Cubase 12, frustrated again, this time "checking licenses" forever? <sigh>

[Milkman]

Milkman may I ask what audio interface you are using, did it remain the same for all the machines ?

Ive had a focusrite 2i2 (gen 2), and a focusrite 8i6 (gen 3).
5 systems, so far, have been tested on those interfaces. The problems inside cubase are different on each system, even if those interfaces are the same.

(a laptop and 1 desktop + that interface have no issues at all.)
(3 other desktops + that interface have had issues - issues I was able to work around by disabling tons of important features on the motherboard)

I am considering buying a UA Apollo one of these days, not because I really need it, but because I would like one more interface to test all this with. But I really expect steinberg to have done all that lol.

[cnt]

Using AMD 3950x, no problems. The Cubase CPU meter is wrong and you should look at Windows Task Manager CPU monitor instead. (Cubase can show 90% CPU usage but you can still add 100's of VSTs)...

[sqigls]

i don't really look at "CPU" meters anymore, they don't seem very accurate.
i just listen, if the audio starts glitching, i either choose plugins with more stable code or increase buffer. I hardly ever increase buffer. Haven't hit the lid on the M1 Pro yet, and staying at 256 samples.

regarding Cubase checking license, i've had a few times where Cubase won't start cos i apparently have no license, but it seems to be a short lived problem. Never happened during a session though. touch wood and stuff

[D-Fusion]

i don't really look at "CPU" meters anymore, they don't seem very accurate.
i just listen, if the audio starts glitching, i either choose plugins with more stable code or increase buffer. I hardly ever increase buffer. Haven't hit the lid on the M1 Pro yet, and staying at 256 samples.

regarding Cubase checking license, i've had a few times where Cubase won't start cos i apparently have no license, but it seems to be a short lived problem. Never happened during a session though. touch wood and stuff

Smart move and i think i will do the same from now on.
It is easy to get obsessed on the Performance meter once you start to give it attention which is actually a distraction you don't need while making music.

While i was playing with Cubase last night something weird happen followed by a graphic crash message that i never encountered before that made me nervous since i got a new Graphic card 3 days ago.
This only happened in the Midi editor and everything else looked normal.



Has anyone experienced something like this in Cubase before and is there a fix for it?

[sqigls]

it looks like multiple MIDI tracks have been selected and all MIDI information from all MIDI tracks is being displayed in the editor simultaneously. Unless i'm wrong, it's not a bug it's a feature. Now Cubase has joined the single MIDI window world.

[sqigls]

looks pretty wild though, i can't make it out clearly

[D-Fusion]

it looks like multiple MIDI tracks have been selected and all MIDI information from all MIDI tracks is being displayed in the editor simultaneously. Unless i'm wrong, it's not a bug it's a feature. Now Cubase has joined the single MIDI window world.

No it was only one single track that where edited and the Colorfull squares popped up out of nowhere while playing back in all kind of colors and some black Squares after i edited some notes.

Everything froze in the gui so i could'nt do anything in the Sequencer or Midi windows but i could go to file and save it before before closing Cubase.

If you look at the top of the midi Editor to the right it says that track 4 is selected.

It is not a Vst causing it either since it is all hw and no vst is used.

Reinstalled GPU Drivers and installed the latest cubase 12.52 from 12.50 to try out so if it happens again i will return the Graphic Card.

[Milkman]

Using AMD 3950x, no problems. The Cubase CPU meter is wrong and you should look at Windows Task Manager CPU monitor instead. (Cubase can show 90% CPU usage but you can still add 100's of VSTs)...

The internal ASIO meter just shows ASIO processing 'bandwidth', if you will, and isnt going to match your real CPU usage. For ex when ASIO internal meter shows 25%, you might see 5% of one CPU used. I disabled ASIO Guard, as well, because this improves performance on my systems, so my ASIO internal meter is more 'honest' than with Guard turned on. On some systems this creates pops and clicks in the audio stream, which was my original issue (and cubase's issue since 2002, Core2Duo), but on the newest builds Ive put together, none of these issues exist. (internal ASIO meter does not overload, does not have high average load, audio does not glitch).

