Cubase VST 5.0 – Troubleshooting
Contents
1. CUBASE DAK o a Troubleshooting thy 18 Operation Manual by Ernst Nathorst B s Ludvig Carlson Anders Nordmark Roger Wiklander Quality Control Cristina Bachmann Heike Horntrich Sabine Pfeifer Claudia Schomburg The information in this document is subject to change without notice and does not represent a commit ment on the part of Steinberg Soft und Hardware GmbH The software described by this document is sub ject to a License Agreement and may not be copied to other media except as specifically allowed in the License Agreement No part of this publication may be copied reproduced or otherwise transmitted or re corded for any purpose without prior written permission by Steinberg Soft und Hardware GmbH All product and company names are or trademarks of their respective owners Windows Windows 95 Windows 98 and Windows 2000 are trademarks of Microsoft Inc Steinberg Soft und Hardware GmbH 2000 All rights reserved Troubleshooting in Cubase VST This document contains information related to various problems that can occur while working with Cubase and answers to some commonly asked questions Please refer to the Getting Started manual for general information on how to ad just your settings For more detailed information please read the chapter Opti mizing Audio Performance in the online documentation Getting Into the Details We recommend that you read that chapter first Furt2. Can t open file while trying to process the file in the Wave Editor If you try to process an audio file in the Wave Editor and Cubase VST gives you the message Can t open file it probably means that the file is set to read only write protected in Windows Use the Explorer to change the settings for the particular file Q Why do I get the message Can t access file or Can t save file while trying to edit an audio file in an external wave editor If you are using an external wave editor together with Cubase VST you may get the message Can t access file or Can t save file while trying to edit an audio file in the wave editor If this happens please turn off the Play in background setting in the Preferences window File menu This setting may interfere with an external wave editor 19 Audio card issues Q What audio cards can use Cubase VST works with any audio card that meets the following requirements 16 24 or 32 bit audio recording and playback capability Windows Multimedia compatible or DirectX compatible or Comes with an ASIO driver For a guide to various hardware solutions for Cubase VST please check out our Web Site lt http www steinberg net gt Q How do the different audio cards perform Multi l O audio cards Cubase VST s ASIO Multimedia driver will support multi I O audio cards with either multiple stereo or multi channel wave devices Th
3. are MIDI and audio tracks not properly synchronized in a system with a Windows Multimedia compatible audio card on page 9 If you encounter MIDI timing instability please check the following settings Playback Adjustments Sometimes you can improve MIDI timing simply by making sure your MIDI Tracks are set up and organized optimally Try the following 1 Move timing critical Tracks drums etc to the top of the Track list This is useful because Cubase VST processes all Tracks from the top down 2 Make sure there isn t any MIDI data overload due to too much controller or SysEx data being sent at the same time If this is the case try reducing or deleting continuous data by using the corresponding func tions on the Functions menu 3 Sometimes Program Change messages may delay the response in the MIDI instru ments If this is the case remove all unnecessary Program Changes from the Part Inspector leaving only one at the very first Part You may also need to decrease the Play Parameter Delay value in the MIDI Setup dialog System Preroll Synchronization The System Preroll setting in the Synchronization window determines the amount of pre calculation of MIDI information System preroll works like a MIDI buffer storage area ensuring that all MIDI messages are prepared in advance just be fore the actual playback The higher the value the more MIDI information will be pre calculated This increases the accurac
4. method try increasing the Buffer size manually Check that no background tasks currently run on your computer If you use the DMA Block type of Sync Reference you should not adjust the Block sizes manually Instead use Detect Buffer Size function in the Advanced Option window If the Sync lost value above the Buffer lost value builds up this indicates that MIDI to Audio synchronization is unstable See page 9 Try out different values until the test is successful 13 9 Click Apply Buffer Settings and then OK You are returned to the Advanced Settings dialog with the new settings applied to the se lected Port 10 Now test the new configuration by clicking the Run Simulation button in the Ad vanced Options dialog This is the automatic Sync Test described earlier but manually executed It tests all input and output ports being driven together Q Why does recording stop unpredictably If recording stops for no apparent reason please try disabling the following while recording audio see above for a detailed explanation on how to perform these op erations e Screen Saver e Network e CD ROM Autorun The power management energy saving functions in the Windows control panel and in the BIOS 14 Q Why am experiencing audio crackling clicks There may be several different reasons for this Graphic cards Graphic card drivers e g for Matrox cards can block the PCI bus
