Hi… having real issues here… I have gone through 4 different interfaces… MOTU Ultralite MK3, Mbox3, Apollo Thunderbolt (best performer of the lot), and just plain on board mac sound through headphone out.
The thing is, Cubase is almost impossible to play ANY vsti with “in realtime”, under 128 buffer…
i.e if the track is record armed…
64 causes pops and clicks, 32 sounds like a meat grinder.
The latest test was with Roland JV1080, a relatively light VI compared to many others.
I can not play 4 note chord progressions at anything under 128 buffer in Cubase…
HOWEVER… once i have recorded, and the instrument track is shuffled back onto it’s “asio core” buffer (in my case 1024 samples, the normal setting), Cubase actually beats out Logic in terms of instances and polyphony… for example… when i did my last DSP test using kilohearts ONE synth, i got 14 tacks in logic playing same patch and midi file vs 16 in Cubase. Pro tools rules them all when it’s internal high buffer is instantiated… it would play 20 instances in that scenario, for example.
pro tools once again beat out both Logic and Cubase doing the same test with the JV1080, by around 10% this time.
YET, like Cubase, Pro tools suffers under 128 buffer… HOWEVER, it allowed me to play the JV1080 at 64 buffer using the apollo, which cubase could not manage.
But usually, i have to be at 128.
SR is 44.1K in all tests.
If i was to go to 88 or 96k, i’d have to put it at 256 buffer.
Now, the reason why this is an issue is, because logic allows LIVE PLAYING at 32 buffer, for EVERY single instrument where cubase fails at even 64 buffer.
Yes, once the live playing is done, and the VI’s are shuffled onto the higher internal playback buffer, cubase beats Logic… But for me, and i suspect many others(?), low latency performance is what we want.
I am certain if i invested in a killer windows machine it would all be ok… but i am a mac guy… Looking at an imac pro even but not sure if it will solve my issues (after all, playing a single VI at low latency depends on single core performance)…
To rub more salt in the wound, i set 8 of logic’s VI’s in “live buffer” mode, so 8 of them were at 32 samples, and I was able to play away all 8 simultaneously via my keyboard at 32 buffer… I would be a fool to even try this in cubase if i valued my health!
I am far from alone… I have confirmed this now on 8 other macs of various studio friends, before i wrote this topic… I had to be 100% sure… many of them use much newer macs… So 6 other macs, besides my own 2… In every case, logic can easily play love at 32 or 64 buffer in situations where Cubase falls over.
Steinberg, can you improve this please? This isn;'t a case of an issue with my machine. I have done thorough enough testing to confirm as much… It’s just the way it is.
You yourselves know that Cubase does outperform Logic in an outright polyphony test when using Asio guard, but this is not good enough… I want to play my drum Vi’s at low latency… Sometimes i may want to avoid UA console and also monitor external signals through Cubase and native FX at low latency… Right now, Logic is the KING in that regard…I mean it can basically just do ANYTHING “live”, at 32 samples…Why can’t Cubase?
If you are on MAC, and play VI’s at 32 samples in realtime, please state processor spec and interface… Much appreciated!
PS does anyone know if high sierra is any better than sierra in this regard?