Cubase and Groove Agent SE Problems

[tony10000]

I recently bought Cubase Elements 10.5 for Win. Groove Agent SE seems to lock up Cubase when changing patches. I have to force close it. This seems to be a common problem without any fix and makes it pretty much unusable. Anybody else have this problem?

[Milkman]

That's pretty lame. I just picked up a cubase 10.5 pro license for win and I've had some troubles with hyperthreading and 32bit vs 64 bit plugins, but I have not specifically had GA SE lock up cubase when switching patches.

What does it do? Full project, already built, then you add GA and it locks? Or even a fresh, blank project with nothing but GA? How does it act? (process eat up 100% CPU/core, does it stop responding, does it eventually unfreeze, etc)

Did you tweak any of GA's internal config, such as multiprocessing, disk caching, etc? Make sure multiprocessing is OFF or it will freak out, as cubase/the DAW is multiprocessing.

[tony10000]

Either full or blank project...if you change patches in GA it will eventually lock up. Sometimes it will resolve after 10-20 seconds. Sometimes not. When I got to task manager, I get the app not responding message.

Looks like it has been an issue for quite a while:

https://www.steinberg.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=117756

I will play with config settings.

[tony10000]

Taskbar:

1.jpg

Cubase SE locked up:

2.jpg

[tony10000]

It is very sporadic and not the same preset. If you click on enough of them, eventually one will hang. I played with the settings and they have no effect. Definitely a bug...

[Googly Smythe]

It is very sporadic...

The worst kind of bug to fix.
I know it doesn't help but I've used GrooveAgent (One, SE4 and full)/Cubase (Elements 5, 6 - 10.5 (full) for years with no problems, on 3 machines/versions of windows. My mileage obviousl varies.

[tony10000]

Understandable. The rest of the DAW works well. No issues with Halion SE either in Cubase or other DAWs. And the problem only occurs when flipping through presets.

[ShawnG]

It is very sporadic and not the same preset. If you click on enough of them, eventually one will hang. I played with the settings and they have no effect. Definitely a bug...

I used to have issues with previous versions on cubase locking up whenever I went into the media bay, turned out to be related to it not liking some of the loop and sample folders that I had added to it. once I cleared them it never did it again (and now the browser lets me use my own directories any way so I don't bother trying to add to the bay any more) given that experience, maybe either you have some samples added that it doesn't like, or perhaps some of the included GA content got corrupted on install, and it's hanging while scanning them while you are selecting presets? I would delete the GA SE libraries and presets and install them again.

[tony10000]

I didn't add anything, but I will try deleting and reinstalling the libraries and presets.

[Reefius]

Question: was there audio playing while changing patches? Cubase doesn't seem to like changing/adding things when it's playing.

[tony10000]

No audio playing...

[thebutler]

I'm assuming you let each preset/patch load fully - properly load and settle, before trying/clicking on another..? I say this, because in the past I've caught myself clicking a preset, thinking nothing was happening and then clicking another preset - not noticing the first one was still loading... Well, I carried on like this until of course, GA would hang...

Otherwise, sorry - out of ideas here; I'd agree with what's already been suggested though (corrupt or missing sounds/bad install, etc...).

GA SE 5 used to work quite fine. I upgraded to GA full in a sale and its working well. Having said that, I'm in no way pressing it in to lots of action.! One agent and a percussion agent; or grabbing a groovy pattern or three and trying different kits/sounds...

BTW - its not big on loops/patterns in 3/4 (6/8) time... Working with Beat Designer alongside, is ok, but uninspiring (alright - not chock full of talent/imagination here.!). Now that thing is really due for an overhaul - its got the chops, but has a pretty fiddly workflow to get the fun stuff happening I've found...

Anyway, good luck.!

[Milkman]

I'm assuming you let each preset/patch load fully - properly load and settle, before trying/clicking on another..? I say this, because in the past I've caught myself clicking a preset, thinking nothing was happening and then clicking another preset - not noticing the first one was still loading... Well, I carried on like this until of course, GA would hang...

Otherwise, sorry - out of ideas here; I'd agree with what's already been suggested though (corrupt or missing sounds/bad install, etc...).