5. work fine but occasionally becomes unstable pa N try activating the Enable Audio only during Play checkbox in the Audio System Setup dialog as described on page 12 If MIDI and audio tracks drift in relation to each other they are not properly syn chronized This may also cause irregularities in MIDI performance similar to MIDI timing instability as MIDI playback may periodically get faster and slower If this happens you need to check the Sync Reference setting in the ASIO Multimedia Setup In the Advanced Options dialog opened from the ASIO Multimedia Setup window you find the Check Buffers and Sync option It will help you to find the optimal synchronization settings for your audio card Its purpose is to check that the syn chronization settings are correct for your audio card The displayed results of the window will direct you to further changes to the setting of your system Open the Audio System dialog and click the ASIO Control Panel button The basic ASIO Multimedia Setup dialog opens Click on Advanced Options The Advanced Options dialog opens For detailed info about this dialog see the chapter Optimizing Audio Performance in the main documentation Locate the Port that is currently used as Sync Reference in the Port lists and select it The last column in the Port lists shows which Port is Sync Reference Click on the Check Buffers and Sync button The Check Buff
6. 2 bit true color display settings can severely hamper realtime au dio performance on some computer configurations Turn off the Microsoft Office FastFind option FastFind should not be enabled since its activities can interrupt all audio process ing in the system Don t use any scheduled background tasks in the Windows Plus package Functions that operate in the background use up valuable processor time needed for processing audio Turn off your screen saver It isnot recommended to use a screen saver while running Cubase VST Screen sav ers with alot of animation are especially unsuitable since they use up a lot of pro cessing time Turn off the Auto Notification option for the CD ROM drive This option is located in the CD ROM drive properties page in the Device Manager System control panel If this is turned on the insertion of a CD ROM can interrupt the audio processing If no audio playback recording is possible whatsoever choose Reset Devices from the Options menu If the audio drop out occurred because of computer overload i e another task took too much processing time away from the audio output choosing Reset De vices from the Options menu may reactivate audio playback If you are using a poorly written Windows Multimedia audio driver it might even be necessary to re start Windows completely in order to cure this problem If this is the case you should try to get a newer audio
7. 28 The full duplex mode of the older Soundblaster series is supported However there are certain limitations associated with the AWE series of Soundblaster If recording is operated with 16 bit quality playback happens with 8 bit quality If playback is operated with 16 bit quality recording can only happen with 8 bit quality In Cubase VST 8 bit audio recording is not possible Therefore the Soundblaster limitations have the following implications To enable audio recording open the VST Inputs window on the Panels menu and acti vate the card s audio input All playback will now be in 8 bit quality provided that the full duplex mode is selected see below To enable 16 bit audio playback open Inputs window and deactivate the card s audio input Audio recording is now disabled In the ASIO Multimedia Preset list you will find two operation modes for the Sound blaster series or compatible cards One will set up the system for full duplex opera tion If the full duplex mode doesn t work reliably on your computer setup you may be able to solve the problem by increasing the I O recovery time in the extended BIOS or Ad vanced Chipset setup However there may be situations when you have to select the Preset for half du plex operation When you want to use the WaveSynth WG MIDI Device on a card in the AWE 64 series see page 23 When the full duplex operation does not work reliably on your compute
8. SCSI hard disks are rather expensive but offer high speed and capacity Several SCSI disks can operate simultaneously and deliver a higher combined data throughput SCSI Busmaster controllers like the Adaptec AHA 2940 are recommended SCSI PIO controllers like Adaptec AHA 2920 can be used but the number of audio channels and EQ FX will be lower SCSI ISA controllers like Adaptec AHA 1520 or AHA 1542 are not recommended 25 Frequently asked questions Here are some frequently asked questions that are directly or indirectly related to using Cubase VST Q How do interpret the VST Performance window In the VST Performance window Panels menu you can view the performance of the CPU and the disk Please be aware that 100 does not equal maximum VST power It means 100 of the whole computer power The highest level you can reach when working with VST is around 60 70 of the display In addition when viewing the Performance window it is quite normal for the disk bargraph to stick in the middle of the display while you move the windows around Q Why has the transport bar disappeared It is possible to accidentally move the transport bar so that it is hidden below the Windows Task Bar If this happens please move the task bar either to the top or the side of the screen by clicking on an empty area and dragging it The transport bar should then be visible and you can move it to a suitable place If the transpor
