End of Cubase? Performance Meter Average picking to 99% with very few Fx plugins

[mduke123]

I have several projects in Cubase with Windows 10. One project has about 27 plugins and it takes almost 90% of the “Performance Meter Average” with 17% real CPU.
It makes impossible to work with medium - big projects. I have buffer to 2048 samples at 44.1 Khz. I have ASIO Guard enabled with multi processor also enabled. My PC is brand new i7 - 10th with 8 cores at 2.90 Ghz, SSD disk and 32 Gb RAM. I have tried the same project with the same plugins in Reaper and it only takes 5% of resources with 11% real CPU.

I use a brand new Audient ID4 Mk2.

I cannot believe this is almos useless for mixing or even producing.

[chk071]

Have you switched to the "High performance" power plan in Windows?

[jancivil]

Which version?
I've had a horrible time with 11 Pro, .0, .1, .2. However it's not using all that much CPU here, my buffers ranged from 128 to 256 this year.
I have 8 cores/16 logical, 64GB, MBP 16,1. Does it perform as badly with multi-processing off? Performs worse with ASIO Guard off or at High here.

I have in projects currently far more going on than that 27 (NB: VE Pro), but for some reason(s) its stability has been honestly the worst it's ever been, including being way under recommended hardware spec. So, I'm guessing something was done I don't understand or know anything about, since 10.5 was stable and slightly better performing (in an A/B straight comparison via same project).

I'd say that nededing to go to 2048 samples in buffer is a sign of something pretty wrong.

[rageix]

Definitely don't have your issues. Your system should preform pretty well.

Have you looked at Studio -> Studio Setup -> Audio System -> Activate Multi Processing, is checked?

[antic604]

I have several projects in Cubase with Windows 10. One project has about 27 plugins and it takes almost 90% of the “Performance Meter Average” with 17% real CPU.
It makes impossible to work with medium - big projects. I have buffer to 2048 samples at 44.1 Khz. I have ASIO Guard enabled with multi processor also enabled. My PC is brand new i7 - 10th with 8 cores at 2.90 Ghz, SSD disk and 32 Gb RAM. I have tried the same project with the same plugins in Reaper and it only takes 5% of resources with 11% real CPU.

I use a brand new Audient ID4 Mk2.

I cannot believe this is almos useless for mixing or even producing.

What does the Task Manager show in terms of per-core utilisation? What you describe sounds awful lot like Cubase is pushing everything through one core for some reason.

Have you experimented with disabling ASIO Guard? Lower audio buffer?

[jancivil]

it strikes me the same, poor core distribution. but I do think something has happened under the hood that is messing with people, not trivially

[fmr]

I use a brand new Audient ID4 Mk2.

I cannot believe this is almos useless for mixing or even producing.

I'm using an iD4 in a secondary computer (with an old Intel series 3 CPU). What plugins are you using? If you can send me one of your projects, I can check here for the behavior (if I have the same plug-ins).

[egbert]

If Reaper is cooking OK then your system and its settings are probably OK. Cubase may not like such high buffer sizes, I have seen threads in the past (prior to Cubase 11 )where a user was having trouble at high latencies and was much better off with medium settings - 512 might be better as a max settings. The other posters are pointing you to the multi-processing setting and their advice is sound IMO.

[mduke123]

Yes. I have multi precessing activated, high performance plan and everything ...
It seems to be beating hardly only a couple of cores. I have also try to spread through more tracks and nothing ...

[jancivil]

IME Cubase doesn't like 2048, certainly, and when I needed that there were issues
certain plugins set to use multiprocessing have historically not been agreeable with Cubase doing that, so that's one thing to see if we can eliminate.

have you tried reinstalling, clear as much as you can out and reinstall?

[mduke123]

I use a brand new Audient ID4 Mk2.

I cannot believe this is almos useless for mixing or even producing.

I'm using an iD4 in a secondary computer (with an old Intel series 3 CPU). What plugins are you using? If you can send me one of your projects, I can check here for the behavior (if I have the same plug-ins).

Hi Fernando. Yes I am using mostly Plugin-Alliance plugins, Ik Multimedia, Mcdsp 6060, Elevate Mastering (Newfangled) and something called Element which is a host vst for other plugins

[jancivil]

how does it run eliminating the subhost vst

[mduke123]

IME Cubase doesn't like 2048, certainly, and when I needed that there were issues
certain plugins set to use multiprocessing have historically not been agreeable with Cubase doing that, so that's one thing to see if we can eliminate.

have you tried reinstalling, clear as much as you can out and reinstall?

I have tried with different buffers and nothing. It is even worst. Eliminating Element Vst does nothing. Only deactivating NewFangle and Tdr Nova lower a bit. But in Reaper all of them takes only 5% resources ...

[WasteLand]

IME Cubase doesn't like 2048, certainly, and when I needed that there were issues
certain plugins set to use multiprocessing have historically not been agreeable with Cubase doing that, so that's one thing to see if we can eliminate.

have you tried reinstalling, clear as much as you can out and reinstall?

I have tried with different buffers and nothing. It is even worst. Eliminating Element Vst does nothing. Only deactivating NewFangle and Tdr Nova lower a bit. But in Reaper all of them takes only 5% resources ...

do you have a lot of 'stuff' on the master?

in my case, windows 10 21H1, cubase pro 11, latest version, not the latest CPU, it runs quite good, for cubase.. so no problems.

also have PA plugins, IK multimedia, no newfangled or tdr..

reaper performs well on the same system, but chokes on the same things as cubase, some exceptions by the way. so a system specific problem?

your graphics card? cubase depends on a little bit more capable graphics card, than reaper. although sometimes...

it can be many things.

so try to troubleshoot, i.e. load one FX plugin, the next, and see which one burns the CPU, or better the buffer.

can it be the new audient ID4 MK2???? it is known, even brands with a reputation, the drivers can be unstable when an interface is released.. the ID4 mk2, is already some time on the market..

change USB connection?

can you check with another soundcard?

and a beast of a computer, sadly, can underperform, because of bad drivers for motherboard, USB, all other peripheral devices, and internal devices.

but reaper performs with the same plugins, at 11% ok. with tracks armed by the way?

reaper does only do the trick with non-armed tracks, like cubase. the pre-render trick, which reaper does very efficient, that is why it works so well..

[fmr]

I use a brand new Audient ID4 Mk2.

I cannot believe this is almos useless for mixing or even producing.

I'm using an iD4 in a secondary computer (with an old Intel series 3 CPU). What plugins are you using? If you can send me one of your projects, I can check here for the behavior (if I have the same plug-ins).

Hi Fernando. Yes I am using mostly Plugin-Alliance plugins, Ik Multimedia, Mcdsp 6060, Elevate Mastering (Newfangled) and something called Element which is a host vst for other plugins

From your list, I don't have McDSP pug-ins, and I certainly don't have that sub-host Elements. What are you needing it for? I would follow the advice of Jan of trying to eliminate it, and also follow the advice of trying a lower buffer (512 is certainly higher enough for your specs, and you shouldn't need to go as high as 2048).

Anyway, since I have most of what you use, if you want you may send me the project (I hope you have the good habit of having everything consolidated in a project folder).