Cubase 10.5.20 Update is out

[4damind]

Please avoid that power plan from steinberg (if activated)! It does core parking ! Use at least that high power plan, i have ultimate power plan running to be on the "safe side" (can only be activated in a power shell session afaik). Not 100% sure but my research tells me my core parking can be a problem , if cores are reactivated from parking some plugins can behave weird and result in weird asio loads.

Btw. is there an app or option to enable a different powerplan for a specific app automatically?

Only a little app i found that is powerplanswitcher , looks like a helper but no automatically:

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/p/power ... verviewtab

Before windows10 there was an app called "fullthrottle" but afaik this will work only vista/win7 .

Instead of this i have my little shortcut of energyoptions on my desktop, this is ok for me to use...

A shortcut to powercfg.cpl?
Yes, this app is more a tray icon for easier access, I have it installed.
Crazy, that nobody programmed a app yet which searches the running tasks/apps and (if set) switches to a different powerplan.

[rasmusklump]

Instead of this i have my little shortcut of energyoptions on my desktop, this is ok for me to use...

You can use quick access popup to make it even more slick.

I for instance launch Cubase, a special Total Mix configuration for Cubase and an Autohotkey script for Cubase with a single mouse click...

[Scotty]

The update is appreciated. I'd pay more for more frequent updates and fixes if that is what it would take.

You would.... pay steinberg more... for more updates and support... if that's what it takes?? Wow.... they love to hear that, lol. You should go post on their forums with that attitude. =P

I am not happy with the current update cycle. Clearly they don't have the resources available to give Cubase the priority that we think it deserves. That is where I am coming from. Squaking here doesn't seem to accomplish much. Maybe they need more cash. If that is the bottom line might as well get on with it or shift to the competition and take our chances there.

[Googly Smythe]

...
Crazy, that nobody programmed a app yet which searches the running tasks/apps and (if set) switches to a different powerplan.

It's not as easy as you think. There are a lot of issues involved. What happens if you load 2 programs that require different power plans? How do you decide which has priority? Does the launcher loop in the background waiting for the process to end? Then what? Switch plans? To what?

[4damind]

...
Crazy, that nobody programmed a app yet which searches the running tasks/apps and (if set) switches to a different powerplan.

It's not as easy as you think. There are a lot of issues involved. What happens if you load 2 programs that require different power plans? How do you decide which has priority? Does the launcher loop in the background waiting for the process to end? Then what? Switch plans? To what?

Absolutely. It does require a certain logic. An option to reset either the previous power scheme, a selected one or the default scheme when the program is closed.
You could also assign a priority to energy schemes... the "Ultra" could always have the highest priority, if a program runs with it, no other program can set a lower energy scheme.
The app could also have the possibility to create own energy schemes or change existing ones. Maybe a bit better graphically implemented than Windows does.

Yes, its a bit OT and has not so much to do with the Cubase update But in combination with Cubase under Windows the energy saving settings are not that unimportant...

[sl1200mk2]

Crazy, that nobody programmed a app yet which searches the running tasks/apps and (if set) switches to a different powerplan.

It can be done with a little PowerShell for free, but not really the most elegant solution:

http://www.bigsoft.co.uk/blog/2013/09/3 ... ion-starts

There's an $8 app too that looks a little better, but haven't tried it myself:

https://hamilton-engineering.com/html/ppm-info.html


I use this myself, not automatic, but nice for just setting the profile (easy to reference what it currently is by icon color): https://github.com/PerfectlyCromulentLtd/PowerBuddy

[4damind]

Crazy, that nobody programmed a app yet which searches the running tasks/apps and (if set) switches to a different powerplan.

There's an $8 app too that looks a little better, but haven't tried it myself:
https://hamilton-engineering.com/html/ppm-info.html

It seems this is exactly the right application. Thanks!