9. a Cubase VST operation using the current ASIO Multimedia settings It will also check the sync stability of the selected Sync Reference port Q What should I do If the automatic Sync Test fails If the test fails you should try the following Outside Cubase VST Activate DMA transfer for the harddisk This very important procedure is described on page 8 e Check the audio hardware configuration In the ASIO Multimedia Setup control panels Use the Detect Buffer Size function to detect proper audio buffer sizes Deactivate ports Change Sync Reference method and port Try changing the global settings e g half duplex or full duplex Perform the manual Check Buffers and Sync test Furthermore you should go through the following pages in this document and make sure that your computer system and Cubase VST are optimally configured 11 Q What do I do when experience audio dropouts If audio tracks sometimes turn silent during recording or playback you are experi encing audio dropouts Related information on this subject is also found in the sections Why am experi encing audio crackling clicks on page 15 and How do the different audio cards perform on page 20 Here s a list of things to check if you experience audio dropouts Decrease the number of colors for the display This allows your computer to spend more of its processing time on audio and MIDI 16 24 or 3
10. anually Instead use Detect Buffer Size function in the Advanced Option window If the Buffer lost value below the Sync lost value builds up this indicates audio dropouts see page 13 Try out different values until the test is successful Click Apply Buffer Settings and then OK You are returned to the Advanced Settings dialog with the new settings applied to the se lected Port 10 Now manually perform the sync test by clicking the Run Simulation button This tests all input and output ports being driven together e Increasing the number of buffers and the buffer size will also increase the latency the time between the moment Cubase VST sends out the data and when it actually arrives on the output 10 General audio problems Q What does the automatic Sync Test do In Cubase VST the ASIO system detects any changes to the ASIO Multimedia set tings and asks you whether you want the new configuration to be tested This question will be shown after installation of Cubase VST and after you make any changes to the audio configuration activating deactivating ports changing the buffer sizes etc It can also be run manually by clicking the Run Simulation but ton in the Advanced Options dialog of the ASIO Multimedia Setup We recommend that you perform this test to ensure stable audio synchronization The test will open all activated audio devices over a short time and try to simulate
11. ared to a bad configuration with a fast CPU Q Which is the best type of hard disk controller card The hard disk controller handles transfer of data from and to the hard disk A con troller card with less CPU intervention leaves more CPU power for audio processing PIO programmed 1 0 When a controller uses something called PIO and sometimes FIFO it means that the CPU itself performs the data transfer from and to the hard disk This will de crease the time the CPU can spend on audio processing Busmaster A busmaster controller on the other hand will perform the data transfer from and to the disk with very little CPU intervention During the actual data transfer the CPU can still perform audio processing ye Q What type of hard disk should use E IDE E IDE hard disks are cost effective and offer a high capacity Older E IDE hard disks do not offer the same level of performance as comparable SCSI disks However the performance of current SCSI and E IDE drives are virtually identical Some E IDE controllers use the CPU to perform the data transfer from to disk PIO or FIFO which means that less CPU power is available for Cubase VST s audio pro cessing UltraDMA E IDE controller cards and some motherboards contain busmaster E IDE controllers These will relieve the CPU from transferring data and allow it to spend more time on processing audio E IDE ISA controllers are not recommended SCSI
12. card driver from the manufacturer Try activating the Enable Audio only during Play checkbox in the Audio System Setup dialog in Cubase VST When this is activated Cubase VST stops transmitting audio blocks to the audio hardware as soon as playback is stopped When playback starts again communication with the audio hardware is re opened This prevents very long continuous audio streams to the hardware which for some audio hardware may lead to audio glitches hiccups and loss of MIDI Audio sync due to lost blocks e The Enable Audio only during Play switch has one drawback since all audio transfers are stopped when the playback is stopped any trailing reverb or delay tails will be cut off For the same reason all input monitoring is disabled in stop mode as are plug ins that generate audio by themselves 12 When using the ASIO Multimedia driver pa N ul There is an additional possible solution to the problem of audio dropouts when us ing the ASIO Multimedia driver You might have to increase the number of audio buffers or the buffer size This is done in the ASIO Multimedia Setup Advanced Op tions dialog and we recommend that you use the Check Buffers and Sync func tion to do it Open the Audio System dialog and click the ASIO Control Panel button The basic ASIO Multimedia Setup dialog opens Click on Advanced Options The Advanced Options dialog opens For detaile
