poet, did you resolve this issue?
I get the same problem. I get a stutter at the point that my vocals/samples first start and the performance meter maxes out but only when I first start playing the song. After that initial stutter, all plays normally.

#10

Hi,

Have you tried to increase your Audio Device buffer size?

#11

Hi Martin, thanks for your reply. I’m not at my PC at the moment & can’t remember my audio buffer setting. I will check this when I get home and feed back to you. Cheers

#12

Don’t know if this will help. I used to have a similar problem with v9.5. Used to try all sorts of things on the Studio/ASIO setup page. Sometimes found that increasing disk pre-load to 4 or even 6 seconds would help. But it was a random thing that often depended on what instruments I had active in certain projects.
About two months ago I changed my system drive and library drive [both hdd] to ssd. Never had a problem since - although I did upgrade to Cubase 10 as well. Nevertheless, if you can afford it, maybe change that hdd to ssd - even an external usb3 ssd will be much faster than an internal hdd.

#13

Hi Martin & Wanderer,

Martin, my buffer was set to 256. I changed this to 512.

Wanderer, my system drive and sample drive are both SSD’s but I did change the disk pre-load setting from 2 to 6. I need to test it out on some more songs but so far, taking these steps seems to have solved my issue.

Thank you both for your advice, it’s much appreciated.

Riddim

#14

Hi,

I would also recommend to test your system by LatencyMon a follow the advices, if there would be any.