Optimize Your DAW & Project for Better CPU Performance

Sometimes you run out of CPU processing power while working on a project and will get audio dropouts as a result.
Here's a few tips on how to optimize your DAW (specifically demonstrating with Cubase) and how to optimize your project using things like "freeze" and "disable track" functions. Many DAW's have these same features.
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[@davidokangba1842]

You Sir have saved my day from ending in a full-blown moody! So many vocal takes ruined by that drop-out and CPU messaging and after trying many online fixes it was This one only 2 minutes in which recovered my day late on. It's quite Wonderful when people like yourself take the Time and Effort, to share their knowledge with people like myself who have limited abilities within music production. I use 'Cubase 8.5' but it worked a Treat! Thank You, and long may your Prosper! Sincerely Yours DoK.

[@VintiqueSound]

Glad it was helpful!

[@edpoole7186]

The freeze audio option saved me! Super helpful. Thank you!

[@0oTHEJACKo0]

well only for one track at a time. it is fucking annoying to freeze and unfreeze 20 tracks. pure evil in cubase! other DAWs can do tracks simultaneously

[@vaaskarsaikia]

Watching this video after a bad dream around 3am morning.... And it made my Day fantastic.... Awesome very nice detail...

[@masquerades941]

The freeze option saved my tracks. Before freezing my audio would drop out every second (literally). I can now record again without any audio dropouts whatsoever. Thank you! About the buffer size you talked about at the beginning of the vid... higher buffer sizes are not good while recording, you better have lowest buffer size (lowest amount of samples) so the input/output latency is as low as possible. That said, for mixing it works fine to have higher buffer size. (Edit: I see now that someone else here mentioned the thing about buffersize already)

[@VintiqueSound]

You're welcome, yes that's correct about buffer sizes. I was trying to explain how to prevent CPU spikes but in the context of mixing/mastering/producing, at the later stages of a project, but didn't communicate thoroughly about needing low buffer size to avoid latency while recording. Cheers!

[@Griuofficial]

Thanks for the video, great advice about suspending VST3 plugins!

[@VintiqueSound]

Glad it was helpful!

[@donstewart6000]

I want to thank you so much 🎵 for explaining this My stuff was really glitching on the work load I tried all I know and you saved the dsy Thanks so much 🙌👍🎵🙏🎚🎛

[@Wendel_Kos]

hi, buffersize has more to do with latency. Smaller buffer gives you quicker response when playing, not "better audio quality". Its just a matter if your computer can keep up, to play everything in real time. I have plugins that become unstable at buffer sizes too big, so this is for everybody to find out for themselves. Pick a buffer around 128-256 when playing live, or even lower if your computer can handle it. And leave it high when tracking just audio + effects (like when mixing down or mastering).

[@Kamy.GG.Official]

*Thanks for being clear & straight to the point; it helped a lot*

[@brennuvargr4638]

Amazing video! Thanks very much for making it. :)

[@lachuchacanucha]

Thank you!

[@tommyandtammy1]

I liked and subscribed.....Thanks this helped a lot..... I had actually stopped using cubase pro 10.5 after using it for 20 years, because it kept maxing my cpu out ...... I was using studio one, but after watching your video I started back using cubase again..... Thanks and God Bless.

[@badjabadjawebaadja]

Thank you man !!! Straight to the point!🌟👊🏽✅

[@soumendrabanerjee1993]

Your video was super helpful.. Thanks a lot buddy..

[@Riffa22]

Question about the buffer size, isn't it better to have a lower buffer at say 128 for just recording then higher for mixing?

[@TheTimeApart]

Thanks for your video... quite good and efficient

[@mestreandreFBO]

Thanks!!! Nice tips!!! 👍

[@DEATHKNELLofficial]

nice... great help.. thanks for the video

[@Whiskey_Friday]

Awesome!! Thanks for that!!

[@d.shevtsov]

Very useful video man. Thank you so much!

[@darrenwharton3760]

Great info, thanks man. Cheers Darren

[@joseph_burdock]

Thank you! This was super helpful!

[@jackiez1012]

Thanks bro!it's very helpful! u r awesome!

