Cubase 5 Audio Mixdown Error

[dogpaw]

Hi Everyone!

At first, I was not going to post this here as this is, after all, and EastWest Forum. But, after seeing other Cubase posts I felt that it would be OK to go ahead.

Here's the deal.

First, I have recently received about five new Plays from EW, and I LOVE them. I could go on and on, but I'll stop here, except to say that they perform well within Cubase 5, and I can't be happier with them.

But, I'm dead in the water in terms of audio mixdowns within Cubase 5; did not have this problem with Cubase 4.

I have tried technical support at Steinberg and have had no response. Generally speaking, I am very patient and I'm not putting any pressure on them, as this might be a busy time for them, as it is for so many of us.

So, since they haven't gotten back to me within a week and I'm still waiting on my ability/permission to post on the Cubase Forum, I thought I'd shoot the problem over here to my EastWest brothers and sisters.

THE PROBLEM

As I mentioned, playing even a very short piece (less than 30 seconds) WITHIN Cubase is fine. However, when I try to do an "audio mixdown" I get the following error. I have done a good deal of research on the Internet and this seems to be a common error, but they are all slightly different.

Here is that error:

"A serious error has occurred: Please try to save your document...." and so forth. (See my attachments in the zip file.)

If you are familiar with this error, then you will know that it goes on to tell you that if it continues to happen to send the log file to Steinberg Support. I've done that.

I am also attaching a ZIP file of what I sent to Steinberg Support.

So, the bottom line is this. I can open up Cubase 5. I can add all these beautiful EW PLAY instruments. And, I can create my music. But, when it comes to creating the final product, i.e., and audio mixdown, I'm dead in the water.

If anyone has any ideas on this at all, please shoot them to me.

Thank you!

[playz123]

Off the bat, it sounds to me that you are simply overtaxing your existing system. As the piece progresses and you are streaming more and more audio , it may be that you are simply running out of resources. Have you tried freezing some of the tracks, converting some of the output audio to .wav files, reducing the number of effects etc.? I see no information in your post about your computer, how many tracks your project has etc., so I suspect most folks would require way more info and what you have and what you are doing before being able to comment further.

[dogpaw]

Good point, Playz! I should have fleshed out the details of my system a bit. Sorry.

Memory: 4 GB

Disk space: 1 TB (with 4 disks, with 2 of the disks striped (no parity) for speed)

CPU: 2.4GHz

The computer is performing well, I believe. Here is why I say this. This problem happens on ALL pieces.

Let's say I create a little two-measure melodic doodle using just one instrument (e.g., Gypsy violin). It plays wonderfully within Cubase 5. But ... even THAT simple project will take this audio mixdown error as indicated within the zip file.

If you or anyone else has any ideas, please keep them coming.

Thank you,

[Neckron23]

how are you exporting your files ? maybe try the individual export,when using batch x-port...
did you try to reinstall cubase5? do you export on 'real time?

[dogpaw]

Originally Posted by Neckron23

how are you exporting your files ? maybe try the individual export,when using batch x-port...
did you try to reinstall cubase5? do you export on 'real time?

I can't even get that far. I think I am simply going to have to uninstall and reinstall. I'll let you all know if I come up with another solution, too.

Stay tuned.

[dogpaw]

Well... I finally got down into the weeds, so to speak, and yanked a few files around and was able to do an audio mixdown. My brain is a little dead right now. I think in the end, it is a matter of hiding Cubase 4 from Cubase 5, as I think Cubase 5 is trying to use some files of Cubase 4 ... or, something like that.

After doing a great deal more research on Steinburg's Forum (I still don't have log-in access), I was able to get some thoughts on what I might do.

Probably what I am going to do is 1) hide, i.e., rename Cubase 4 to something else, 2) uninstall Cubase 5, and 3) re-install Cubase 5. If I do that, I will return to update this thread with more detail. Right now, if I gave advice as to what I did, I think I would lead people astray, and I don't want to do that.

I could also start ranting about how Steinburg Support still has not gotten back to me and about quality control with the development team, but I've been a developer and I am in computer support and I know that it truly is a tough job, and so I try to be forgiving. BUT ... there is no excuse for letting a customer twist slowly in the breeze. As a support person myself, I will always, notify a person that I will get back to that person. Steinberg does not seem to care about communications unless they are trying to sell you something. For East/West ... well, I had a problem this week an EW product, and they have already gotten back to me. So East/West gets a gold star this week!!! That kind of regard for the customer starts at the top ... so, thanks Doug and Nick.

Nevertheless, considering what people like Steinberg and East/West are doing ... well, I've been around enough to know that what they have done and are doing is truly amazing. And so for this, I try to cut everyone some slack.

So, anyway guys ... thank you very much for your input. If I come up with what I feel are solid directions for this fix, I will be back to post them.

[bclam1]

I think there are many problem in cubase 5.
When I open cubase 5 and open Play
It not show the 16 tracks channel mixer, but I do the same thing in other DAW (YAMAHA SOL2 and acid pro7) there is not any problem and work smoothy.
1 more problem is when U open PLAY in cubase and loaded my sounds, it will work smoothly in first time. When U re-open the file the sound crashed problem occuer unless I set a max. buffer size.
I have post this problem in stenberg forum. Sadly, there is no reply and update given......