Ive been dealing with these environmental problems (that steinberg hasnt been able to QA or put together a list of supported platforms for) for many years, and Ive been motivated to post on their forums and on KVR half a dozen times or so about it. Its been frustrating, and with the various platforms people use as well as how steinberg always pretends the issue doesnt exist, the real problem can be obfuscated. Is it BECAUSE of industry changes? Yes. Do other vendors blame THE ENTIRE INDUSTRY for their inability to develop reliably inside an ever-changing industry? Not the ones who continue having customers. ; )

[Milkman]

i don't really look at "CPU" meters anymore, they don't seem very accurate.
i just listen, if the audio starts glitching, i either choose plugins with more stable code or increase buffer. I hardly ever increase buffer. Haven't hit the lid on the M1 Pro yet, and staying at 256 samples.

regarding Cubase checking license, i've had a few times where Cubase won't start cos i apparently have no license, but it seems to be a short lived problem. Never happened during a session though. touch wood and stuff

Smart move and i think i will do the same from now on.
It is easy to get obsessed on the Performance meter once you start to give it attention which is actually a distraction you don't need while making music.

While i was playing with Cubase last night something weird happen followed by a graphic crash message that i never encountered before that made me nervous since i got a new Graphic card 3 days ago.
This only happened in the Midi editor and everything else looked normal.



Has anyone experienced something like this in Cubase before and is there a fix for it?

The post-crash issue that I experienced twice recently, leading to 2 rebuilds to resolve, was not just a meter misbehaving. I tested this thoroughly, and it was also leading to pops/clicks in the audio stream when I would add a few VSTs to the chain, realtime(armed) or otherwise. My threshold for dropouts was suddenly much lower.

This also occurred OUTSIDE cubase, once cubase had crashed during runtime. Something cubase did, to do with licensing or the windows core audio subsystem, was unrecoverable. Standalone synths, using ASIO, windows audio, or generic ASIO would all experience increased processing overhead + audio latency once cubase crashed. I removed and reinstalled all audio drivers, even reinstalled my motherboard's bus and USB drivers, and finally did a windows 10 repair, but the issue persisted and I couldnt get any help from steinberg on it. They are the people who can QA this and find out what cubase is corrupting when it crashes, hopefully leading to less system rebuilds.

It is noteworthy to mention that the first crash + "checking licenses" forever that happened was during a first-time license check after adding a new VST synth. (CS-80V). I added the synth, started C12, and then C12 crashed during the startup "license checking" process. The issue began immediately after that. The second time, C12 was running with a project open, 2 synths (Imagine and Pigments) running. Same result. This needs further analysis by steinberg.

[sqigls]

Steinberg is the worst.
I wouldn't expect ANYTHING from them.
I'm stuck on Cubase cos i'm so used to it and don't like any other DAWS.
But it's stable enough for me now. I've been through so much shit with them though.
Spent so much on this DAW over the years. Seen so much bulldust at their forums over time also. They really don't give a rats ass about customers, developers or the "industry"... they just f**king suck. Almost as much as Apple. So stubborn to the point of embarrassing. They too often spend sooooo much money on half baked ideas that don't sell, simply because they just want to stick to their arrogant proprietary practices rather than be helpful in the slightest. So wack

[SuperG]

Sorry to hear folks having problems.

I have been using Cubase ever since 2018 (when Gibson torpedoed Sonar). Cubase has been good to me. It is not that I cannot get Cubase to stumble occasionally, it is just that I really must push it to get myself into a jam. Usually it is some orchestral project I am working on (with a gajillion tracks); I then wander off part way through to read mail, forget myself, open some other application for a bit (Adobe this, or that...) and then go back to music. More than one media application/memory hog and things could get ugly if I am not paying attention.

My setup is Windows 10 on a first gen i7-6700K. It has only got four *real* cores, but it is sitting on 48 GB ram. (Helps tremendously with VI Pro...) If I had to guess the notable thing about my system's stability is that it is using good-old FireWire (800) for my audio interfaces. Still using Motu interfaces and those things are solid. My only gripe with them is the display's go out after time.

