Audio drop out error message

Check out your Graphics Card. My Graphics card (ATI Ratdeon HD 5450) was the source of many of my Cubase problems. In my particular case, I had an older driver and was using the VGA chord to connect my PC to my monitor instead of the HDMI. When I updated the driver and used the HDMI connection lots of my issues in Cubase 8 cleared up. I know it’s strange associating a simple monitor connection as the source of audio software problems, but that was the case for me.

ive had this from time to time for no random reason on 3 different systems
dell i5 laptop 8gb & 256gb ssd (RME UFX)
surface pro 4 i5 8gb 256gb ssd (RME UFX)
asus z170-a with i7 16gb 2356ggb (os) and 2TB 7200rpm sata drive (RME HDSP9652)

had multiple issues with asio guard on/off, at multiple buffers, while not exactly stressing the system, 20 tracks of 44.1/24bit, no fx or vsti running.

luckily i hadnt lost anything as running durec as a backup recording on the rme ufx.
but now i dont use cubase for live recording or anything critical, I use Reaper which is so much more stable and reliable.

Cubase i use more for mixing or creative stuff synths/midi, it just cannot be relied on in a live situation.

I just experienced this for the first time ever. On Cubase 8.5.15.
I was tracking vocals on separate lanes with one simple insert effect loaded.
My buffer size was set to 128 in Saffire MixControl.

I’m shocked and disappointed because I don’t see how this could be taxing such a powerful desktop computer. :frowning:

Same problem here, working with Cubase 8.0.35 elements in windows 7

Trashing my preferences seemed to have helped for a couple weeks, But today the problem came back with a vengeance. I can’t play 2 minutes of audio without a dropout, not to mention lots of crackly noises. Every time I try to record (only ONE track), I get the dreaded “Too Many Tracks Recording” message.

So I trashed my prefs AGAIN. This time it seems to have made no difference.
Grrr!

well, I haven’t seen the “audio drop out” or “too many tracks” error messages for a few days, but the actual audible drop-outs have gotten much worse. I start playback on a project, it plays for 10 seconds or so, then starts cutting out every second or two. I tried uninstalling and reinstalling my ASIO driver. No change. Virus scan, nothing. I tried opening the same project in Cubase 6 (I never had this problem prior to 8.5). Nope, same thing happens.

I tried deleting all tracks I’m not using (an instance of Addictive Drums I decided not to use, and some muted tracks containing unused takes), and saving to a new filename. No joy.

I used DriverBlaster a few weeks ago to update all my drivers. That seemed to speed my computer up a little overall, and seemed to help this problem a little, but then it came back. Maybe one of the “old” drivers should have been left alone?

I also disabled every startup program I thought I could do without (though some I KNOW I don’t want keep reinstalling themselves, such as AdobeReaderUpdater). I wonder if I disabled something important?

LatencyMon shows the driver with the highest ISR times is my ASIO driver (M-Audio Delta 1010), but it still shows it well within safe parameters. Moreover, last time this happened LatencyMon gave me the “Your system seems to have difficulty handling real-time audio…” warning within a minute or two of running, now it continues to say “Your system appears to be suitable…”, even while I’m hearing the continuous dropouts.

LatencyMon DOES indicate a lot of “hard pagefaults” with high resolution times, almost entirely attributed to msmpeng (Microsoft Security Essentials). Turning off MSE’s “realtime protection” has no effect. I’ve long suspected this to be a source of occasional problems (it tends to hog system resources from time to time, especially on boot-up), but never like this. Maybe it’s time to switch to a different antivirus.

(… took a coffee break, came back a half-hour later…)

Suddenly now the dropouts only happen every 3 or 4 minutes or so. It’s almost functional like this. But not quite.

Any suggestions are appreciated.

Have you tried going to Programs and Features, and instead of uninstalling Cubase, choosing to Repair it?
That has made a difference for me in the past, and I do it occasionally.
No harm in trying…

I want to thank you all for recommending unchecking the ASIO Guard feature. I started having the audio drops during recording and playback since I upgraded to the latest version of Cubase 8.5. Totally frustrating. However, when I unchecked that option, the issue totally went away and I’ve been working in Cubase for the last 2 days without any issues.

Thanks so much. It’s saved me a lot of aggravation. Too bad that the upgrade caused that issue.