13. d info about this dialog please refer to the chapter Optimizing Audio Performance in the main documentation In the Port list select the Port you have problems with The Check Buffers and Sync function can only test one Port at a time Click the Check Buffers and Sync button The Check Buffers and Sync dialog opens At the top of the dialog the name of the selected Port is displayed Set a test period with the slider We recommend that you select the maximum duration 5 minutes for the test Then a suc cessful test assures that for at least 5 minutes no audio buffers should be lost Click the Start button to run the test The test begins The duration of the test is indicated by the progress bar below the Test Pe riod slider Wait until the test is completed or if the Buffer lost value in the upper left corner of the dialog is building up rapidly click the Stop button to stop the test If the test was successful an alert will tell you so If Sync or Buffers were lost you will be in formed of what went wrong and get some suggestions about what you can do to remedy the problem If the Buffer lost value builds up this indicates audio dropouts Try any of the following methods and run the test again Increase the number of audio buffers Use the Detect Buffer Size option in the Advanced Options window If you are using the Sample Position Sync Reference
14. d mode Hence if you open a Song that was made using the old standard EQ mode the settings will not corre late However if your 3 x Song uses the Hi Quality EQ mode exclusively it will sound the same in Cubase VST 5 0 Q What happened to the old VST plug in effects Cubase VST 5 0 comes with a completely new set of VST plug ins However all the pre 5 0 standard plug ins are also included to facilitate playback of Songs made with earlier Cubase versions These plug ins are installed within the VSTplugins folder in asubfolder called Earlier VST Plugins In the program they will appear on the Earlier VST Plugins submenu on the effect pop up menus Q Why are some audio channels re used by several tracks If you have changed the number of audio channels in the Audio Systems Settings window and you open a song that originally used more audio channels than your current setting allows the same channels will be re used by several tracks This may inhibit some audio playback since Cubase VST 5 0 cannot play more than one audio file per channel simultaneously Please increase the number of audio chan nels in order to cure this problem MIDI Q What do I do when encounter MIDI timing instability If MIDI events that once were tight suddenly are slightly delayed in a random fashion you are experiencing MIDI timing instability Related information on this subject is also found in the section Why
15. e de facto standard for synchronized start of wave devices on one card is sup ported as well If the audio card driver supports this standard sample accurate syn chronization between multiple wave devices on one card is guaranteed ASIO drivers for Multi l O audio cards Weare currently working together with several audio card manufacturers to create ASIO drivers for Cubase VST These include among others Lexicon Korg Event Echo Sonorus and TerraTec among others Check our Web Site for the latest news about ASIO drivers ISA cards require CPU performance Multi channel sound cards for the ISA bus require a lot of CPU performance Simul taneous 8 channel I O 4 inputs and 4 outputs will use 30 to 50 of the available CPU performance However it is possible to perform a manual deactivation of the unused inputs and outputs in order to decrease the demand on CPU performance Proceed as follows 1 Open the VST Inputs window from the Panels menu 2 Deactivate any unused Inputs by using the Active buttons in the list 3 Close the VST Inputs window 4 Open the Master window from the Panels menu If your card has more than one output this will have one or more Bus sections to the right 5 Deactivate any unused Output buses by using the Active buttons 20 Older Soundblaster cards AWE 32 and AWE 64 The limitations described below does not apply to newer Soundblaster cards such as Soundblaster AudioPCI 1
