So i bought Cubase 8.5 - question about these audio drop outs when adding vsti?

[JonSolo]

You could fool with the Steinberg settings some. Turning OFF ASIOGuard, raising the audio priority to high, and a few other tweaks might help this.

Loading from MediaBay does cause more of hiccup than just loading an instrument for me. That probably has to do with an non optimized database that stores the info.

[Groundhog #31684]

Cubase has unique asio guard. So it may or may not be related. For your information, you can't do gap less insert in any daw unless it doesn't have latency.

Excuse me? I just mentioned the above daws that never do this. So I'm not sure what you meant by that

the other daw's you mentioned do not have safety buffers like asio guard. ableton live especially has an engine tuned for this sort of thing.. cubase is tuned for maximum effects you can run in the project.. why do you think live and S1 perform so badly compared to cubase? that's the reason.. a realtime engine at all times comes with it's own price, only you can decide which is most important to you.

Reaper has buffering too and inserting instruments is gapless, even on my humble Asus T100HA. This isn't a technical impossibility, it's just something Steinberg have chosen not to do.

[Scotty]

The brief interruption is normal for Cubase when adding synths efx, groups, new sends etc. Cubase isn't optimized for that kind of live play where your insert the efx/instruments without interruption as would say in Live or Bitwig. IT would be nice if Cubase offered a mode that was designed for that kind of live work which would allow it to transition into more of a stage performance tool when necessary otherwise we wind up bouncing the material down and bringing it into Live / Bitwig so we can perform with the content. Others may disagree but with a few tweaks to the arranger and buffering for live play manipulation, they would be pretty close to having a "live" mode that could be integrated nicely into the platform. It would be really fantastic to have the best of both worlds in one application.

I've been producing music for around ten years, if your asking if I've have any professional experience, the answers yes.I've produced records for artists who've made it on the radio, shot video's etc. and I've made money with music,if that sort of thing is important to know,well now you do. Most of all though,I enjoy what I do.
I used to use cubase as well as Nuendo years back in one of the studios SX3 I believe was the last version,I used though I didn't remember this glitch. Obviously I jumped in head first without testing the waters. Adding instruments with Mediabay is an awesome thing, but this glitch makes it sort of a downer for me.

The question your asking is does it really matter enough to stop me from working with it? That answers no ,but i find it messes up the timing with my Mpc Touch and that glitch throws it all to hell. So do I have a reason to complain, well thats for me to decide, and you to judge.

I'll stick with what works for me well, and continue to watch progress from steinberg,to see if it changes in an update or something. They'd probably have to scrap the entire audio engine though to fix this?

[ObsoleteAcc99]

[DELETED]

[Groundhog #31684]

well i don't know how it does it with it's anticipative processing, i will try the demo myself and check it out as you have me curious now..if it has any sort of look ahead buffering, it really shouldn't be able to do this.

Yes, you should check it out. I don't know how it's implemented in Reaper, but if the VST/VSTi gets loaded on a thread that isn't the audio thread and it gets sent samples/MIDI at the start of the first post-load buffer, it shouldn't matter whether that's a lookahead or an audio interface buffer.

edited to add "or an" on last line

[SODDI]

The quick answer is yes.

Depending on the plug-in and type you are inserting it can be a quick drop-out or you can completely destabilize your session. My two worst examples are NI Battery (because of the samples) and KV331's Synthmaster (because I dunno).

As a matter of recording hygiene, I have had to force myself to remember to stop playback when loading up plug-ins. But I always forget.

[DodgingRain]

if it has any sort of look ahead buffering, it really shouldn't be able to do this.

Exactly. When working with loops of pre-recorded audio the plugin could be inserted and look ahead at the point it's inserted since the audio exists. HOWEVER, if you are real-time monitoring through the plug-in it's impossible to look out into the future at audio that hasn't been recorded yet.

