Cubase 9.5 will not shut down properly.

[Grumbleweed]

Having jumped ship from Sonar and climbed aboard Cubase 9.5 I'm perturbed by its inability to be closed without some form of drama.
Closing down generally leaves a white menu bar at the top of the screen that also has to be closed down - and then a pop-up warning comes up that Cubase has stopped working etc..
Cubase is then still running in the background and Task Manager cannot close it.

When Sonar used to mess about like this I could boot up Reason to unlock the audio interface from Sonar and then things would be okay, but Reason won't load due its "Reason Engine" not working - Cubase is hogging things! The only upside is Cubase can still be booted up whereas Sonar would be locked unless you did something to kill it.

I'm on Windows 10 Pro (latest version) with a Focusrite FireWire interface.

Is this my new life or is there a trick (and not the killing the Rewire.dll one I read about as that doesn't do anything)?

Grum.

Edit: Having played around a bit more it appears that it doesn't like closing an unsaved project - if I start with a blank project, have a fiddle (as I'm still learning it) but then close without saving leads to a crash.
I suppose the solution is to have one file that I save to each time (overwriting it) in the hope that the program closes ok.
Carry on.

[jancivil]

That may be strictly your system having some real issue, I think. It kind of sounds like a display issue and possibly a hardware issue, ie.., your video card. I don't know what to think at all about the problem belonging to an unsaved project per se and I don't know how many times this has been true/consistent and reproducable.

[SJ_Digriz]

This problem is almost always one of two things ... a crappy or old MIDI device driver that Cubase is trying to release, or shit ASIO driver.

FYI: Everyone on Windows hates the f**king OSX program bar. It is a piece of shit. It brings one of the ultra annoying unfixable aspects of using programs on a MAC to windows .. with the additional bonus of f**king up windows management on windows.

[Grumbleweed]

That may be strictly your system having some real issue, I think. It kind of sounds like a display issue and possibly a hardware issue, ie.., your video card. I don't know what to think at all about the problem belonging to an unsaved project per se and I don't know how many times this has been true/consistent and reproducable.

My system is due an upgrade (i7 3770K) and things haven't been brilliantly stable recently (though it has now settled down over the last few days) but it still seems weird it will shut down if I save and crashes if I don't. It is totally consistent behaviour.

Thanks to the other guy for explaining it is an OSX thing with the second menu bar - certainly not something I'm used to doing (closing a program twice to close it).

I can cope with the workaround of saving everything I do if it means it closes the program properly.

Must have word with Mrs Grumbleweed about chucking 1500 squid on a new pc!

Grum.

[SJ_Digriz]

That may be strictly your system having some real issue, I think. It kind of sounds like a display issue and possibly a hardware issue, ie.., your video card. I don't know what to think at all about the problem belonging to an unsaved project per se and I don't know how many times this has been true/consistent and reproducable.

My system is due an upgrade (i7 3770K) and things haven't been brilliantly stable recently (though it has now settled down over the last few days) but it still seems weird it will shut down if I save and crashes if I don't. It is totally consistent behaviour.

Thanks to the other guy for explaining it is an OSX thing with the second menu bar - certainly not something I'm used to doing (closing a program twice to close it).

I can cope with the workaround of saving everything I do if it means it closes the program properly.

Must have word with Mrs Grumbleweed about chucking 1500 squid on a new pc!

Grum.

I doubt it is the PC by the way ... but don't want to remove a selling point to the Mrs.

[SJ_Digriz]

here's a test ... use ASIO-4-all and load that driver instead of the one from your audio card. Also, make sure you have the latest drivers for your audio interface. After those two things are done, see if you still lock up on close. I'm assuming you don't have any other MIDI devices attached.

When I had this problem it was an old M-Audio MIDI interface box I had. As soon as I unplugged it, the close problem went away. Someone else on the forum swapped their USB Audio Interface card out and the close problem stopped. So, I'm not absolutely sure that's your problem, I do know several occurrences where it was.

[Grumbleweed]

here's a test ... use ASIO-4-all and load that driver instead of the one from your audio card. Also, make sure you have the latest drivers for your audio interface. After those two things are done, see if you still lock up on close. I'm assuming you don't have any other MIDI devices attached.

