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Nuendo skipping notes/brief freeze while recording midi

JonSolo

Not Han's Brother
Wanted to throw this to the community.

Nuendo 8.3.20, Windows 10 Pro (1803), Scarlet 6i6 v1, Panorama P6, Nvidia GTX 1060

Coming from Cubase 10 which was flawless and did not have this issue.

While recording midi (playing live) in Nuendo, sometimes get sustain release (though pedal is down) and silence though playing keys. Visual inspection reveals that the progression line/cursor in Nuendo briefly pauses during this time, then skips to where it should be in time. It is as if all midi and audio ceases for a split second (hard to tell but under a second). Nothing gets recorded in that space where I was recording. It is as if I lifted my hands off the keyboard and played nothing for the brief second.

Cannot duplicate in Kontakt (or other instrument) standalone mode, cannot duplicate in Ableton Live 10 or FL Studio. No spikes on any meter, LatencyMon shows smooth operation, Event Log shows zero errors during that time. Edit: there IS cursor pausing in playback in Nuendo... notes still missing from that section of recording.

Nuendo setup matches previous Cubase setup. Nvidia settings for Nuendo added to match those of Cubase. Using Steinberg Power scheme. Scarlet latency set to 4ms.

Footnote: The ONLY oddity I have noted is that one of my VSTs stopped working (Sound Magic Neo Piano) and upon checking my Machine ID for that VST, it is different than it was a few months ago. However, none of my other programs (Engine, Kong Audio Qin, Spectrasonics stuff) that uses machine ID have changed or stopped working.

Can anyone help?
 
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I'd look at ASIO Guard settings. While technically, the input enabled stuff shouldn't BE in ASIO guard....while I don't remember that exact thing, when I demo'd N8 on the new machine, I definitely had some time related glitchy stuff. Maybe change the "size" of that....flip it off (though MAN my hex i7 NEEDED it on)....
 
Thank you for your answer. ASIO Guard was off. I would like to add that this is happening with only one track in the project. I could run 30+ instances of Kontact in Cubase 10 on this system without even budging my meter...with ASIO Guard off.

Now I have turned it on. And yes it actually stops the hiccups that I see, but I do see ASIO glitching (meter hits red) and NOTHING has changed on this system. Please advise.
 
I dunno. I mentioned it because this Nuendo8 demo is the first time Ive ever had to turn on ASIO Gaurd on Windows machines to get good performance. I always had to enable it on OSX machines...

The good news is that they seem to have fixed that it made things feel latent under fingers. I can set the buffer to 128 at 96khz and it feels snappy. I also have had enough “seemingly random” ASIO Real Time overs Im not sold. It seems to need AG to roughly equal the performance of C6 on the same hardware.
 
Thank you again for your input. I actually am facing the same issue even with ASIO Guard enabled. What it is starting to feel like reminds me of the old IRQ conflict days. It is like maybe something on USB is being called and taking too long to respond. Just strange. Will keep digging.
 
Didn't you say their are conflicts with the Scarlet and Cubendo? Could that be causing the problems?
 
Didn't you say their are conflicts with the Scarlet and Cubendo? Could that be causing the problems?

Yes there are clearly issues that I have had, and I am seriously considering a new interface this year. It might just be time for me to bite that bullet.

The issue that I have surrounds the fact that I Cubase 10 was running smoothly (finally) on my system. I copied all settings over to Nuendo 8 and there are these issues.

HOWEVER, and this is why I added my initial footnote, I think a Windows update or something similar is what may have affected this. I tested Nuendo for two weeks before I cross-graded. I am tempted to download and test Cubase demo just to see what the heck is happening. It feels like something jacked something up.

In the next few days, I will go to the idea of unplugging USB items to see if anything is having a direct affect on the performance. Whatever it is, it as affecting Nuendo alone, and not any standalone product or other DAW (at least so far in my testing).

Thanks for the suggestions, I know this is left field and hard to trouble shoot remotely.
 
Check and see if updates installed. I have to say, as a staunch long time defender of Microsoft (while using both on the regular) these updates are harshing my mellow. My machine was hit HARD by 1809....I built/configured/tested it with 1803....I wanted to give them benefit of the doubt so I let Defender run and everything update. I'm in the process now of getting it fine tuned as I can on 1809 and Defender is disabled....updates will be soon (it's unplugged so....technically it's off now)....but it was seeming like something worked one day and not the next. It reminded me of my Win98 Gigastudio rig--specifically trying to run ASIO stuff ON IT....not Giga itself, which always did fine for me.
 
