If Native Instruments would release a VST3 version of Kontakt with support for silent channel optimization than this wouldn’t be an issue. So you could also try to convince Native Instruments to better support Cubase 
Convincing NI for VST3 support is like convincing Steinberg to solve GUI issues with the VST3 version of Halion 4, 4.5 & 5 in Studio One. A waste of time!
Hey, just out of curiosity, how do you use Mainstage with Cubase, esp. when it comes to audio routing?
I’ve been wanting to use Alchemy but haven’t found an easy way of routing it into C8 yet…
Basically the same here. Used logic exclusively since E-magic, tried out Cubase because a friend I was collaborating with was using it and I was getting tons of crashes / instability in large Logic projects, and once I discovered the logical editor and Cubases extensive key command abilities I haven’t looked back. In fact, today I tried continuing off an older project in Logic 10.2.1 and simply not having a search field for plugins / instruments made Logic feel extremely slow!
I understand where you are coming from in regards to exporting directly to quicktime. My friend who got me to switch to cubase also misses this feature from Logic, though I believe he started printing his final cues to Logic so he could still use this feature. Cubase for sure has its quirks and bugs like the rest, but right now Cubase to me is the better tool. But seriously, it really comes down to the DAW you enjoy working in! If you are fast and feel great using Logic, go for it. Its a great DAW and I miss some of the instruments / FX from my Logic days (which is why I still use mainstage on occasion linked to Cubase) but for me, Cubase is worth its bugs / issues, one of which is the necessity of using VE pro. I’ve run a few tests and loading the same instruments inside Cubase vs VE pro, Cubase AISO meter (even with AISO Guard on high) will cap out before I hit my CPU max for my machine, yet if I load the exact same instruments in VE pro I can load the same instruments and many more - up to the max CPU on my machine - inside VE pro connected to Cubase. I dont understand why. Is it because VE pro uses AU’s?
One area Logic still kills at is offline bouncing of mixes & its speed for bounce in place (same thing as Cubase render in place). What takes 3-5min in Cubase literally takes 30 seconds in Logic. Why does Cubase take so much longer? Plus Logic’s version of retrospective record is actually in time, rather than early! In fact I stopped using retrospective record completely thanks to this bug - which is a real killer to my workflow! But again, I am faster in Cubase than Logic thanks to the key commands and macro editors, so with Cubase I will stay and hope it continues to be optimized for CPU and bug fixes.
p.s. while we are on the subject of Cubase and CPU - check out this test I did: Help me understand Cubase AISO peaks - Cubase - Steinberg Forums
We would actually need to be contacted by users experiencing issues, as far as I know we have been seeing a performance degradation only on one system in-house. Although it was very useful taking performance traces on that one, it’s best to analyse more systems, as this could help to understand which combinations trigger an issue.
Would not be really useful to analyse a system like the one used for this test as it shows consistent performance across DAWs: Cubase 7.5 vs Cubase 8 on stability and performance - Cubase - Steinberg Forums
We have a few tasks related to performance open, at least one should already be included in 8.5.20 (this mostly relates to levelling the performance across systems IIRC), but it’s an on-going process - the more data we get, the better.
Kind regards,
So, you like the fact that you have inserted a plug-in and the host is not processing it. In live situations this kind of non processing a plug-in will fail miserably. This may not be your use case, but it’s a use case some Cubase users rely on.
When all plug-ins would implement the silent channel optimisation both use cases would be possible to handle.
Can you Steinberg Tech experts put together official test benchmark project with Steinberg plugins only, so we can all download it and run it, and compare how it performs on our machines? You could even make several test setups, one more for audio, another more for instruments. Then there could be a thread on this forum where users could post results, together with their configurations, and from this it would be easily visible what component combinations work well and which cause problems.
It would be very helpful to me if I could know that somebody can run 80 tracks without dropouts, and I can only run 20 tracks with exactly the same project. For example, I have a strange feeling that something is wrong if I get crackles after loading 5 Halion SE synths. But I’m not really sure, maybe it is just that HSE is very inefficient? Also it depends on sound used, some sounds are easier on CPU. Would be nice to have an official benchmark project with just HSE, to be able to compare.
Entirely possible, we’ve done this already both via support and the forums, no problem in doing it again.
It sounds like there is something wrong indeed. Although with VSTi it can get tricky - some patches can indeed be very, very heavy, and one have to take into account the different CPU impact coming from a different use of the various instances (sever instances with one patch vs. fewer instances with multiple sounds).
I’m pretty sure I’m going to regret writing this, but one would be surprised to know that the amount of people with performance issues so far was not enough to even allow us to put together useful comparative lists of system specs.
