# Cubase major malfunction - your brains, please! [SOLVED, thanks]



## Guy Rowland (Dec 30, 2013)

OK, Cubase has gone down the crapper over the past couple of weeks for me. I've had a support ticket for 2 weeks, a post on the Steinberg forum and another on the Facebook group, and I've had no luck with any of them yet. So this is a trawl for ideas of what might be going wrong.

I'm on 7.0.2 Win7 64 bit pro. All was normal until one day when it wasn't. The only change I know of - and where I first noticed the problem - was installing nexus 2, but I suspect that's unrelated.

What happens is that when writing / editing, material on the timeline stops sounding. Sometimes its midi, sometimes audio. Sometimes its some instruments, usually its everything. It might happen for no reason mid playback, it might happen after editing. Always playing instruments "live" works fine - only timeline playback is affected. The metronome still works. Sometimes moving the play head wakes it up, sometimes it needs a project restart to bring it back. It happens using different starting templates. If that all sounds hopelessly vague - sorry, but that's how it is!

Needless to say, it's driving me insane. Thinking of just upgrading to 7.5 purely to get a completely fresh install, but I don't want to lose 7.0.2 as that's where naming in the mixer works for me (no intelligent shortening, something they "fixed" in 7.0.3) so not keen to try 7.0.6 and overwrite my beloved 7.0.2. But of course this is so debilitating, I need to try something drastic soon. Hoping someone out there says "oh yeah, I had that once and I just pressed a tickbox and everything came back to normal"....


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## G.R. Baumann (Dec 30, 2013)

*Re: Cubase major malfunction - your brains, please!*

Guy,

sorry to hear that. While I left Cubase years ago, I remember that the support tickets were, how shall I say, kinda lenghty experience. Your best bet is to give them a call and talk with someone who has expertise.


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## playz123 (Dec 30, 2013)

*Re: Cubase major malfunction - your brains, please!*

I don't normally recommend reinstalls because often they are not not needed, but in your case it may be the best solution, especially time wise. That's abnormal behaviour and that is why there may not be any quick solution. There are all kinds of things you can try like deleting blacklist files, preferences, eliminating all VSTi(s) then reintroducing them etc., but you still may not find the answer. What I wouldn't do just yet is install 7.5 on top of 7.0.2. What you could try is completely uninstalling your current version (see the Steinberg Knowledge Base) and then reinstalling (although I'd be much more inclined to go 7.0.6). If that solves the problem, _then_ you could consider 7.5. But if it doesn't then the problem is more serious, and will need further attention. Finally, if you have a suitable system restore point, you might try going back in time and see if that helps, but I'd do the uninstall/reinstall first. It's a lot faster than fiddling for days trying to figure out the cause and getting nowhere. Just some thoughts.


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## Guy Rowland (Dec 30, 2013)

Thanks GR and Frank. Frank - AFAIK 7.5 is a new version completely and it keeps 7.0.x as is - do you still think it needs an uninstall first?


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## Dan Selby (Dec 30, 2013)

*Re: Cubase major malfunction - your brains, please!*

Sounds very odd, Guy. Maybe check and roll back any automatic Windows Updates that have installed recently. Beyond that, in these circumstances I would roll back to a recent working disk image.


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## playz123 (Dec 30, 2013)

Guy Rowland @ Mon Dec 30 said:


> Thanks GR and Frank. Frank - AFAIK 7.5 is a new version completely and it keeps 7.0.x as is - do you still think it needs an uninstall first?



Correct, 7.5 is a 'new' version, and goes into a different folder. BUT on some installs it is also grabbing previous preference files, noting old Registry entries etc., so my feeling is, just to be safe, if the old version has problems I'd fix those first (or remove the old version). On my Mac install, 7.5 grabbed all the old settings, preferences, folder locations etc., so installing it was a snap. But then again 7.06 had no problems that were due to my system or previous installation, so that was okay. On PCs, most times advancing files didn't happen. My own approach has always been to simply eliminate any chance of old errors being carried forward...often a great time saver......but it's up to each user to decide what works best for them. Since you are on a PC, you could try just installing 7.5, but then if it has problems too, you now have two versions with abnormal behaviour, and double the trouble.  You decide.  As I mentioned in my first post, roll back may also be an option.


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## apessino (Dec 30, 2013)

*Re: Cubase major malfunction - your brains, please!*

You don't happen to be using a Focusrite audio interface by any chance?


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## Guy Rowland (Dec 30, 2013)

apessino - no, RME Babyface.