[Milkman]

They seem to have sharpened the menu fonts, and at least Cubase now seems to remember it's colour scheme between launches.
As for the ASIO thing, they recommend turning off the Suspend Vst3 When No Activity option, which is now Off by default.
The Transport bar is still crap - with the same options I had in 9.5 the dumb bar is wider than my (2560 pixel) screen.
And bring back the menu underlines fer chrissakes.

Thanks for the suggestion, but Ive been dealing with this... for 2 months, and I am a 30 year net/sysadmin and custom builder. Ive tried every suggestion they've made, and nothing but fully disabling hyperthreading works but they wont address that on their forums.

Ive, lol, compiled a list of over 20 threads on their forum with people complaining about this, and many have not even been replied to. Im *pissed* at steinberg, but not because the ASIO overload issue exists and that they are having a tough time with it, but that they are covering up the issue on their forums, and telling people they are alone in dealing with it.

Update did nothing to address this. I hear some people benefit from the "suspend VST3 when no input" thing, but that does nothing for me. : /

Afaik deactivating that hyperthreading can help, but also have a look at that "HPET" setting in mainboard. I read that there can be some problems with "nervous" asio behaviour, so i deactivated this to see if it will bring some advantages.

Please avoid that power plan from steinberg (if activated)! It does core parking ! Use at least that high power plan, i have ultimate power plan running to be on the "safe side" (can only be activated in a power shell session afaik). Not 100% sure but my research tells me my core parking can be a problem , if cores are reactivated from parking some plugins can behave weird and result in weird asio loads.

Thanks for the info about your experience with the power plan stuff. I will test that a bit more today, as I installed the 10.5.20 update yesterday and have noticed.... slightly higher internal ASIO processing load than before the update, with a blank project and 1 instrument. It is about 10-20% higher, on average. No peaks/dropouts, though. I became frustrated and burned out, and turned it all off... yesterday. Ill try again today.

I dont have HPET timings that I can control on this ASrock Taichi x299 board, and everything is defaulted. Ill look again, though, to see if ASrock may have used a different label on the same feature. Thanks for the reply!!

[sl1200mk2]

Crazy, that nobody programmed a app yet which searches the running tasks/apps and (if set) switches to a different powerplan.

There's an $8 app too that looks a little better, but haven't tried it myself:
https://hamilton-engineering.com/html/ppm-info.html

It seems this is exactly the right application. Thanks!

If anyone is curious I took my own advice and bought the app after trying a bit. I was happy manually switching with PowerBuddy (for years now), but thought what the heck... it's $8.95 and I'll support a dev a little. Not much to lose. Turns out it's pretty great at least so far! I see no reason not to use it... no odd CPU usage (sits at 0% every time I check) and 4-5MB of memory.

I have it set to check every 10 seconds if one of my specified apps (only DAW's and/or editors) is running or not to change the profile. I would occasionally forget to manually change the profile, so it's nice to be automatically done. The order form is a little confusing as to where to get the requested machine info (I didn't RTFM -- it's under 'About'), but the dev answered my email within an hour and got my license issued in about the same.

Sorry for the OT, but thought someone might find a follow up useful.

[auron]

Well hyperthreading deactivated only reduces maybe 10% of asio . Another interesting problem is that some plugins can be very gpu intense. Whoa have you tried vps avenger and a bigger gui than 100% in full hd? then watch your gpu , maybe the task manager is telling you 60% gpu usage! Well i have a nvidia 750ti which was very ok for the most plugins. But one post on the steinberg forum caught my attention , a user said his avenger usage was hitting the 99% gpu usage. Now with the last update from avenger 1.5.7 it is still using my gpu at 60%, even at fps eco mode (yeah this plugin has a fps mode..). Now think of 10 instances of avenger in full hd or even 4k monitors and having 2 monitors connected?! Yikes! I didnt test all my plugins , sometimes diva can hit the 10% .

Maybe i should upgrade to an amd rx580/590 or nvidia RTX , won't be a disadvantage i think. I think it is the same bottleneck if you play games, if the graphic card is the bottleneck , the cpu cant do wonders.

What graphics card do you use then ?