[dogpaw]

I mentioned that I would be back to tie up this thread, after/if I came up with a fix.

But first, a word to bclam1 ... Cubase 5 has many, many bugs. The Steinberg Forum and the Internet in general is screaming for Steinberg to develop and release a service patch, upgrade, hot fixes ... ANYTHING ... to get the product working better than what it is. Like other fellow EW Forum members, e.g., my friend NASH, I, too, wonder why Cubase 5 came out when it did. But, it did, and now Steinberg's rush to get it out is causing some push-back amongst those who are devoted to the product. I like Cubase 4. I am disappointed, at this time, with Cubase 5. If Steinberg comes up with a fix release, I am flexible enough to change my opinion, if it truly becomes stable.

Now on with the "fix"...

Well, there wasn't one. Eventually, US Steinberg support got back to me. I am guessing, as Daryl had suggested, that the US support was overwhelmed with Europe away at the musicfest or whatever it is. But, the fix that was suggested at 5:30 PM on Friday, was not a fix. So, I finally realized I had to take the matter into my own hands and gut Steinberg from my PC and start over:

1 - Uninstalled Cubase 4 via the Cubase 4 uninstall program

2 - Uninstalled Cubase 5 via the Cubase 5 uninstall program

3 - Uninstalled anything Steinberg (e.g., HALionOne) via the Windows XP Add/Remove

4 - Did a Windows search on all of the drives looking for anything Steinberg and/or Cubase and hand deleted what I found.

5 - Emptied the Recyle Bin

6 - Ran a defragmentation against all of the physical disks

7 - Booted the PC

8 - Installed Cubase 5

9 - Installed Cubase 5's VST samples

10 - Opened the previously created project which only used EW soft synths, played it, and, FINALLY, was able to do an audio mixdown (I created an MP3 with high-quality settings).

So that's it. The bottom line is that Cubase 5 seemed to be going after Cubase 4 files or something similar to that when trying to do the audio mixdown. It would appear as though Steinberg needs to come up with some more robust instructions as to what to do if one has an earlier version of Cubase installed ... or for that matter ANY instructions at all for when one has an earlier version installed. As a former developer, I am painfully aware how much intense work it takes to produce a product without bugs. But, I also am aware from personal experience, that it CAN be done, if one truly has their heart in their job and a compassion for those who will have to use the product.

I hope all of this somehow helps those of you using Cubase 5 and having problems. If you are still using Cubase 4, I would stick with it until Steinberg releases some fixes for Cubase 5. And then, before you install Cubase 5, uninstall Cubase 4 (but keep the software handy in case you get fed up with Cubase 5 and want to go back to Cubase 4 ).

Thanks to those of you who provided input.

[playz123]

Hey Craig, pleased that you got things fixed. I guess I could write quite a few comments on what has been suggested in this thread, but I will just stick to one or two. First, I can only suggest that something must have gone wrong during your initial install since Cubase SX, C4 and C5 are all co-existing quite nicely together on many computers. Respectively I would also disagree with "And then, before you install Cubase 5, uninstall Cubase 4". IMHO, that is not necessary at all in most cases, on either PC or Mac.
However, I would indeed agree with "If you are still using Cubase 4, I would stick with it until Steinberg releases some fixes for Cubase 5." LOL, I don't think anyone who does this for a living or even a major hobby should trust the latest initial release of any of the DAWs unless they absolutely must. Even though I had C4 and used it, I was on SX3 still for most major projects for nearly 1.5 years after C4 was released, before I move to C4 entirely. Same approach with C5. Any initial release I have experienced has always turned out to be an advanced 'beta' version, so would I trust it? Not a chance. "Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me!" Anyway, let's hope that your major problems are now behind you; wonderful you found some answers. Cheerio........frank

[bclam1]

Originally Posted by playz123

Hey Craig, pleased that you got things fixed. I guess I could write quite a few comments on what has been suggested in this thread, but I will just stick to one or two. First, I can only suggest that something must have gone wrong during your initial install since Cubase SX, C4 and C5 are all co-existing quite nicely together on many computers. Respectively I would also disagree with "And then, before you install Cubase 5, uninstall Cubase 4". IMHO, that is not necessary at all in most cases, on either PC or Mac.
However, I would indeed agree with "If you are still using Cubase 4, I would stick with it until Steinberg releases some fixes for Cubase 5." LOL, I don't think anyone who does this for a living or even a major hobby should trust the latest initial release of any of the DAWs unless they absolutely must. Even though I had C4 and used it, I was on SX3 still for most major projects for nearly 1.5 years after C4 was released, before I move to C4 entirely. Same approach with C5. Any initial release I have experienced has always turned out to be an advanced 'beta' version, so would I trust it? Not a chance. "Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me!" Anyway, let's hope that your major problems are now behind you; wonderful you found some answers. Cheerio........frank

I totally agree with U^^
Luckiy I did not del. my old DAW YAMAHA SOL2. I can still use it with play in a wonderful performace!!
I don't know Y C5 perform so badly. Evenmore, some of my friendy using Cubase 3 and 4 didn't got the same problem with me ( Coz I am using C5).
I hope Steinberg should fix the problem ASAP. I am the first time to touch cubase. Now it gives me a very bad impression!!!