Well I threw all caution to the wind and installed 7.5, and the problem remains. Someone suggested trashing prefs, I might try that in the morning, if that fails then its complete uninstalls / reinstalls looks like.

I'm outta time here now to do any more fault finding today, sadly. Huge thanks for all contributions in the meantime.


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## apessino (Dec 30, 2013)

*Re: Cubase major malfunction - your brains, please!*

Trashing prefs won't help - 7.5 is a new install and it creates all new prefs anyhow (that's why you lost all your settings, in case you didn't notice ).

Sorry I cannot help - I had a very similar problem but it was the Focusrite Scarlett 18i20 driver; after a few months of frustration (and several driver updates) I went back to my trusty Steinberg UR28M and everything is groovy again.

One difference was that for me it was always all-or-nothing, after a while the sound just stopped coming out from Cubase, the only solution was to restart the audio engine.

Does it seem like the problem is related to switching app? Mine definitely was - whenever I would tab out of Cubase and come back there was a chance the sound playback would stop working, regardless of the setting of the "release audio driver in background" checkbox.

Hopefully a bigass fresh install will solve the issue (I would fully remove and reinstall all major drivers before Cubase if I were you - just in case, if that does not work then clean up the big boy too).

Anyhow, good luck! 8)


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## Whatisvalis (Dec 30, 2013)

*Re: Cubase major malfunction - your brains, please!*

I've experienced something similar on v 6. It has happened when I have duplicated an instrument track (uhe Diva) - playing the instrument works, but timeline playback does not. 

I've never found the cause and just copied the timeline data, deleted the track and created a new track, then pasted the material back.


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## njO (Dec 30, 2013)

*Re: Cubase major malfunction - your brains, please!*

Just a thought: To be on the safe side, make a copy of your user settings data folder at

C > user > username > AppData > Roaming > Steinberg > Cubase 7_64.

You might want to try to see how it works with Cubase 7.5

Nils Johan


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## Guy Rowland (Dec 30, 2013)

*Re: Cubase major malfunction - your brains, please!*

Thanks all. Apessino - actually 7.5 did know all my preferences, I think they're shared, so its still a logical thing to try. I know my Pro Tools went nuts earlier this year and trashing prefs made that like new again, here's hoping it does the same for Cubase. And yes indeed Nils, will make a backup before I delete (and save my shortcuts etc).

It is very odd. It's not all or nothing, it's really quite random. 7.5 seemed to be doing it less and recovering more easily, but clearly I've got to get to the root cause.


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## The Darris (Dec 30, 2013)

*Re: Cubase major malfunction - your brains, please!*

I had this same thing happen to me when I used Pro Tools 8 LE. I couldn't get tech support on it and nothing was available in the forums. What I figured out was that Windows did a secret system update which complete screwed up the coding in PT. I uninstalled the update, uninstalled/reinstalled PT and it still didn't fix the issue. 

My last ditch effort was to completely swipe my OS and do a full up system reinstall. That fixed it. I'm assuming you have your OS on a separate drive so you could give that a shot, if a Cubase reinstall doesn't work. I hope you get it figured out. Good luck Guy!!


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## Daryl (Dec 30, 2013)

*Re: Cubase major malfunction - your brains, please!*



Guy Rowland @ Mon Dec 30 said:


> Thanks all. Apessino - actually 7.5 did know all my preferences, I think they're shared, so its still a logical thing to try. I know my Pro Tools went nuts earlier this year and trashing prefs made that like new again, here's hoping it does the same for Cubase. And yes indeed Nils, will make a backup before I delete (and save my shortcuts etc).
> 
> It is very odd. It's not all or nothing, it's really quite random. 7.5 seemed to be doing it less and recovering more easily, but clearly I've got to get to the root cause.


Guy, it may be a little bit late now, but you should always back up your Applicvation Data folder, remove it and then update. You can always replace the default folder it gives you, but more often than not your Prefs will get screwed up by updating, and even if they don't appear to be problematic, you can find that further along the line that there is a problem with the way Cubase is running.

FWIW My Prefs folder is backed up regularly, just like an other data, so I can always go back to a working version if there is a problem.

