VST3 versions running inside NI Maschine

Last two versions (51/52) seem to have real problems with Maschine on an instrument track, especially with the VST3 version of Serum running inside Maschine. This seems to be compounded by the fact that the latest Maschine version introduced more support for VST3, which is making isolating the problem difficult.

Removing the VST3 versions of Maschine and Serum from Common Files into a desktop folder forces Cubase onto the VST2 versions which seemed more stable. With the VST3 versions the Cubase project would either fail to open or open with Maschine inactive. Once this has happened the Cubase project is corrupted, and all previous saves also fail ??!!??

Now I’m finding that switching VST3 versions of FabFilter plugins inside Maschine (i.e. load Volcano3 and then replace it with Timeless3) sometimes cause Maschine to crash.

I suspect NI’s move over to VST3 support for non-NKS supported plugins is the main issue - but it would be helpful to know if anyone else running the latest versions of Maschine inside the .51/.52 Cubase versions are also having issues.

Win 10 Pro - v21H2
Intel i7-4790 (3.6Ghz)
32G Ram

and here we go again with the problems of this really bad Steinberg decision:

https://forums.steinberg.net/t/vst-2-discontinued/761383

Wait till you experience the fully leveraged advantage of VST3, will blow your mind and everything becomes clear! :slight_smile:

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Are you able to outline exactly what those advantages are and SPECIFICALLY which plugins are taking full advantage of them within a windows Cubase/Nuendo environment ?

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Moving over to VST3 is fine and I’ve no objections - but for the last few years I’ve been running Cubase 9.5.0.50 with Maschine as my main composition tool running inside Cubase and it has been almost 100% stable.

I took advantage of the reduced upgrade to 12 in September and then NI released Maschine 2.16 which allowed hosting of third party VST3 (which was welcome as Retrologue VST2 has been dropped so I couldn’t run old projects with Retrologue VST2 in Maschine as the Cubase 12 install deleted the VST2 file). I then bit the bullet and went for the VST3 Beta version of Serum.

It’s not been going well!! I’ve generated and sent to S/berg more crash reports in the last few weeks than I have sent in total since I got this PC and Cubase 8 in 2014!!

Hoping for a more stable Cubase 12 update soon, along with NI continuing to improve VST3 support for Maschine.

As a positive - current workarounds:

  1. Maschine 2.16 is more stable if you run VST2 by moving/deleting the VST3 file from Common Files.

  2. Avoid the VST3 version of Serum inside Maschine (I’m still using the current beta version, but the VST2 version has a different plugii ID (Serum_64), so both versions are available in Maschine.

  3. Run the VST2 versions of all FabFilter plugins inside Maschine. I think the problem is jsut Volcano 3 - but better safe than sorry.

I’ve not done extensive tests with VST3 inside Maschine in standalone as it isn’t how I work and I’m trying to make up time for the three projects I have lost in the last few weeks - but it could be worth looking at.

That said, I’ve been working this way with 9.5 for years with NO crashes - but for me, VST3 and Maschine are not yet compatible inside Cubase 12.

Well, it will be blowing away DAW’s like Reaper that are having to support all these additional plugin formats via compatibility layers/bridges… Right? :crazy_face:

Can’t even begin to imagine what else we’ll see when VST3 can be fully leveraged… More note expression thingies perhaps?

In the meantime, i’ll use Logic on this Apple Silicon machine as unlike Steinberg products I can actually load NI Battery which i’ve been happily using for a decade. Perhaps AU isn’t all that bad after all. :face_with_open_eyes_and_hand_over_mouth:

I’ll take that as a ‘no’ then :smiley:

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