[4damind]

Crazy, that nobody programmed a app yet which searches the running tasks/apps and (if set) switches to a different powerplan.

There's an $8 app too that looks a little better, but haven't tried it myself:
https://hamilton-engineering.com/html/ppm-info.html

It seems this is exactly the right application. Thanks!

If anyone is curious I took my own advice and bought the app after trying a bit. I was happy manually switching with PowerBuddy (for years now), but thought what the heck... it's $8.95 and I'll support a dev a little. Not much to lose. Turns out it's pretty great at least so far! I see no reason not to use it... no odd CPU usage (sits at 0% every time I check) and 4-5MB of memory.

I have it set to check every 10 seconds if one of my specified apps (only DAW's and/or editors) is running or not to change the profile. I would occasionally forget to manually change the profile, so it's nice to be automatically done. The order form is a little confusing as to where to get the requested machine info (I didn't RTFM -- it's under 'About'), but the dev answered my email within an hour and got my license issued in about the same.

Sorry for the OT, but thought someone might find a follow up useful.

Thanks, very useful info about this tool. I will give it a try.

[kenny saunders]

Some interesting new features

• ...
• Safe Start Mode after unexpected exit [Pro/Artist/Elements/LE/AI]
  ...

Heh, I don't think i had a working closedown in 6 months. The last file in my recently used files list is from months ago. (Ive used cubase most day since).

The 4k hidpi with windows scaling is still not right in some case.

[Milkman]

Well hyperthreading deactivated only reduces maybe 10% of asio . Another interesting problem is that some plugins can be very gpu intense. Whoa have you tried vps avenger and a bigger gui than 100% in full hd? then watch your gpu , maybe the task manager is telling you 60% gpu usage! Well i have a nvidia 750ti which was very ok for the most plugins. But one post on the steinberg forum caught my attention , a user said his avenger usage was hitting the 99% gpu usage. Now with the last update from avenger 1.5.7 it is still using my gpu at 60%, even at fps eco mode (yeah this plugin has a fps mode..). Now think of 10 instances of avenger in full hd or even 4k monitors and having 2 monitors connected?! Yikes! I didnt test all my plugins , sometimes diva can hit the 10% .

Maybe i should upgrade to an amd rx580/590 or nvidia RTX , won't be a disadvantage i think. I think it is the same bottleneck if you play games, if the graphic card is the bottleneck , the cpu cant do wonders.

What graphics card do you use then ?

Ive got a 1080ti and I havent noticed any GPU spikes when running any DAW, VST, etc, but then again I dont "feel" those spikes nor do I see any symptoms of problems there, so I havent needed to look.

On the steinberg forums, the forum admins try to steer every conversation about ASIO internal overloads and hyperthreading to being about the GPU, or the audio interface, or something else. Very often they blame the GPU, regardless of vendor. I did HOURS worth of research and tweaking of my nvidia driver to make sure all the auto-power modes were off, etc, and that had zero effect on the ASIO spiking I had in cubase.

Ive slowly gone back to gaming on this box, as well, now that Ive got cubase stabilized and performing decently, and Im toggling the virtual cores on/off in BIOS each time. Now I have to remember to do that, like now for example lol. Now that we talked about this, I remember... Im still in "gaming" mode with all my cores enabled, so Ive got to reboot and "fix" that. This is annoying, but I love me some destiny2, and I love me some audio production, so I guess that is how its going to be!!! : )

[Milkman]

And about the GPU, etc, topic above -- I use a 32" BenQ 4k screen to do everything. 4k desktop and application resolution *could* create GPU spikes on a 750ti. I have a nvidia 960 in my other box, and it does struggle sometimes at 4k. You can "feel" it on the desktop, and games die at like 15-20fps lol.

[eBlue]

I use this to handle the CPU cores: https://bitsum.com/parkcontrol/

I run a 4k monitor/TV connected to Nvidia 1050ti at 60Hz. Never had any issues that made me consider disabling hyper-threading.

-e.B