Very bad audio performance in cubase 11 pro

does anyone have a solution for bad audio performance ? Ive had this issue ongoing for months now, Ive tried various suggestions like the power management profile , increased audio buffer, etc. I’m still getting issues. Ive just created a project and I have only two VST instruments yet audio performance is hovering between 70% - 75%, this is plain crazy.

This could depend on your computer specifications, VST Plugins and ASIO driver. If you are using a PC what sound card are you using?

I have a 12 core cpu (2.9Mhz) , 64GB RAM, 8TB SSD. My computer spec is way, way above the min required for audio processing. Im not sure if its related but the problems seemed to begin after I tried out the VST cloud options, its as if some ‘switch’ was flicked and it badly affected cubase audio performance, I disbaled it but the problems didnt go away

I’m having pops and clicks and dropouts as well. I don’t recall them on previous versions. Only a few VST instruments and a few audio tracks. Buffer size 512 on sound grid driver and on the DAW. Using avid MTRX interface and waves soundgrid Madi interface. If anyone has suggestions let me know as well. Thank you.

One thing that did have a huge impact on audio performance was the power plan… Id installed Norton power utilities and unknown to me it had switched the power plan to ‘balanced’. You can either change it to ‘high performance’ or select the steinberg audio power scheme in the studio setup audio system section. Changing this made a huge difference, but Im still having problems, I cant fathom it. I have a project with just 2 vst instruments and audio performance is hovering up between 70-75%. Ive just now opened an older project that uses 10 instances of the fairlight cmi (arturia) and several other vst in struments and its barely registering, go figure

Try using the audio system that came with your computer instead of your external audio interface and see if that helps.

Did trying the audio system that came with your computer help? It would be good to let other users who might have the same problem know if it did.

I havent tried it. The built in audio system has been disabled and I dont have any speakers attached. Im using a Komplete Audio interface which will be infintely superior to any inbuilt one. The problem is with cubase

I have a lower spec machine than you and manage to run 50 tracks with dozens of VSTis and barely hit 50% CPU.

What VSTis are you using there? Something like u-he Diva can eat CPU for breakfast.

If I share the same plugins as you, I’d be happy to try and play the project on my system to see how it performs. I have an i7 7700K with 64 GB of memory and a Focusrite Clarett 2Pre, running Windows 10 20H2.

I spent a whole day working on a simple arrangement session the other day , just three instruments and a few inserts. No problems whatsoever. The next day I load the project and it won’t play without the cpu going through the roof. I checked the task manager and it said Cubase was only using 29% of the CPU so what’s going on?! I then froze all the tracks and it was still crackling a bit. If windows was hogging some resources in the background it wasn’t reporting it. I couldn’t find an explanation for it.

1 Like

This seems to be hit & miss, I had a project with over a dozen instances of the Arturia fairlight CMI, barely hit 50%, then another project with only 2 plugins was hovering over 70-75%. It just makes no sense. Ive tried everything to optimise my pc, its a very powerful system anyway, dont understand it

Hi wondering if you managed to find a root cause to the problem you had as I have a similar problem. I have a 12 core 64 gig machine, and I’m having cubase 11 pro peak on audio performance and dropping recording on one track whilst playing back a few tracks as well. I have had ableton 10 running 20+ vsts and recording on the same machine without any issues. iconnectivity asio interface. I don’t believe this is a machine issue.

I never managed to solve this problem, its hit and miss as to what causes it, I have some projects with 12 or more virtual synths and the audio processing is hardly taxed, others I might only have 1 or 2 and it overloads, I have no idea what causes it. Steinberg may fix it, who knows, but its a pretty poor show for a supposedely “professional” DAW. Asking Steinberg for help is a complete waste of time as well

[UPDATE]
Well, it seems I found the culprit. It’s my nvs300 WIN10 drivers. I tried uninstalling the card, which makes win10 default to something generic to show a picture on screen. And guess what. Crackles and pops are gone. I can only use one screen and it looks like crap but audio performance is 10 times better. Yes, 10. I had problems running one Arturia VST Synth, now I can run 10 tracks full of them. 11 seems to be pushing it but… Looks like I need either to find a better driver, or buy a new graphics card…

[UPDATE 2]
I removed the nvidia card and re-enabled the onboard intel gpu. (I have one display port out and one vga so I can still use 2 screens). The situation is MUCH better, maybe not as good performance as Cubase 5 but clearly improved over the nvidia drivers. It’s amazing that a graphics driver can cause so much trouble.

[ORIGINAL POST]

I have the same exact problem. I wanted to upgrade to Cubase 11 so I downloaded the trial and had major audio issues. Granted an old i5 2600 €3Ghz, 8GB ram, RME Hammerfall card. but still I had no issues in Cubase 5. So I figured it was something in my old win10 install. Bought a new SSD and did a clean Win10 install from scratch. Installed the Cubase 11 Trial. Abysmal audio performance. It sucks. I have to go back to 5… My CPU usage when I get crackles and pops is about 20%! It’s like Cubase is not using my cpu correctly. I have to try some other DAWS. This is ridiculously bad performance. I’ve seen lots of people with this issue and no response from Steinberg.

EDIT: I did try my other soundcard , a Presonus Audiobox USB. Same thing. Crackle hell. Went back to the RME.
I then tried starting a few standalone Arturia synths and had 6 of them running simultaneously WITHOUT ANY AUDIO ISSUES WHATSOEVER. My CPU percentage was under 20…

Compare this to running one Arturia Synth in Cubase 11 and I get crackle hell. What is going on here?

I also tried lowering my resolution, my graphics card is an nvidia nvs300 with only 512MB ram onboard. What graphics cards do you run who have the same problem? I was thinking it is caused (maybe) by the GPU sharing system memory.

3 Likes

Yes, I have a Radeon RX graphics card and I have exactly the same problem. I tried different drivers, but nothing helped. Moreover, I found on the forum a similar problem from other people as far back as 2020, and it is still not solved. If I turn off the video card and work on the built-in from intel, then everything is fine, but the sound on the Radeon is terrible. An outrageous bug that has been dragging on for many years from version to version.