When I had this problem it was an old M-Audio MIDI interface box I had. As soon as I unplugged it, the close problem went away. Someone else on the forum swapped their USB Audio Interface card out and the close problem stopped. So, I'm not absolutely sure that's your problem, I do know several occurrences where it was.

The Focusrite driver is the latest (though it's been around for a while) and I'm not keen on installing ASIO4ALL again but I suppose I could experiment.

When I used a Propellerhead Balance I could rip the USB cable out to sort problems but the Focusrite FireWire one warns of death and dismemberment if the cable is pulled out so I don't eff with that....ever.

Grum.

[Googly Smythe]

If the project window is maximised when you close it, you may be thinking that you are quitting Cubase. Not the case, you're just closing the project. You then have to quit Cubase.
Sometimes a plugin takes a long, long time to release - you need to be patient. Also, Cubase writes a lot of data just as it quits, so it sometimes seems to have hung, leading to lots of clicking on that little x.
Patience is the key for me. As always, ymmv.

[Funkybot's Evil Twin]

FYI: Everyone on Windows hates the f**king OSX program bar. It is a piece of shit. It brings one of the ultra annoying unfixable aspects of using programs on a MAC to windows .. with the additional bonus of f**king up windows management on windows.

I'm new to Cubase and this initially threw me for a loop. I'd certainly be happier if they ditched this and just went for a more traditional approach.

[SJ_Digriz]

FYI: Everyone on Windows hates the f**king OSX program bar. It is a piece of shit. It brings one of the ultra annoying unfixable aspects of using programs on a MAC to windows .. with the additional bonus of f**king up windows management on windows.

I'm new to Cubase and this initially threw me for a loop. I'd certainly be happier if they ditched this and just went for a more traditional approach.

The Borgz have done a lot to unify the code between Mac and Windows. This was one of the tragedies of that process. Windows application windowing post MDI is vastly better than OSX. But, from what I gather they couldn't have a portable process from the current windows method over to OSX. But, the silly "program bar" thing is viable, if not well integrated, on windows.

[breakmixer]

Shut it down by close>quiting in the menu, not using [X] in the corner...

[lfm]

If the project window is maximised when you close it, you may be thinking that you are quitting Cubase. Not the case, you're just closing the project. You then have to quit Cubase.

This.

When a project is maximized it's a two step process on X in upper right corner - since one X covers the other.
First close closes project leaving menu bar and core Cubase running.
Then next X is closing Cubase - as Smythe said.

If you first maximize Cubase window before last closing - this is remembered and next startup will start with gray background all over - instead of just top menu bar. I find it much easier to manage when desktop is not shining through - it's all confusing with that on startup.

[Funkybot's Evil Twin]

If you first maximize Cubase window before last closing - this is remembered and next startup will start with gray background all over - instead of just top menu bar. I find it much easier to manage when desktop is not shining through - it's all confusing with that on startup.

Thank you, that's so much better! At least now the solid background makes it obvious that Cubase is still running. Just in case it's not fully clear (I had to play around to get the steps right):

1. Launch Cubase
2. Create a new project
3. Click the X at the top right, which closes the project
4. Click the Maximize icon in the top right; this will create a dark gray (might be black) background
5. Click the X at the top right to close Cubase

Result: now when you relaunch Cubase in Windows, Cubase will now have a solid background making it obvious when it's still running.

[jancivil]

Wow. Yeah, I would HATE that feature to go away, because it makes total sense to close a project and not quit Cubase and initialize everything just to switch projects. I mean, really, people? I thought for sure Windows has control-W vs control-Q or whatever quits a program on that platform.

[SJ_Digriz]

Wow. Yeah, I would HATE that feature to go away, because it makes total sense to close a project and not quit Cubase and initialize everything just to switch projects. I mean, really, people? I thought for sure Windows has control-W vs control-Q or whatever quits a program on that platform.

First of all, it already initializes everything when you switch which project is active. Second, there is no requirement in the windows management system to use a management bar to have multiple instances running.