# Cubase 9.5 Buffer Size?



## wbacer (Jan 3, 2018)

HELP, I’m about ready to throw all of this out the window and get a job bagging groceries. 

What buffer size are you using with Cubase 9.5?
What buffer size should I expect to be able to use with Cubase 9.5?

I’m running Cubase 9.5 on a (2013) 12-core Mac Pro with 128 Gb or RAM. (Sierra OS)
With my full template loaded and all 66 tracks enabled I can’t set the buffer size to less than 768. When playing in a part, the Real-time peak meter keeps red lining and I get lots of pops and clicks. Disabling Cubase tracks that I’m not using helps but I only have 66 tracks. A lot of you are running tracks in the 100’s and 1,000’s.

Berlin Woods
Adventure Brass
Synchron Percussion
Synchron Strings
Omnisphere 2
Gravity
Zebra

I’m running the latest version of VEPro 6 on a slave PC that has been optimized by Purrfect Audio to run as a PC slave.
- RAM: 128GB DDR4/2400 (8x16)
- 10-Core Skylake Extreme CPU: 7900x 
- Power-Supply: 850w ultra quiet 
- Operating System: Windows 10 x64 Pro 
With my template fully loaded, CPU is only running at 42% and only using 61 GB of RAM so I’m sure the problem is not the PC.
All samples are on internal SSDs.

I had the same problem before I got the PC and was running Cubase and VEPro on my Mac.

My Mac is running 80% idle and only using 15 GB of RAM.
I’m using an Apogee Symphony IO audio interface.
Gigabit switch with cat 6 cables.

Cubase settings -
Cubase - 32 bit
Multi-Processing - On
ASIO-Guard – Off
Sample Rate – 48 kHz
VEPro ASIO-Guard Plug-in – inactive
VIPro ASIO-Guard Plug-in – inactive
VST-Plug-in Preference – “Suspend VST plug-in processing when no audio signals are received” Checked or not checked, no help either way

Kontakt settings -
Multiprocessor support (VST – Plugin) Off
Instrument preload buffer size – 12.00 kB

I’ve changed all these setting, on/off, full/min, upside down and sideways but nothing seems to help.

When I use Microsoft Remote Desktop to view my PC on my Mac, the pops and clicks are worse so now I’m accessing my PC with a separate monitor, mouse and keyboard.

I just don’t know what else to look for. What am I missing? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated, thanks.


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## Jeremy Spencer (Jan 3, 2018)

Dumb question, but is the Apogee selected as your playback source inside Cubase?


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## wbacer (Jan 3, 2018)

Wolfie2112 said:


> Dumb question, but is the Apogee selected as your playback source inside Cubase?


No good question, thanks for asking, yes it is selected in Audio Connections.
I have a 5.1 system but it doesn't matter if I have the 5.1 or stereo outputs assigned to the Symphony 64/Thunderbridge.


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## Anthony (Jan 3, 2018)

wbacer said:


> HELP, I’m about ready to throw all of this out the window and get a job bagging groceries.
> 
> What buffer size are you using with Cubase 9.5?
> What buffer size should I expect to be able to use with Cubase 9.5?
> ...


A simple thing I do to prevent pops, clicks, and real-time performance spikes is to make sure that -- prior to hitting the play button -- the highlighted track is an Audio track rather than a MIDI or Instrument track. It may seem trivial, but it can make a big difference especially if auto-record is on (or whatever that feature is called) and the VI on the track is resource-heavy like Omnisphere or some Kontakt libraries. I hope this helps.


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## jononotbono (Jan 3, 2018)

Try Disabling everything in each VEPro tab. Then Enable them all. Sometimes Kontakt can hang on start up and make my CPU cores all run at 99%. It's annoying and literally could be just 1 patch inside Kontakt Of course I could be way off the mark here (for your problem) but it's something I have run into with my template in the past. 

I would also have Kontakt's Multicore turned on, as well as Cubase's and in VEPro play with number of Threads. I had to spend some time (trial and error) to find a balance). I literally couldn't have my Cubase buffer on anything below 1024 but now it runs amazingly well at 512.

Jono


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## Gerhard Westphalen (Jan 3, 2018)

Have you tried changing the VEP buffer? It should be at least 1. I've never seen anyone use it successfully at 0.

12kB is pretty small for some libraries (like legato patches, I use 36kB for those). Have you tried raising that? Have you tried looking at Kontakt while playing to see whether the either of the 2 meters in it as peaking? 

Can you take a look at the individual core loads on both computers? It could be a single core getting maxed out.

Have you tried turning on asio guard?

Are there any plugins in the Cubase project? Is it just empty midi and the audio returns for the slave?


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## Prockamanisc (Jan 3, 2018)

I'm in an eerily similar situation- custom built PC with VEP and TONS of resources free running into a Mac (significantly fewer cores). I disabled all the ASIO that I could. Mine only started crackling and getting destroyed after I added a VEP Audio Input so that I could send a track housed in my Cubase project into VEP so it could sit in the same MIR room as many of the other tracks. Removing the plugin helped, but I mist have tweaked something and now it's just crackling no matter what I do.


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## Sami (Jan 3, 2018)

wbacer said:


> ASIO-Guard – Off



Why's that?


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## synthic (Jan 4, 2018)

I'd suggest turning ASIO Guard On in "Studio Setup" and setting it to "Low", but turning it off only for VE Pro in the plugin manager. Also, like jononotbono says, turn on multiprocessor support for Kontakt (there's no reason to why it should be off) and increase your preload size to at least 36 kb, provided you're using SSD's with a read rate of at least 500 mb/s.

Another thing to try is to disable core parking in Windows. Not sure about how you do it in Win 10, since I use Win 7 myself. But google "disable CPU core parking windows 10" and you should find an answer. Might require some basic registry hacking on your windows machine.


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## Prockamanisc (Jan 4, 2018)

I think I fixed my error- I have a few Instrument Tracks in Cubase that are streaming samples off of my Slave at the same time that Audio is being streamed through. It seems to be playing clean so far.


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## wbacer (Jan 4, 2018)

You guys rock, thank you so much for all of your suggestions.
Here's what I did.
1. Reset Cubase to 64 bit
2. Turned on ASIO guard in Cubase and set to low.
3. VEPro buffers were all set to 1. This is the way I had it set before so this is not a change.
4. Reset Kontakt Memory preload buffer from 12 to 36kb
5. Rest Kontakt Multicore support from off to 16 cores.
6. Reset Cubase buffer from 768 to 384
7. Core parking in Windows was already disabled.
8. Selected an audio track before playback.
9. Looked at the individual cores on both the Mac and PC and the load is pretty evenly distributed, no core spikes.
Not sure how much each part contributed to the final outcome but none of the changes made it worse so it's all good.

No pops and clicks with the Cubase buffer at 384, amazing. 
Fire sale has been cancelled, I'm keeping all my stuff.
Now back to writing some music.
Thanks again, I appreciate everyone's support.


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