Although we found that performance issues are more common under certain circumstances, for example and without getting too much into the details:
– Specific chipsets
– Specific GPU / video driver versions
– Plug-ins using OpenGL (Mac especially)
– Plug-ins with problematic multi-core processing
– CPU with 6 or 12 cores
– How some VSTi access memory
On the other hand, we have users with systems having all of those characteristics which have great performance. Not a very focussed target.
Please, get in touch with me, I follow many performance-related topics. PM is fine to start.
I will start another thread about test-projects ASAP. Although I can and do test on Mac at work, my personal DAW is Windows, I’ll probably ask someone using a Mac for actual production to join.
Hi guys.
Just one simple question: you’re all talking about CPU issues, under Mac OSX systems right?
Because i have Cubase 8.5.15 in Win 7 Enterprise (64 bit) with MOTU hardware, and in Mac OSX El Capitan with Presonus hardware, and the main difference is that in OSX i don’t have the “Activate Steinberg Power Scheme”, like i have in Windows.
And this simple situation does a hell of a big thing.
Loading the same project (about 55 audio tracks, and 25 MIDI - Halion and Kontakt - plus busses full of VST and automation), in Win i get about 45/55% CPU, in Mac i get about 65/75% CPU usage. Buffer is 128 in both hardware.
I don’t know the reason why the power sheme is not available in Mac OSX.
If Steinberg could fix this, than things could go better.
All the best
Have recently been reading over at Gearslutz reports of greatly improved DAW performance after disabling hyperthreading on Mac using Xcode software.
For Mac users with poor performance this might be worth investigating.
How old is that information?! I remember WAAAAY back when hyperthreading was introduced that cubase couldn’t handle it, but I’m pretty sure that was fixed. But maybe I’m wrong?
How old is that information?!
To be absolutely clear, Cubase was not mentioned…it came up in relation to spiking issues with Acustica Aqua plugins, but some responses mentioned it gave an overall improvement in performance. (I think PT users)
So please don’t get your hopes up too much as this is only a couple users and as far as I could tell they are not even using Cubase…but there’s one sure way to find out if it helps your performance problems.
The NI Kontakt Player is CPU intensive… If you load over 50-75 VSTi you will notice performance issues. Halion SE and
Retrologue 2 other hand. One can load up to 200 VSTi in Cubase. I also noticed NI are the only VSTi 2.4 still in my system. After their recent updates…
I usually load a maximum of 8 NI VST therefore they’re never an issue for me. I guess NI need to improve their VSTi
to be more CPU efficient in Cubase. Since Steinberg has to make their DAW efficient on OSX and Windows machines.
You Film and TV music producers use a lot of instruments. 
You Film and TV music producers use a lot of instruments. >
Hah 
Well as I said in an earlier post, I don’t use 80 at one time! But there can easily be that many “sounds” in the palette that one uses to score a TV show. And with time crunches and the need for consistency it’s important to have all these instruments up and ready to go. Because we don’t just deliver stereo mixes - we have to deliver 10-24 mix “stems,” which are cut up and re worked at the sound stage. Can you imagine how long it would take to load up each instrument one by one as I needed it, set the levels, reverb, EQ, route it to the proper stem, set up any custom control parameters, etc…too long.
Of course you could also just score a TV show with a single piano or guitar. Depends on the show. Infact I might argue the number of instruments uses increases in inverse proportion to the artistic aspirations of the show…bigger score usually means shallower content! But not always. Anyway, digress.
The reason VEPro is so popular amongst composers is because we needed to load these large templates. But when I saw that Logic could load my entire template and not break a sweat, WITHOUT the need for the complexity of VEPro, I had to make a change. A change I clearly REGRET to some extent, since I’m still posting here!! 
I can easily instantiate 85 kontakt plug-ins with instruments loaded in each of them and ready to go on my 12 core trashcan.
The weird thing is with 85 instances my meter is barely at 20% but if i add another 10 instances, the meter will hit roof and the Cubase will overload.
Sorry for the delay. I either have MS running on a MPB or on the main MP and use the loop back audio port of my Sapphire Pro 40 to get the audio back in.
Chris
The weird thing is with 85 instances my meter is barely at 20% but if i add another 10 instances, the meter will hit roof and the Cubase will overload.
Same experience here, but I top out at around 50-60. Of course I have a 12 core from 2010, so this makes sense.
Look, we all know the odd character (fan boy?) will pop up saying they can run 15 gazillion vsts with their Cubase inatall - But - we all know deep down that Cubase CPU efficiently stinks compared to the other major DAWs. It just does. I love Cubase, I love the workflow, I love the tools - just fix the ****ing engine so this is no longer a discussion.
Yeah, your setup runs great - bully you - either fix the sodding software or publish a performant hardware spec we can all aim for - I’m sick to death of running hardware that would have got us to the moon 25 times over but can’t produce a pop tune in Cubase - just fix it!