D


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## Guy Rowland (Dec 30, 2013)

*Re: Cubase major malfunction - your brains, please!*



The Darris @ Mon Dec 30 said:


> I had this same thing happen to me when I used Pro Tools 8 LE. I couldn't get tech support on it and nothing was available in the forums. What I figured out was that Windows did a secret system update which complete screwed up the coding in PT. I uninstalled the update, uninstalled/reinstalled PT and it still didn't fix the issue.
> 
> My last ditch effort was to completely swipe my OS and do a full up system reinstall. That fixed it. I'm assuming you have your OS on a separate drive so you could give that a shot, if a Cubase reinstall doesn't work. I hope you get it figured out. Good luck Guy!!



Yikes, hope its not a full OS reinstall, that would be profoundly depressing. The OS is the same drive as the programs (not the samples and data of course). It could be a windows update I guess, but wouldn't that have affected lots of people? No idea how I'd go about tracking that, save for a basic system restore from a few weeks ago (they sometimes work, sometimes not for me).

Well, my order of events is trashing prefs, then complete uninstalls of both versions of Cubase if that doesn't work.


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## playz123 (Dec 30, 2013)

*Re: Cubase major malfunction - your brains, please!*

_"7.5 is a 'new' version, and goes into a different folder. BUT on some installs it is also grabbing previous preference files, noting old Registry entries etc., so my feeling is, just to be safe, if the old version has problems I'd fix those first"_


As suggested, the better way would have been to fix 7.0.2 first because now you can't use a Restore Point to back up a bit unless you created one just before you installed 7.5. You could still try a Restore Point that occurred just before the problem started, but if you don't have one then a) trash ALL preference files and if that doesn't work then do a complete uninstall of ALL Cubase related files (see the Steinberg Knowledge Base). You may also have to clean the Registry.

After that, please just load only one version of Cubase to test...or you will just get into a loop again. I also advise opening and running it with only a few solid plug-ins first. If it works, then add in a few more, test, add more etc. If you have done all this correctly and have truly done a clean install of Cubase and you still have problems, then the next thing will be to look elsewhere. Only when all else has failed should you need to reinstall the o/s, so I wouldn't 'go there' just yet. Hope this helps.


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## Guy Rowland (Dec 30, 2013)

Thanks Frank - System Restore sometimes works wonders for me, more frequently it seems to take an age before informing me that "the restore point could not be created" or something.

Sounds like a good order of events to try. Putting in VSTs bit by bit would be very tedious though. COULD there be a connection with Nexus I wonder? I never noticed the problem before, it only started after that install.


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## playz123 (Dec 30, 2013)

Guy Rowland @ Mon Dec 30 said:


> Thanks Frank - System Restore sometimes works wonders for me, more frequently it seems to take an age before informing me that "the restore point could not be created" or something.
> 
> Sounds like a good order of events to try. Putting in VSTs bit by bit would be very tedious though. COULD there be a connection with Nexus I wonder? I never noticed the problem before, it only started after that install.



The way to determine if it is Nexus is to remove it from the plug-in path and VST folders before booting Cubase. Also have a look at the .xml file that shows VST Blacklisted files, and see if there's anything in there that should not be included. Finally, System Restore can sometimes be a life saver, but once in awhile it may not be effective, so it should be used with caution. And yes I understand, when the problem is a plug-in, reintroducing a few at a time can be tedious. In your case, you can just reinstate a large number at a time, but do note which ones were just reinstated if a problem then occurs.


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## Guy Rowland (Dec 31, 2013)

*Re: Cubase major malfunction - your brains, please!*

Thanks once again, Frank.

OK, some promising news this end. Starting with the easiest thing first, I trashed Default.xml in the preferences folder (Raymond Kemp suggested that on the Cubase Facebook page). Lo and behold, been working for a good 30 minutes and everything is perfectly behaved! Not declaring myself out of the woods just yet, but it's very promising.

Of course will be working my way down your list, Frank, if anything comes back.


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## marclawsonmusic (Dec 31, 2013)

*Re: Cubase major malfunction - your brains, please!*

Hi Guy,

Sometimes intermittent problems like this point to a hardware problem.

On Windows computers, memory is often a culprit, so it might be worth a quick check using this tool (or something similar)... http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/wind ... r-computer

Also, you might want to run a disk check (maybe defrag too). A bad block on the disk can also lead to intermittent behaviour.

Best of luck,
Marc


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## Guy Rowland (Dec 31, 2013)

Thanks Marc - definitely looking like it was defaults.xml though. Finished a morning session without a hint of a glitch - I wasn't getting through a couple of minutes before.


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## Daryl (Dec 31, 2013)

Guy Rowland @ Tue Dec 31 said:


> Thanks Marc - definitely looking like it was defaults.xml though. Finished a morning session without a hint of a glitch - I wasn't getting through a couple of minutes before.