GA SE 5 used to work quite fine. I upgraded to GA full in a sale and its working well. Having said that, I'm in no way pressing it in to lots of action.! One agent and a percussion agent; or grabbing a groovy pattern or three and trying different kits/sounds...

BTW - its not big on loops/patterns in 3/4 (6/8) time... Working with Beat Designer alongside, is ok, but uninspiring (alright - not chock full of talent/imagination here.!). Now that thing is really due for an overhaul - its got the chops, but has a pretty fiddly workflow to get the fun stuff happening I've found...

Anyway, good luck.!

Thats good info, and yep -- in not just cubase, if you start clicking stuff or trying to play notes while the sampler is still finishing/settling its load of that fairly chunky piece of data, sometimes the software can even glitch to a point where restarting that instrument or the DAW itself might be needed. Its rare, but I have had this happen. Definitely wait for the sampler to settle before playing/clicking.

[tony10000]

I'm assuming you let each preset/patch load fully - properly load and settle, before trying/clicking on another..? I say this, because in the past I've caught myself clicking a preset, thinking nothing was happening and then clicking another preset - not noticing the first one was still loading... Well, I carried on like this until of course, GA would hang...

Otherwise, sorry - out of ideas here; I'd agree with what's already been suggested though (corrupt or missing sounds/bad install, etc...).

GA SE 5 used to work quite fine. I upgraded to GA full in a sale and its working well. Having said that, I'm in no way pressing it in to lots of action.! One agent and a percussion agent; or grabbing a groovy pattern or three and trying different kits/sounds...

BTW - its not big on loops/patterns in 3/4 (6/8) time... Working with Beat Designer alongside, is ok, but uninspiring (alright - not chock full of talent/imagination here.!). Now that thing is really due for an overhaul - its got the chops, but has a pretty fiddly workflow to get the fun stuff happening I've found...

Anyway, good luck.!

Thats good info, and yep -- in not just cubase, if you start clicking stuff or trying to play notes while the sampler is still finishing/settling its load of that fairly chunky piece of data, sometimes the software can even glitch to a point where restarting that instrument or the DAW itself might be needed. Its rare, but I have had this happen. Definitely wait for the sampler to settle before playing/clicking.

I think a lot of it has to do with the fact the Steinberg houses the sounds in large, copy-protected files. I notice that sound loading in Halion SE is much slower than in Kontakt, especially in collections with huge containers such as Hybrid.

[Milkman]

I'm assuming you let each preset/patch load fully - properly load and settle, before trying/clicking on another..? I say this, because in the past I've caught myself clicking a preset, thinking nothing was happening and then clicking another preset - not noticing the first one was still loading... Well, I carried on like this until of course, GA would hang...

Otherwise, sorry - out of ideas here; I'd agree with what's already been suggested though (corrupt or missing sounds/bad install, etc...).

GA SE 5 used to work quite fine. I upgraded to GA full in a sale and its working well. Having said that, I'm in no way pressing it in to lots of action.! One agent and a percussion agent; or grabbing a groovy pattern or three and trying different kits/sounds...

BTW - its not big on loops/patterns in 3/4 (6/8) time... Working with Beat Designer alongside, is ok, but uninspiring (alright - not chock full of talent/imagination here.!). Now that thing is really due for an overhaul - its got the chops, but has a pretty fiddly workflow to get the fun stuff happening I've found...

Anyway, good luck.!

Thats good info, and yep -- in not just cubase, if you start clicking stuff or trying to play notes while the sampler is still finishing/settling its load of that fairly chunky piece of data, sometimes the software can even glitch to a point where restarting that instrument or the DAW itself might be needed. Its rare, but I have had this happen. Definitely wait for the sampler to settle before playing/clicking.

I think a lot of it has to do with the fact the Steinberg houses the sounds in large, copy-protected files. I notice that sound loading in Halion SE is much slower than in Kontakt, especially in collections with huge containers such as Hybrid.

Yup. Steinberg sure have put a lot of time and effort into heavy duty copy protection, and imo not enough into various outstanding issues, from the workflow-breaking bugs to annoying, persistent minor bugs.

Also my opinion - previous, less burdensome copy protection led to a MUCH, MUCH larger audience for cubase than would have *ever* existed otherwise, and allowed them to gain credibility and respect in the digital audio production community. Hopefully they wont shoot themselves in the foot, now... all these years later.