VST latency and sound quality issues

Hey!
I was just trying Cubase 9 Elements the other day, but some latency and quality issues persists. The driver I use is ASIO4ALL. When I load my VST (Addictive Keys) and play through my USB midi keyboard, there was a huge lag at 512 samples for buffer size. Also, the sound quality wasn’t good enough.

When I run the VST as standalone, there’s no latency or quality issues at 512 samples.

I’ve tried running the VST in other DAWs, and again, no issues with latency at 512 samples, and good sound quality too.

I had to reduce the buffer size to 64 samples to get rid of the lag. But sound quality is still poor.

Why is it that the same VST as standalone or in other DAWs has better quality and no lag issues, but with Cubase it is the opposite? What can I do to improve and get better quality?

P.S. I’m kind of new to this, so please try to be specific :slight_smile:

Are you creating empty project or using some kind of template?

If there are any other plugin in the project they may be adding latency.

Sound quality is the same in or out of Cubase…could be you have Cubase not configured correctly or could be something else but impossible to say as you haven’t explained at all what you mean by not good enough!

Sorry for not being precise.
I’m running an empty project. I’ve tried running just one VST at a time, and it’s the same case.
By not good enough I meant that all VSTs when run in Cubase have noise in them. This isn’t the case in other DAWs.

Could you please tell me what configurations I could do to improve them?
Also, if it is because of the sound card, why is it that it works fine in other platforms?

Noise could still mean a lot of things…You have hiss, hum? buzz, stuttering audio? - Does the noise change at all with buffer changes? Is it constant or only when the instrument plays?

Can you maybe screencap your Device setup/VST Audio system window and the ASIO4all control panel…I take it you’re using onboard audio if you’re running ASIO4all??

Only when the instrument is played, a buzz sound comes along with the piano sound. It is not just for that VST alone but for all VSTs I have. The buzz sound comes with the VST sound, i.e the VST do not sound pure in Cubase.

Here are the screencaps:



Ok, you use asio4all I see HD audio? This probably means you have a shitty onboard audio chipset that is not suitable for Cubase
If you’re on a laptop you might have so ground loop issues too.
Get a decent soundcard with native asio support. Asio4all is a shitty bandaid that doesn’t work

An 8k project sample rate isn’t going to sound great.
Try 44.1 or 48k.

Also as sample rate goes up latency goes down.