16. e latest driver from Tseng labs DV95112 driver for Hercules Dynamite 128 card For the Hercules Dynamite 128 card there is a driver called DV95112 Version 1 12 If you want this driver to hold commands until the card is ready please do the fol lowing 1 In the system ini file under the heading Hercules find the line that reads Optimiza tion 0 2 Set this to Optimization 1 3 Save the system ini file and restart Matrox Millennium If you are using the Matrox Millennium please do the following in order to stop the driver from blocking the PCI bus 1 In the system ini file add the following lines mga drv PCI Chipset 1 2 Disable the Use Power GDI acceleration feature in the Advanced Matrox setup Control Panel gt Display Properties gt MGA Settings gt Advanced gt Performance 15 uu A W N Ff UJ Matrox Mystique Owners of Matrox Mystique please do the following in order to make the driver hold commands until the card is ready to receive them Go to Screen Properties right click in main window Go to Setting Tab and click on the PowerDesk button Uncheck Use Bus Mastering Uncheck Use Automatic PCI Bus retries On computers equipped with a Pentium Pro processor uncheck Use Write Combining if possible Click OK S3 drivers The staff at S3 have reported that all S3 drivers downloaded from www s3 com for all of their VGA cards can be
17. eckbox is activated Now check MIDI timing again with the Audio Tracks unmuted If the timing still is unstable there are two more things to check Open the System Control Panel again and click the Performance tab You should find the text The System is configured for optimal performance at the bottom of the dialog If not you may not have proper Windows 95 98 drivers for a CD ROM E IDE disk or SCSI Controller Make sure you have current drivers installed Open the System Control Panel click on the Properties tab and select the master controller in the Hard Disk Controllers section In the dialog that appears you can see whether the disk controller is a Bus Master device or not If not you should consider installing a new PCI Hard disk controller that is Bus Master ing capable or installing a SCSI card read more about this on page 24 Please contact the computer and hardware manufacturer or dealer for details on the hardware Color Depth The color depth number of colors can influence MIDI timing By reducing the number of colors to 256 less processing time is required for performing graphic updates This allows your computer to allocate more processing time for MIDI and audio which decreases the risk of MIDI timing instability Q Why are MIDI and audio tracks not properly synchronized in a system with a Windows Multimedia compatible audio card do If MIDI audio sync generally seems to
18. ers and Sync dialog opens Here you can check whether your settings will work properly by running a test Set a test period with the slider We recommend that you select the maximum duration 5 minutes for the test Then a suc cessful test indicates that Audio MIDI sync should be stable for at least 5 minutes Click the Start button to run the test The test begins The duration of the test is indicated by the progress bar below the Test Pe riod slider Wait until the test is completed or if the Sync lost value in the upper left corner of the dialog is building up rapidly click the Stop button to stop the test If the test was successful an alert will tell you so If Sync or Buffers were lost you will be in formed of what went wrong and get some suggestions about what you can do to remedy the problem If the Sync lost value builds up this indicates that MIDI to Audio synchronization is unstable Try any of the following methods and run the test again Switch between Sync Reference Sample Position and DMA Block Use the Detect Buffer Size option in the Advanced Options window Ifyou are using the Sample Position Sync Reference try increasing the Buffer size manually e Check that no background tasks currently run on your computer see Q What do Ido when experience audio dropouts If you use the DMA Block type of Sync Reference you should not adjust the Block sizes m
19. fixed by adding a line in the system ini file Find the display section in the system ini file After display add the line bus throttle 1 or BusThrottle 1 Save the system ini file and restart PCI bus settings Incorrect PCI bus settings in the BIOS can create crackling especially the PCI La tency parameter Changing PCI settings is a very delicate matter Consult your computer dealer for assistance In addition on computers equipped with a Pentium Pro processor the Write Com bining feature can result in audio problems with DMA based sound cards like SoundBlaster and Windows Sound System compatible cards like TerraTec Mae stro If you can try turning this feature off for increased audio performance How ever not all BIOS setups allow access to this PCI bus setting High Speed SCSI cards High performance SCSI cards like Adaptec AHA 2940UW or other Ultra Wide SCSI host adapters can block the PCI bus because of the high data rate which may cause crackling clicks This usually occurs with bus master audio cards like the Korg 1212 I O and Event Electronics Darla Gina by Echo If you experience crackling clicks while using a high performance SCSI card try re ducing the maximal transfer rate of the SCSI bus to 10 MB s The 10 MB s setting is still enough for up to 32 simultaneous audio tracks Please refer to the manual that came with the SCSI card for information on how to change this setti
