Good morning, Cubase users! 
I’ve come across something I don’t understand regarding Audio Performance peaks and Cubase Safe Mode.
I have a project that some plugins are causing very high Audio Performance peaks, with the “Red Bar” at the far right of the F12 Audio Performance meter being activated.
When I manually completely remove the plugins (i.e., replace the plugin in the Mixer with “No Effect”, not just bypass it, etc.), as expected the Audio Performance peaks are decreased some, and I don’t have the red bar being activated, yayy!
But the levels hit for the Average and Maximum audio performance still seemed high to me, so I booted up the project in Cubase Safe Mode, clicking the “Disable all 3rd Party Plugins” (I didn’t have it disable my personal preferences).
When I disabled all 3rd party plugins in Cubase Safe Mode, the Audio Performance meters were way down compared to when I manually removed the 3rd party plugins and played the project not in Safe Mode.
Can someone help me understand why? I thought completely removing the 3rd party plugins manually should have the same effect as running in Safe Mode (personal preferences kept)?
Thank you!