[Funkybot's Evil Twin]

I started on Sonar, was on Studio One for a good long while (still a secondary DAW), gave Cubase a go as my primary DAW for a few years, finally landed on Reaper and really have never been happier with a DAW. Took longer to get setup how I wanted, really long in fact. But what a great DAW. Reaper is fast, stable, efficient, has responsive developers not trying to get you to buy into an ecosystem; pretty much the opposite of Steiny. I voted with my wallet. #JustSayin'

[sqigls]

My advice with Cubase is, always stop playback and SAVE before adding or removing plugins.
Third party plugins are generally the biggest problem i find. And more often than not, I've had problems with the VST3 version and the VST2 works fine. So Cubase 13 might be a SKIP for me... and the next and the next.
No real reason to update for me now, unless we get some neural interface that writes songs instantly.

[pixel85]

Cubase meter is a real-time performance meter. It's not the same as a CPU usage meter. Real-time performance meter counts more than just CPU usage to its overall result. It's worth to remember this to not think that 'Cubase meter is useless/stupid etc.)
Here's video explaining differences: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GUsLLEkswzE

Another thing worth knowing is how audio is processed in DAWs. TLDR: DAW is as powerful as the fastest single core of the CPU.
While normally DAWs can split a track per CPU core, the moment we make buses or put effects on Master Bus, all those tracks assigned to it are calculated on the same core (more or less). In other words: don't put effects on your Master Bus because this automatically cuts available resources of your computer. Leave it for the mastering process after the arrangement and mix are done. Control Room effects count for this to I'm pretty sure. Especially Sonarworks which I'm finding to be the most badly performing plugin in my collection.


Ps. I also have Ableton Live and while it may look like it's better with CPU usage when native effects are used, it quickly becomes a real pig when 3rd party plugins are used. So it's not only Cubase. Rant: not to mention how inefficient is track freezing in Live in comparison to Cubase to save resources.

[Milkman]

Steinberg is the worst.
I wouldn't expect ANYTHING from them.
I'm stuck on Cubase cos i'm so used to it and don't like any other DAWS.
But it's stable enough for me now. I've been through so much shit with them though.
Spent so much on this DAW over the years. Seen so much bulldust at their forums over time also. They really don't give a rats ass about customers, developers or the "industry"... they just f**king suck. Almost as much as Apple. So stubborn to the point of embarrassing. They too often spend sooooo much money on half baked ideas that don't sell, simply because they just want to stick to their arrogant proprietary practices rather than be helpful in the slightest. So wack

You and I are in the identical situation... *identical*. I feel this. This is why I was motivated to post about these issues and the new issue - again - at KVR, and why Im super angry at Steinberg support. I feel trapped, right now, with C12 and I tried to get some stuff done in Live last week, and once again I just wasted so much time and failed to make a track. Went back to effing C12.

--and back to waiting 2 months+ for an email response back from steinberg USA support--
--and back to waiting 2 months+ to hear that support has never heard of this problem, and I must be one of a VERY SMALL NUMBER of people experiencing this, meanwhile there are 1000s of posts on the forum about identical issues.

Ive been using their stuff since a random friend from europe helped me learn cubase sx2 in like 2001 via that old soulseek client thing, and Ive kept up ever since. I saw steinberg's uncompromising DSP standard as a good thing at the time, and was willing to do troubleshooting and workarounds -- in 2001-2002 in Pentium 3, Pentium 4/Core2Duo hardware.

Cut to today, 20 years later and 4 systems and 1 laptop later lmao, and their support is worse than ever, the culture of denial and blame-shifting on the forums is the worst Ive seen outside like EA games or Comcast customer service, and now they expand their blaming to THE ENTIRE hardware and software ecosystem around them.

On the bright side, Cubase hasnt crashed at any critical moment in the last 4 days now, and everything still works perfectly!! I should enjoy this while I can, lol.