20. hear it The latency value depends on the audio card used and its drivers Newer audio cards with spe cific ASIO drivers generally produce lower latency values Latency does not occur on MIDI playback to the VST Instrument only during re cording Hence if the latency of your audiosystem makes it difficult to play a VST In strument a workaround solution is to record using some other MIDI sound source and switching the Track Output to the VST Instrument during playback See the chapter Optimizing Audio in the Getting into the Details documentation for more information Q Why are notes sometimes skipped when using VST Intruments The solution to this problem is to make sure that the System Preroll in the Synchro nization dialog is set to at least the same value as the audio system latency as spec ified in the Audio System Setup dialog SIT
21. hermore while reading this document you will notice that some recommended solutions are similar for different types of problems This is due to the fact that the performance of your system is the result of many different interrelated factors and that problems with your hardware setup can cause a wide variety of symptoms For updaters from Cubase 3 x to Cubase VST 5 0 Q Why have the EQ settings programmed in my previous version of Cubase changed Q What happened to the old VST plug in effects Q Why are some audio channels re used by several tracks MIDI Q What do I do when encounter MIDI timing instability Q Why are MIDI and audio tracks not properly synchronized in asystem with a Win dows Multimedia compatible audio card Audio General audio problems Q What does the automatic Sync Test do Q What should do If the automatic Sync Test fails Q What do I do when experience audio dropouts Q Why does recording stop unpredictably Q Why am experiencing audio crackling clicks Q Why are some audio recordings stuttering or not played back in their entirety Q Why do get the message Can t open file while trying to process the file in the Wave Editor Q Why do I get the message Can t access file or Can t save file while trying to edit an audio file in an external wave editor Q Why are MIDI and audio tracks not properly synchronized in a system with a Win dows Multimedia compatible a
22. icking on the Set In active button to the right Sample editor Cubase VST is not able to gain access to the audio card when a sample editor like Sound Forge or Wavelab plays back audio Please stop playback in the sample edi tor before you switch to Cubase 23 Additional hardware information Q Which computer types are compatible with Cubase VST and how do they perform Supported CPU types Cubase VST works with Intel Pentium Pentium MMX Pentium Pro Pentium II Pentium Ill Celeron Xeon AMD K5 K6 K6 2 3D K7 Cyrix IBM 6X86 6X86M X When choosing a processor please be aware that floating point operations are cru cial for the audio performance of Cubase VST Some guidelines e Intel Pentium CPUs are generally more powerful in terms of floating point operations than AMD and Cyrix IBM CPUs with similar clock frequencies one exception is the AMD K7 e The AMD K6 2 3D offers a performance comparable to Intel Pentium and Pentium MMX CPUs with similar clock frequency but is less powerful than an Intel Pentium Il e Intel Celeron 266 and 300 offer performance slightly above a Pentium MMX 233 or Pentium Pro 200 e Intel Celeron 300A 333 and higher offer a performance comparable to Pentium II CPUs with similar clock frequency a The complete computer configuration has a huge impact on the overall performance A supposedly slower CPU can provide superior performance in an otherwise good con figuration comp
23. igital Input For some audio cards it is necessary to apply a signal to the digital input of the card whenever you want to use it If no digital signal is connected the input of the card will not be enabled and a warning message is displayed Also you have to make sure that the Sample Frequency in the Audio System Settings matches the one of the incoming digital audio signal If you find the warning message a problem turn off the digital input in the Inputs win dow and save a new DEF ALL file From then on the digital input has to be enabled manually before recording 2972 Q Why do I get the message unable to obtain the output from my audio card Full duplex operation Does your audio card support full duplex operation recording while playing If not you can enable either the input or the output of the device but not both at the same time Software synthesizer If you are using the ASIO Multimedia driver to play back audio Cubase VST cannot play back MIDI via software synthesizers like Roland s Virtual Sound Canvas Seer s Reality or Creative Labs WaveSynth and play audio via the same audio card simul taneously You will need to deactivate the MIDI output ports for these software syn thesizers Proceed as follows 1 Start the Setup MME program which comes with Cubase 2 Inthe MME Outputs box click on the name of the software synthesizer 3 Deactivate the MIDI output port for the software synthesizer by cl
