Cubase 9.5 Direct Offline Processing Problems

I have been experiencing numerous problems with Cubase 9.5 Direct offline processing. This is still happening in 9.5.30.

When auditioning a change, Cubase 9.5 is turning off / bypassing plug-ins on the Stereo Out channel, including post-fader inserts.

But when you finish auditioning, it’s not returning those plug-ins to their correct previous state.

I have uploaded a video to demonstrate this here: - YouTube

This means that some plug-ins are not turned back ON, and some are turned ON when they were bypassed before the direct offline processing.

With some plug-ins, it may be obvious when this has happened, but others not, and as a result, you can have plug-ins on that you expect and think are off, and vice versa. I have noticed on a couple of projects where this had happened, before I realized what was going on, that the mixer history becomes corrupted and screwy after this. It has made a complete mess of one of the projects.

Aside from fixing the problem, I think also there should also be a setting for the post-fader slots on the stereo bus, as there could be good reason to have them on whilst auditioning, e.g. a brickwall limiter etc.

I don’t why they just did not feed that audio to the st out at the post-insert point, pre-fader, thus bypassing the inserts altogehter on the st out channel and not needing to turn the inserts on/off.

But this needs fixing in my view. If you’re going to switch plug-ins into bypass, you need to return them to the state they were in. And currently, what they’ve implemented is not doing that properly. It’s so frustrating and time-consuming with these issues.

If the plugins involved are Steinberg ones, could you list them by any chance?

It’s not the plug-ins that is at issue here, but the Cubase behaviour on the Stereo Out track when auditioning with Direct Offline Processing.

Nice find, yes they should fix this.

Hi

I just discovered the same thing (V 9.5.30)
Thought i was going crazy and i had bypassed the master accidentally. After it happened a few times i realized its after you do any direct offline processing, inserts and EQ on the master channel remain bypassed.

Yes it’s a pain. After using direct offline processing a few times, the mixer history can also be corrupted. I have one project that is just a corrupted mess now.

I think it would be better if Steinberg had a 2nd Stereo Out channel dedicated for direct offline processing. That would be much simpler and avoid the need to consider plug-ins, automation etc on the main Stereo Out.

The mixer display bug is still unresolved (but when you consider there are problems in 7/7.5/8.5 that were never fixed…)