[@rossblakevibes]

Very beneficial thank you

[@kevcranethesingingplumber1754]

Brilliant. Thank you

[@andrewludlam5686]

This is great stuff. Many thanks for your effort.

[@AsherMusicOfficial]

Good explanations, keep it up!

[@Pauluz_The_Web_Gnome]

51 ms delay makes you a realy good finger drummer! Hahahahahaha I hope within 3 years you seriously upgraded your system!

[@ilove5EX]

You saved me! Thank you.

[@CreepypastaFiles]

Thanks for these videos! I just started playing around with Cubase and they're helpful. Do you happen to know where Cubase ratings are stored (eg. for VSTs, audio samples, loops, etc.)? I want to be sure to back them up. Thanks!

[@liongroove3301]

Great work! where did you get your studio desk?

[@VintiqueSound]

I bought mine at Long and McQuade in Canada. It's pretty rugged and not too expensive. Well worth the purchase.

[@ikstephan]

You make it seem as if selecting a higher buffersize is the best choice because audio quality will be better. That's not the case at all. Setting the buffer to a higher size is just a compromise that people can use if their system isn't powerfull enough to run everything at once. When you are using VST-instruments you actually need to use the lowest possible buffer size because otherwise there would be too much of a delay between playing keys and hearing sound. Once a track with a VSTi is played and you're done with it, you can freeze that track to save resources. When I get to the editing or mixing stage, I usually set the buffer size to a higher setting cause at that time it hardly matters for timing. In practice I find myself changing the buffer size quite frequently going back and forth to the different stages of production.

[@VintiqueSound]

Implicit in this video is the assumption that the viewer is experiencing a decrease in audio quality even with increased buffer sizes. That's why I explain what buffer size is, what asio-guard is, then I go over how you can save CPU processing with using freezing, disabling tracks, and using VST3 plugins. I should have been more explicit with the idea of using a lower buffer size for recording purposes, but I think anyone who's having issues with audio quality would have already figured out that increasing the buffer size helps for reducing audio quality disturbances but brings more delay as a compromise.

[@PremBrey]

Excellent ♥️

[@L1915SS]

Thanks for the video - though I don't know how you cope with such high latency times!

[@VintiqueSound]

Do you mean with such a high buffer setting which then causes lots of latency for recording purposes? Cubase has a function called "Adjust for record latency" that actually prevents any latency no matter how high of a buffer setting you have. Albeit, this video is meant more as a solution for the end of a project, when there is minimal or no recording actually happening, when you're deep into the mixing and mastering stage with several plugins being used.

[@RodionZonov]

Good tips!

[@parisevaggelou]

Hi thank you very much!!! When i freeze my audio channel after i have no sound like is mute. you know why?

[@flamexofficial4620]

God bless you ❤️

[@Bassarocious]

I think I remember you referring to reduction meters as related to compression in the meter bridge in Cubase 9.5. I think you may have to use stock plugins for this to show up.

[@VintiqueSound]

Yes, I've done more research and found that you need to use the stock compressors, but not only that, you need to use then in the channel strip that's built into the mixer window. That's the only way the gain reduction meters show up, and it only shows up in the meter bridge and not the channel meters.

[@jlbrantley]

I'm having a Hell of a time in Cubase 10 with real-time peak SPIKES. Makes working impossible. Anybody have a clue as to why these spikes occur?

[@filiprmax1]

..beside everythig else , may be a broken interface. i had that on motu.

[@indigodeep6609]

I'm trying to figure out that as well when I find out I'll let you know. Mine just started out of nowhere. Used to be able to open 4 to 5 inserts on up to 50 tracks now I can barely open 3 inserts on one track. Huge difference and impossible to be creative!

[@iggydip]

Can you remember 2 years down the line how you solved this. I’m having the exact same problem. Not sure if it’s the Kontakt 6 player. I only have three instruments and a video activated and it’s really bad.