:mrgreen:

Far what it’s worth … I’m having these audio drop out message for a long time and I missed a couple recordings for a client on a live event. I was lucky to be able to redo them later, but I’m afraid my client lost his confidence. This happend in May of this year. Since then I didn’t do any recordings any more, until now.
I applied the many times mentioned ASIO fix: ‘removing the “Activate ASIO guard” in the devices panel of Cubase’. It worked for me: I can record again for more the a few minutes.
This night I’ll do a long recording test and I hope I get a good result.
For your information: I work with a laptop on Windows 10 and I use Cubase 7.5 and 8.5. But I got the issue on both versions. There is a logic to it, when you think of it: the 2 versions are using the same ASIO drivers …
By default I ALWAYS disable all sorts of network components and Antivirus. I don’t need them when recording and it is easy to disable them.

Hopefully this post is useful for someone. I was really frustrated and confused after installing Cubase 8, apparently the problem got introduced with that installation.

OK, folks, here is the confirmation on my yesterdays post. I recorded yesterday evening a live session of more then 4 hours in 2 takes on 32 audio channels without any problem at all. I hadn’t yet the chance to listen to these but I’m very confident that everything is OK.
The ‘Activate ASIO guard’ parameter in the ASIO driver settings is messing things up. DON’T USE IT!!
That’s my experience, I hope this is a useful post for anyone out there.
Good luck! :smiley:

Hi,

I am also have the audio drop out problem.

I have tried some of the fixes mentioned here but can’t achieve stability.

Last week it crashed while recording 1 track of mono audio.

I’m a long term Cubase user and very disappointed - I also had to get help fixing the video support.

I’m very disappointed that things don’t work in what is an expensive and supposedly market-leading software package.

Is there any software patch available please, or opportunity to downgrade to a stable version, or upgrade to a stable Cubase 9 please?

With thanks for your help & best wishes,

Tom Neill.


Version:
Cubase Artist 8.5

I/O:
Focusrite Scarlett 18i20 via USB

PC Spec:
Dell Vostro 3558
Windows 10 Pro
Version 1607
OS Build 14393.576
Intel (R) Core™ i3-4005U CPU @ 1.70Ghz
Installed Memory (RAM) 4.00 GB

Make sure you don’t have any expired plug-in demos running, that was my case. Was about to pull my hair out!

*I wasn’t getting any error messages - but wanted to point this out.

I’ve just upgraded to C9 and got this audio dropout detected message today. I was recording a simple guitar audio track. I’m not a computer geek so I’m hoping it can be easily fixed.

Same here on c 8.0.40 with windows 10 / 6700k / 32gb ram / Rme ucx / recording on Samsung evo ssd 1 mono track…cubase after version 8 is a tragedy…bugs bugs bugs bugs for everything… bugs with kontakt bugs with graphics bugs with export bugs and crashes when switch off the daw bugs with vst plugins bugs with midi bugs bugs bugs…u can’t make music anymore become u spend the day trying to fix bugs… time to change daw I think…I am pro and I live from production…I can’t loose every day trying to fix the bugs of cubase …many friends pro produces jump to newest daws and is happy with stability…I stay with that dinosaur daw because I feel hard to learn a new daw but I loose my time with all this bug on cubase and I am working with this about 15years…time to learn a new daw and put cubase on trash…the 80% - 90% of people in forum is not pushing the cubase in real pro projects and only few of them push the cubase on real big professional arrangements …cubase is the most buggy daw in market at the moment… great disappointment from steinberg

For anyone intrested. I just fixed my extremely annoying dropout issue by disabling my Avast Pro Antivirus.

Hope this helps someone some day.

Have the same problem with my Cubase Pro 9.
I have seen so many bugs in the last 8-9 month since I use it.
I regret that I bought it.

Uncheck “Activate Multi Processing”

Ahh yes!!! Thank you jovemprogramador.

Unchecking the Activate Multi Processing in the Studio Setup Seems to have done it for me. My buffer is running at 512 samples on the UR-RT4. I have direct Monitoring engaged. Currently I’m recording at 8 mins with TWO tracks and no Drop Outs! Where as it was random where the best was 45 seconds! most were sub 20 secs.

Annoyingly now… I just noticed that have a random pulse of high pitched noise happening on channel one of the UR-RT4! There’s nothing plugged in to channel one!

Aaarrgghh! is there no end to Steinberg and Cubase issues???!!! :confounded:

Hi everyone,

First message here …

I 'm writing because i’m experiencing these annoying situation and message “Audio Dropout detected”, during recording only. I’m on cubase 10.5.
Shame that after all these years, the problem is still there ! Disapointed by Cubase and Steinberg …

I will try uncheck “Asio guard” or “Activate Multi processing”. Any other clue or testimony about THE Solution ? Dropbox ? Norton ? Avast ?

Thankx
Phil

Unchecking the Activate Multi Processing in the Studio Setup just now didn’t work for me but quitting Cubase & restarting did the trick (obviously always worth a try after ‘save as’ - worst case is you lose the undo items).