I have experienced a strange phenomenon, several times already. I work with Windows 10. In a Cubase Pro 15 project with around 60 channels—most with VST instruments from VSL and some from Iconica—I am working somewhere around measure 140. And when I subsequently play the project again from the beginning, I suddenly hear that the performance is too slow. Yet, I still read the correct tempo of 161 BPM in the Project Window. However, when I have a separate Metronome follow the actual tempo being played, it turns out that the music is actually being played at 140 BPM. In other words, the playback tempo is considerably slower than what is indicated. This always happens when I restart from the beginning, after having worked somewhere in the middle of the project. To be clear, this phenomenon does not occur every time I start from the beginning, but I have experienced it at least a dozen times by now. I tried everything to get out of this, but so far the only way that works for me is closing the project and reopening it. The normal gameplay speed is then restored.
Does anyone else have experience with this? Maybe he/she knows what causes this and how to get out of it without having to close and reopen the project…
Strange indeed, never had this happen to me.
This will be an obvious question, but are you using a tempo track?
Yes, I am. And there are quite a lot tempo changes, most of them very subtile…
Never happened here. Is it just this project or does it also happen elsewhere?
I know it sounds like a broken record but have you tried opening the project with preferences temporarily disabled? You never know.
All drivers (especially ASIO driver) are up to date?
How is the RAM situation? Any spikes?
Performance?
Thought so.
Perhaps Cubase is not picking up the tempo correctly when coming back to a place.
I would check the tempo track, and would perhaps try “add tempo automation points” basically increasing the “resolution” so that Cubase has more chances to pick up the right tempo upon rewind. Just an idea.
I did add now some additional tempo points at the beginning of the tempo track, so that Cubase would always read at least one of them, when I restart from the beginning.
The project starts with Bar 0, but the music starts with Bar 1. When restarting, I often place the cursor at 0.3 or manually somewhere in Bar 0. Now there will always be point read when restarting.
Lets see what happens… But the annoying part is that it only happens ‘from time to time’…
It is a fairly recent phenomenon. I don’t think I had it when I was still working with version Pro 14. And since then, it has only occurred in that one project. But I have only worked on two projects since my upgrade to 15, and the second one is a much simpler piece, with only 12 channels…
The annoying thing is that it only occurs occasionally, which makes it difficult to make a proper ‘diagnosis’.
But OK, it’s not really a disaster; I just have to restart the project…
I don’t think that my computer has something to do with it: 128RAM and 16 cores. The Task Manager indicates that there is more than enough headroom.
What are your midi settings in the preferences? Reset on stop, chasing events, Filter setting?