So, lesson learned about updates then? :lol: 

D


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## Guy Rowland (Dec 31, 2013)

Daryl @ Tue Dec 31 said:


> Guy Rowland @ Tue Dec 31 said:
> 
> 
> > Thanks Marc - definitely looking like it was defaults.xml though. Finished a morning session without a hint of a glitch - I wasn't getting through a couple of minutes before.
> ...



Which - Windows or Steinberg?

Lesson learned - don't be afraid to trash preferences if your DAW goes bonkers, applies to Pro Tools as well.

EDIT - very much like most of what I've seen in 7.5 except the huge Instruments Rack. Naming over EuCon and mix console also sorted


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## Daryl (Dec 31, 2013)

Steinberg. :D 

Always remove Prefs before updating and then replace the bits you want. Updating without doing that has been a disaster for years, but SB still hasn't fixed it.

D


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## marclawsonmusic (Dec 31, 2013)

Guy Rowland @ Tue Dec 31 said:


> Thanks Marc - definitely looking like it was defaults.xml though. Finished a morning session without a hint of a glitch - I wasn't getting through a couple of minutes before.



Glad to hear it! :D


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## Rob Elliott (Dec 31, 2013)

Daryl @ Tue Dec 31 said:


> Steinberg. :D
> 
> Always remove Prefs before updating and then replace the bits you want. Updating without doing that has been a disaster for years, but SB still hasn't fixed it.
> 
> D




Probably good advice Daryl. On N5.5 still and considering 6.x. So would you replace my current (nightly saved prefs Application folder) with what ever N6.x 'installs'?


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## apessino (Dec 31, 2013)

Interesting! When I upgraded to 7.5 on the day of its release no preferences were imported. Took me a few minutes to set everything up again (no big deal since the old version was still there and I could compare), some people whined about that behavior so Steiny must have added an auto import to the updater. Probably would have been better not to... 

Glad your problem is fixed!


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## Daryl (Dec 31, 2013)

Rob Elliott @ Tue Dec 31 said:


> Daryl @ Tue Dec 31 said:
> 
> 
> > Steinberg. :D
> ...


Yes, remove your Prefs folder entirely and let N6 build new ones. Then replace them with the old ones if you want to. Personally I only replace the KC and re-do the rest.

D


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## Rob Elliott (Dec 31, 2013)

Daryl @ Tue Dec 31 said:


> Rob Elliott @ Tue Dec 31 said:
> 
> 
> > Daryl @ Tue Dec 31 said:
> ...




Good advice on bringing over ONLY the KC's. Thanks Daryl. Great thread Guy. This is the sort of thing the wreaks havoc on all of us.


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## playz123 (Dec 31, 2013)

Daryl @ Tue Dec 31 said:


> Rob Elliott @ Tue Dec 31 said:
> 
> 
> > Daryl @ Tue Dec 31 said:
> ...






playz123 @ Mon Dec 30 said:


> ......deleting blacklist files, preferences, .....



.....And that's also one of the things I recommended at the very start of this thread, and I also mentioned the fact that on a PC sometimes preferences were carried forward and sometimes they were not.  Worth repeating and repeating though I guess.


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## peksi (Apr 25, 2014)

this thread has been helpful. thanks people.

after my Nth Cubase upgrade it has become unstable and slow especially in bigger projects. I deleted defaults.xml and it seems to have gotten faster and more stable.

a little follow up question connecting to the cubase stability. is there a problem if i clean the slate like this: 

- uninstall all cubase versions (there seems to be all of them under program files)
- clean my local cubase application data
- clean my registry
- install only version 7.5

i've reached 7.5 though updates so can it be installed directly? will there be any problems with my plugins and existing projects? if anyone done this already.


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## lucky909091 (Apr 25, 2014)

Yes, it can be installed directly. There is a link on the Steinberg Website to C7.5.
But it is not necessary. Your approach is functioning, too

You should install the Update 7.5.20. This is a very important update because they solved a lot of annoying bugs.

You do not need to uninstall previous versions, so if there are any problems you can immediately change and go back to your old project. But you should not overwrite the old project with a newer version of Cubase.
Just give it a new name.

Plugin-problems:
may be some 32bit pluggies make problems. In this case try JBridger, the ultimate tool for this kind of problems.

Some really old plugins do not work with C7. This is a fact, but you should concentrate on the VST3-standard. That seems to be the future.


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