I leave if supporting one situation and being inaccurate on the second is a good idea up to you, but personally, I think the way Cubase does it is the correct way. I don't think there is much value in trying to prevent a drop when inserting a plugin real-time as that isn't something that can be automated anyway.

[Groundhog #31684]

if it has any sort of look ahead buffering, it really shouldn't be able to do this.

Exactly. When working with loops of pre-recorded audio the plugin could be inserted and look ahead at the point it's inserted since the audio exists. HOWEVER, if you are real-time monitoring through the plug-in it's impossible to look out into the future at audio that hasn't been recorded yet.

I leave if supporting one situation and being inaccurate on the second is a good idea up to you, but personally, I think the way Cubase does it is the correct way. I don't think there is much value in trying to prevent a drop when inserting a plugin real-time as that isn't something that can be automated anyway.

That's just nonsense.... nobody is talking about time travel - the effect/instrument just needs to be passed audio/MIDI at the beginning of the first buffer after it is loaded seamlessly on another thread. Whether that is an audio interface block or a lookahead buffer is irrelevant and will have no effect on "accuracy".

[trusampler]

Sorry to create such a fuss, this is my own fault, and it just reminds me to demo before I buy a product though I never would have thought a tried and true popular DAW like Cubase wouldn't have smooth audio flow when inserting plugins within projects, honestly the last thing on my mind was that. but I can understand why it doesn't bother some folks.

Though I'm hoping Steinberg can see the point that some of us may expect it to work much smoother. BTW fwiw I tried all of the above suggestions, such as asio guard,tweaks etc.. it doesn't change this one bit, it has something to do with Cubases audio engine as mentioned before from one of the guys more experienced then me with Cubase. Have fun making music, anything to take me out of the groove I'm not cool with, I couldn't imagine having to stop my daw numerous times anytime I wanted to load a loop from the mediabay browser, or worst a vsti plugin.

good day!

[woodsdenis]

For those of us who grew up with ProTools you always stopped before inserting a plugin, I automatically do it now, I didn't know that certain DAWs allow you to insert on the fly

[Googly Smythe]

It's only a problem if recording, (why would you be inserting plugins while recording?), otherwise it's no more than an irritation. I never stop playback when inserting plugins, I never encounter problems doing so.
YMMV.

[trusampler]

It's definitely a problem with vstis like the akai mpc plugin, it completely ruins the timing, as you can imagine it's slightly more then irritable. Even as far as loading a loop from within mediabay, this also causes a dropout.

Again, many folks would never see this as a problem, but I for one am probably in the minority and prefer smoother options.

[trusampler]

For those of us who grew up with ProTools you always stopped before inserting a plugin, I automatically do it now, I didn't know that certain DAWs allow you to insert on the fly

Again, another big name daw with the same issue - (Pro Tools 12 tested and confirmed).Same thing happens, though not nearly as bad. To me regardless of the large cult following of these daws, I find it pretty unprofessional sounding when loading a plugin or audio loop on the fly causes such an issue. Again ymmv if your not using an Mpc plugin and timing's not an issue.

In our productions, we use a ton of sfx,audio loops, adding as we go on the fly or adding vstis,searching and browsing content, with no problems whatsoever in our daws.So one can obviously see the need, for a better real-time smoother audio performance/experience.

[DodgingRain]

That's just nonsense.... nobody is talking about time travel - the effect/instrument just needs to be passed audio/MIDI at the beginning of the first buffer after it is loaded seamlessly on another thread. Whether that is an audio interface block or a lookahead buffer is irrelevant and will have no effect on "accuracy".

No, it's not nonsense. A perfect example would be inserting a look ahead maximize/limiter on an audio track in record mode. If it can't look ahead in time it won't necessarily function accurately. And that is impossible to do on a track that is in record mode since the audio doesn't exist yet. On pre-recorded audio it would be possible.

The way Cubase works as is correct and keeps a bunch of logic out of the audio engine which would just slow it down to try and handle both situations.

Threads have nothing to do with this.