24. ng In addition if the computer contains a PCI bridge it might help to put the SCSI and audio card on separate PCI segments For example a computer with 6 slots might be implemented as two PCI segments with 3 slots each If a board has got more than 5 PCI slots it will definitely have a PCI bridge The board s manual should ex plain which slots are on the same segment 16 External Word Clock Sync External synchronization of audio differs from synchronizing MIDI In order to achieve proper synchronization of digital audio signals it is vital that all devices re main locked to a common sampling rate reference clock One method of achieving this is through a digital reference signal called a word clock Unfortunately different types of digital audio devices S PDIF AES EBU or ADAT are not synced to the same type of word clock Some audio cards that are equipped with different types of digital inputs contain a sample rate converter and can therefore accept non matching word clocks for the input and the internal processing However if no sample rate converter is involved occasional clicks may occur One example is the Korg 1212 I O card which will exhibit this problem when the S PDIF and ADAT inputs are used simultaneously but the source devices are not synced to a common word clock for example a CD Player and an ADAT In addition if a device connected to the digital output of an audio card does not sync to the digital audio cl
25. ock from the card the recordings made with that device may contain occasional clicks even though the original recording doesn t 17 Q Why are some audio recordings stuttering or not played back in their entirety If you encounter audio stuttering or if parts of audio recordings are missing please read the following Tempo changes If you have raised the tempo of a song after recording audio some audio events may be interrupted by a following event This happens when the preceding event has not finished playing before the next one starts Please change back to the orig inal tempo Buffer size number of buffers in the ASIO Multimedia Setup window Having too few and too small buffers may cause stuttering just as it may cause au dio dropouts see When using the ASIO Multimedia driver in the section What do Ido when experience audio dropouts on page 12 Another application is started If you launch another application while Cubase VST is running the audio playback may be temporarily affected CPU or disk overload If you encounter audio stuttering and the Performance window shows that either the CPU or the disk is overloaded please decrease the number of audio tracks by muting some or by performing a mix down For information on how to perform this operation please refer to the section Mix Down in the online documentation Getting Into the Details 18s Q Why do I get the message
26. r setup and the above mentioned fix doesn t help About the Soundblaster AWE 64 The AWE 64 is basically the same hardware as the AWE 32 However AWE 64 cre ates the expanded sound possibilities by using CPU power of the host computer This will decrease overall audio performance Note To be able to use full duplex operation you have to disable the Wave synth WG MIDI device on the AWE 64 Sometimes it will be necessary to deactivate the Creative Music Mapper too This is done in the SetupMME dialog as described on page 23 21 Q What are the recommended configurations for my audio card If you are using Windows Multimedia compatible audio hardware you will find a list of Presets in the ASIO Multimedia Setup dialog opened from the Audio System Setup dialog in Cubase VST If there is a Preset for your audio card you should se lect this If you have an audio card for which there is no Preset you should select a common Preset and experiment with the settings as described in the Getting into the Details document Also please check out our Web Site lt http www steinberg net gt to get additional information and the latest hints and tips Q Why do I get the message unable to obtain the input from my audio card Full duplex operation Does your audio card support full duplex operation recording while playing If not you can enable either the input or the output of the device but not both at the same time D
27. steps until you are satisfied with the result Caution Selecting a higher priority for MIDI will increase the accuracy of MIDI timing but will decrease audio performance and may cause dropouts if your system has lim ited processing power Hard Disk Controller Settings If you are using an E IDE hard disk for audio and experience unstable MIDI timing when playing both audio and MIDI the problem might be related to the hard disk controller settings In brief with certain types of hard disk controllers non Bus Mastering and certain settings non DMA mode the CPU is used to transfer audio data from the disk into memory This process may block the computer tempo rarily and cause short delays in the MIDI playback To check whether this is the problem proceed as follows Makesure Audio is enabled Disable Audio on the Audio Setup submenu should not be activated Mute all Audio Tracks Play back the MIDI Tracks with which you have had timing problems If the timing is stable now this indicates that the hard disk controller is the culprit Check the following settings Open the System Control Panel Start menu gt Settings gt Control panels gt System Click on the Properties tab In the list that appears locate the Disk Drive settings and select the hard disk you use for audio Click on the Properties button and select the Settings tab in the dialog that appears Make sure the DMA ch
