Using Cubase for 17 yrs I watch for settings being altered like buffers, priority schemes during updates of Cubase. However, even upgrades seem more stable so the range of noise problems this time took me by surprise.
Reintstalled updates, audio drivers & checked a large swath of settings but symptoms of noise related to inserts, even if no plugins were selecten got much worse. So just monitoring via the track “speaker icon” caused crackling.
It spread to my stand-alone (all 64x) VSTis & so I scanned for infections, simplified songs from scratch yet things seemed to keep getting worse.
In the end a full re-optimization of Windows 10 Pro fixed all issues leaving tons of headroom. It was so extreme I posted but after running a massive checklist it returned to solid performance.
I’ll post the video checklists once I track down the links…