What to do after starting 3rd party plugins deactivated?

now_here_man · January 25, 2023, 10:38am

Hi

Cubase 12 Pro stopped opening a project. The only way I can now open it is with 3rd party plugins deactivated. Might be a stupid question, but what now? I tried to scan the plugins, and most (not all) were found, but they still don’t work correct. They don’t show right in the insert slots (mostly just blue boxes without the name showing) and can’t be opened. So what’s the next step?

Thank you!

cubic13 · January 25, 2023, 11:16am

As a test, and using the safe start mode and the Deactivate all third-party plug-ins option, I get a window showing all the missing plug-ins. Once the involved project loaded, you’ll have to reactivated them one by one, whether VSTi or FX in their diiferent project location (output routing, inserts…), I’m afraid.

OTOH, and even if it’s a tedious process, it will surely help you identifying the culprit. Once done, be sure to save the project under a different name, just in case. Hope you’ll get it sorted…

now_here_man · January 25, 2023, 11:29am

Thanks for the reply. How do I reactivate them one by one?

now_here_man · January 25, 2023, 12:18pm

I solved this by moving possible problem plugins to another folder one-by-one, prior to starting Cubase. Culprit seemed to be T-Compressor by Techivation.

now_here_man · January 25, 2023, 1:45pm

No, it wasn’t this simple. It only opened once, not anymore with or without the T-Compressor.

fese · January 25, 2023, 4:42pm

What exactly does happen when Cubase tries to open the project? Does it crash? If so, you can try uploading the crash dump here and maybe an analysis of the crash dump can show which plugin is the problem.

cubic13 · January 25, 2023, 7:22pm

Added to what @fese just suggested, maybe try to use a backup of your project, if you have a recent one. This, to iron out the use of an eventual corrupted .cpr file…

now_here_man · January 26, 2023, 9:52am

Thanks for replies, and sorry for me getting back prolonged, partly due to time zone differences.

Yes, it crashes. I found and uploaded a .dmp file from yesterday. Hopefully it’s a useful one, I have a few more if needed.

Cubase 12.0.52.393 64bit 2023.1.25 13.58.16.558.dmp (658.7 KB)

fese · January 26, 2023, 3:04pm

STACK_TEXT:  
00000000`418ffb20 00007ffe`a7472260     : 00000000`3d326b60 00000000`3d326b60 00000000`401b43d0 00000000`7ffe0386 : wdmaud!CWasapiRenderer::DefaultAudioDeviceChanged+0x133
00000000`418ffbe0 00007ffe`a74631aa     : 00000000`00000000 00000000`00000000 00000000`00480b50 00000000`30d4afb0 : ntdll!TppWorkpExecuteCallback+0x130
00000000`418ffc30 00007ffe`a6b87614     : 00000000`00000000 00000000`00000000 00000000`00000000 00000000`00000000 : ntdll!TppWorkerThread+0x68a
00000000`418fff30 00007ffe`a74626a1     : 00000000`00000000 00000000`00000000 00000000`00000000 00000000`00000000 : kernel32!BaseThreadInitThunk+0x14
00000000`418fff60 00000000`00000000     : 00000000`00000000 00000000`00000000 00000000`00000000 00000000`00000000 : ntdll!RtlUserThreadStart+0x21


SYMBOL_NAME:  wdmaud!CWasapiRenderer::DefaultAudioDeviceChanged+133

MODULE_NAME: wdmaud

IMAGE_NAME:  wdmaud.drv

STACK_COMMAND:  ~65s; .ecxr ; kb

FAILURE_BUCKET_ID:  NULL_POINTER_READ_c0000005_wdmaud.drv!CWasapiRenderer::DefaultAudioDeviceChanged

That is the Windows Audio System driver. No idea what exactly is going on there. If there are Windows updates available, I’d try installing them.

now_here_man · January 26, 2023, 8:21pm

Ok, thank you! No Windows updates available for me this time unfortunately. Hmm…

sonicvision · January 28, 2024, 1:58am

How do you reactivate them? I can’t see how in C13.

cubic13 · January 28, 2024, 8:59am

Again, it’s a tedious process. A step by step procedure :

After having launched Cubase in safe mode with the Deactivate all third party plug-ins option ticked, you should get this kind of warning message , which actually lists all the the missing FX/VSTis that are no longer loaded in the project. Eventually, you can export it, if it helps.

C13_WarningMissingPlugIns

In the Studio > VST Plug-in Manager window, you’ll see that only Steinberg plug-ins are left available. Click on the Rescan button at the top of the window : you should get a dialog numbering the plug-ins found. At this point, the third party plug-ins are again availble for Cubase but still NOT loaded :

C13_WarningRescanResult

In your project, you’ll see also that each plug-in/VSTi are missing in their respective routing slot. This is where you’ll have to reload them one by one, using the plug-in dropdown list and being sure that the plug-in UI window is displayed normally. At a point, maybe one of them will not be loaded correctly or crash Cubase : this one is likely the culprit, or one of them.

An added issue might arise : the Rescan function doesn’t seem to work as expected for VST 2.x FX/VSTis. On my end, none of them are rescanned properly, IOW, they don’t appear in the plug-ins list of the VST plug-ins Manager window and this, with a VST 2.x plug-ins path list empty. So, double check that the paths used for such plug-ins are actually displayed and kept. If not, I’m afraid that you’ll have to create a blank test project and, without using the safe mode this time, add the VST 2.x plug-ins one by one to find an eventual culprit among them…

sonicvision · January 28, 2024, 9:11pm

Thanks very much!