The update that happened between the time things were normal till now is KB4023057 Update for Windows 10 Version 1803 for x64 based systems installed 03/19. Funny thing...it also shows up as having been installed on 03/06. It was after the 19th that I noticed my system ID had changed on one of my VSTs. (See footnote on original post.)

I have eliminated issues with my controller (Panorama P6). I get a brief progress bar/cursor freeze even when it is off and disconnected.

It does feel related to an update and I appreciate any of you who taken time to read this and given it any thought. It is incredibly agitating to be mid recording and suddenly have notes not playing under your fingers, and worse yet, not get recorded as even MIDI data. Instant creativity killer!

Still digging. I promise if I find anything it will be posted here.

Edit: I have eliminated Windows Defender and Firewall. However, I found that everytime that glitch happens, I have an Ethernet data spike show up on my Task Manager Performance Meter.
 
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Ok. So I disabled my Ethernet adapter...no change.

Then I unplugged the cable. Recorded and played for an hour with no drops or stuck notes. Strange as I would have thought simply disabling the adapter would have the same effect.

Hmmm. Now what? Ha.

This computer is blocked from the internet but not from my slaves. I am not running a huge thing like VEP but want that option moving forward.
 
Try a new cable? Could be the old cable is the problem if unplugging it fixed your issue. Just a thought.
 
I agree. Also I am going to continue to test things. I have not had a cable issue in the past, and this was not immediately apparent in Cubase, but that means nothing...computers...always a thing.
 
Pretty sure unplugging it gets Windows to turn it off all together via power management. Disabling it (I'm assuming in device manager?)...ehh...I've never been clear what Windows actually DOES with that...

So, that says there's two "issues"...the NIC driver is getting in the way should be the thing I'd look to fix. Look at it's driver--see if it updated or "migrated" with updates...see if there's a "rollback driver" option. If none...check with the motherboard maker and see if there's an UPDATED driver--go the other way. You can always roll it back.

The secondary issue is that SOMETHING it wanting to talk network--that MIGHT be something you can squash, but I have plug ins that phone home--hell, Mixbus itself phones home (once) when you run it....which is why I'd be looking to address that NIC access causes whatever interrupt spikes...that's a better bet for a one time long term fix. IMO/E.
 
Thank you for all of the replies. I will be testing more over the next few days. The thing that bit me was a deadline for a project that passed, and was merely a timestamp (thank you). So I have more time but was getting massive mental gridlock every time a note failed to play or worse yet, stuck ON.

Finishing tonight hopefully now that my DAW is unplugged, heh.
 
Even I am not ready to type the convoluted answer to my problem...wow, just wow.

Ok, here goes-

The first thing to troubleshoot my problem was to look for changes in Windows, including updates. There had been a few minor things, but I am on 1803 and because I am running Windows Pro, I can choose to not update till the update is cleared by MS for everyday business use.

Next I opened Task Manager and began checking the Performance tab. This is when I narrowed down to an Ethernet spike that occurred at the same time my brief freezes and stuck notes were occurring. I quickly wrote to Steinberg along with sending them a dump file. They were very helpful and offered great suggestions ranging from checking network drivers to directly pointing me to help on MS's website. But this was still a no-go but it got me to thinking...

This time, while running Nuendo I also had the Resource Monitor open and the Network tab checked. As Nuendo played through a track, suddenly the Ethernet spike showed up and a new process appeared as having activity: dasHost.exe

Now I know this has to do with device association, but why is it pinging my network? I decided to filter the results and check the address that it was pinging (usually your computer, or remote website or IP address). It was pinging an address on my local network. But WHAT?

It was pinging my Sony TV. Smart TVs are fantastic. Now what? Then I remembered several items that I had seen (and overlooked at the time) in the setup menu of my TV related to network settings. One in particular caught my attention: Remote Operation. I ran down and sure enough it was enabled. I disabled the Remote Operation and ran back up to my studio.

Hours later no hiccups or any issues within Nuendo. So...if you are having issues and you have a smart TV on your network, it might be worth a look. But it fixed my problem.
 
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