28. t bar is still not visible after moving the Task Bar please choose Show Transport Bar from the Windows menu or press button F12 on the computer keyboard Q What is DirectShow DirectSound and DirectX Microsoft DirectX is a complete package for handling various kinds of multimedia under Windows95 98 and Windows NT DirectX is divided in two layers DirectX Foundation and DirectX Media DirectX Foundation contains system level drivers and routines This is the part of DirectX that communicates with the computer hardware The only part of DirectX Foundation that is used by Cubase VST is called DirectSound This is what you use if you select one of the two ASIO DirectX drivers in Cubase VST DirectX Media contains services on the application level This is the part of DirectX that com municates with the applications and programs The only part of DirectX Media that is used by Cubase VST is DirectShow previously called ActiveMovie a standard for media playback streaming and capture This is the standard used by DirectX effect plug ins in Cubase VST In the Cubase VST documentation the general term DirectX is used for both DirectShow and DirectSound 26 Q When using a VST Instrument why is there a delay between playing a note on my MIDI device and the audio output This is what is referred to as audio system latency Latency is the delay between when audio is sent from the program and when you actually
29. udio card Audio card issues Q What audio cards can use Q How do the different audio cards perform Q What are the recommended configurations for my audio card Q Why do get the message unable to obtain the input from my audio card Q Why do get the message unable to obtain the output from my audio card Q Ihave an older Soundblaster card how do get the best out of it Additional hardware information Q Which computer types are compatible with Cubase VST and how do they per form Q Which is the best type of hard disk controller card Q What type of hard disk should use Frequently asked questions Q How do interpret the VST Performance window Q Why has the transport bar disappeared Q What is DirectShow DirectSound and DirectX Q When using a VST Instrument why is there a delay between playing a note on my MIDI device and the audio output Q Why are notes sometimes skipped when using VST Intruments For updaters from Cubase 3 x to Cubase VST 5 0 If you have updated from a previous version of Cubase VST to Cubase VST 5 0 you might run across some of the following questions Q Why have the EQ settings programmed in my previous version of Cubase changed The EQ section has been redesigned in Cubase 5 0 Amongst other changes the ability to select between Hi Quality and Standard EQ modes is no longer avail able The previous Hi Quality mode is now the standar
30. when screen up dates occur Some graphic card manufacturers have discovered that they can in crease the card s performance by designing drivers that send commands over the PCI bus without checking whether the card is ready to receive them or not ignor ing the queue check of the graphic card If the card is not ready the PCI bus is blocked until the card can receive the commands As a result no other activities can occur in the computer which in turn may cause crackling clicks as well as tempo rary dropouts and channel swapping Indication of this kind of problem e Crackling is more intense when the Arrangement window is updated after the song position pointer reaches the right side of the window in Follow Song mode e Crackling occurs when any of the Transport Monitor or Master windows are displayed If they are not displayed no crackling occurs e Crackling happens more often when 16 24 or 32 bit color display modes are used In order to solve this problem you can either simply turn off the PCI performance enhancements in the graphic card driver get a new and better driver if available or change the settings in the driver so that it doesn t send commands to the card until it is ready to receive them Here are recommendations for some common graphic card drivers please contact the manufacturer if your graphic card driver is not mentioned below ET6000 VGA driver If you are using an ET 6000 VGA driver you should get th
31. y of MIDI timing In order to raise the System Preroll setting proceed as follows 1 Open the Synchronization window from the Options menu 2 Increase the value in the System Preroll setting The default value is 500 ms which works on most systems a Please note that for VST Instruments to play back accurately you should set System Preroll to at least the same value as the audio card Latency value specified in the Au dio System Setup dialog 3 Close the Synchronization window and start playback Check whether the MIDI timing is tighter Repeat the above steps until you are satisfied with the result Please note that the higher the System Preroll value the bigger the delay of all realtime MIDI processing Priority Setting Audio System Setup Using the Priority setting in the Audio System Setup window you can determine the priority of MIDI versus audio With the Low option selected Cubase VST will give MIDI a higher priority than audio and with the Highest option selected it will process audio with a higher priority than MIDI The other options allow various settings between these extremes Giving MIDI a higher priority will decrease the tendency of MIDI timing instability Proceed as follows Open the Audio System Setup window from the Options menu Change the value in the Priority setting Close the Audio System Setup window and check whether MIDI timing is tighter Repeat the above
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