[@SamyKdj]

Thank you :)

[@leobrennauer]

Whats that - four iPads? Could you maybe explain yourself :D

[@sejtaridiss]

ASIO usage meter in Cubase does NOT show overall CPU usage! That's important to understand - ASIO meter shows usage of one most stressed thread/core. The rest of them, in theory, can be completely unloaded . In some scenarios it can mean that you can multiply your plugins as mamy times, as there are cores, without making the meter any higher. So in order to make it as low as possible, it is crucial to have plugins working in Multithread Mode and spread them across channels in mixer. Stacking 8, it now 16 plugins on one channel gonna make one of your threads overloaded, if these are not VST3 od multithreaded.

[@assafshalom]

hi thanks for the video it was helpful there is a function in cubase that is named force buffer size could you explain about it thanks

[@primarypenguin]

Idk why everyone is shitting on you about the buffer size, I always run my buffer size at max because the majority of the time I have like 100 tracks and I'm not doing any live tracking, just programming soft synths with midi or mixing. When I do track things like guitars or record the midi of myself playing a part, I just turn the buffer size back down until i'm done. Actually for guitar and other live instruments, I just use the direct monitoring function through my interface, which is not really a cubase feature.

[@VintiqueSound]

I do almost exactly as you mentioned. For the most part I'm not tracking but can utilize "Direct Monitoring" with a large buffer size and problem solved.

[@sedrick8628]

Great info! >>> Sedrick

[@ignite137]

I see this post is from 2017, nevertheless i run Cubase pro 10 and i deal with the same issues. Now my problem is caused by my high load of plugins on busses. What is the best remedy against high load, a ful lbunce of the perticual busses?

[@Wahabj28]

life saver

[@rez9386]

I have the opposite problem.. Disc Cache Overload... Anyone knows how to fix this?

[@bamdocmusic]

Just upgraded from 10.5 to 11 and i am having Ram spikes, program crashing, loop file not playing. I emailed Steinberg but they haven't gotten back to me due to "high volume". I didnt have issues with 8/10/10.5. Is it me? lol

[@VintiqueSound]

Cubase 11 has been great for me. What OS you running, any basic computer specs (ram/cpu/gpu/etc)?

[@aviozstudio4903]

Which is more important for daw usage ... cpu clock speed or core .. if i have intel i3 8350k will it do well ?

[@VintiqueSound]

Always go for more cores. The i3 is probably going to work if you have 8gb-16gb ram, but you'll get much better results with an i5, and far better results still with an i7. If you can afford the initial purchase of an i7 with a great motherboard, then go for it. You can always expand ram later, and if you have to cut costs and buy a spinning disk hard drive you can then upgrade to an SSD later too. If you're serious about music production and will be using big programs like DAW's, Photoshop, or Video editing programs then an i7 is well worth the investment.

[@albertwilsonpiano1469]

good tops bother God bless u

[@xp50player]

Ok first of all MIDI tracks use almost no CPU at all. Even if they did, they don’t use a voice of audio in the background so no advantage to disabling the track over just muting it. If your ASIO guard is turned on, your regular buffer setting only applies to the track you are currently on, not mentioned. Setting the buffer to 2048 also won’t be good for anyone tracking with VST instruments, or direct monitoring through Cubase. The video doesn’t state the version used, but 9.5 has Direct Offline Processing, so you can non-destructively apply effects to audio parts with no CPU hit on playback.

[@kevrochlin4544]

Hi, I use omnisphere with a couple of instruments running through Kontakt my cpu maxs and i get a load of noise and breakup. any suggestions how to stop this please, you sound like you know stuff !! Kev

[@NiceTrade]

problem is Windows 10 & not CPU load.. there are alot of driver bugs, especially with new hardware, CPU, Motherboard, Sound Interfaces etc i opened a file in Cubase 9.5, that i started with using Cubase 8, i was prompted to select an Asio driver.. Cubase was recommending the Low Latency, i wanted to use my NI Komplete Audio 6 Asio.. so when the file loaded there was no sound output.. input signal is going in, but nothing coming out .. if i attempt to duplicate tracks still no sound .. if i create a new track/channel there is sound its not a Cubase or Native Instruments bug.. its just a Windows thing, its not releasing the driver for the tracks that loaded at start up.. i dont know maybe there is a file or registry entry somewhere that needs to be deleted, then Cubase will know drivers were switched..

[@scivirus3563]

Turn of asio guard

[@PB72UK]

2048 🤔 you need a new computer dude!