Thanks Paul.  I've asked Steinberg if they'll talk to you direct as they've closed the case and said (effectively) their end is fixed and now it's up to you guys.  It's one of those situations where we end users are caught in the middle, would be grateful if you can both figure out a better solution for us all.

I hope this is not the case since Steinberg is now saying the problem is most likely on Vienna's end as they say they have fixed the issue on their end.

Can you please explain why this only happens with VE PRO 5 and why this can not be fixed?  I get that Cubase has to adjust the additional buffer settings for VE PRO 5 that are not in other plugins, but is that really the issue here?

@Paul said:

Hello everybody, 

No changes there, and unfortunately nothing that can be done on our side, as it seems. 

Best, 
Paul

Posted on Steinberg's forum today...

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Hi, 

Thanks for that info, I wasn´t aware of that at all. 

To speed up the research I can do to prepare this for a deeper investigation by our developers, could you please send some short Cubase 8 songs (as zip files) to support@vsl.co.at and include a description on how to reproduce the problems you are having, with a description of the settings you are using (screenshots will also be fine). 

I´ll work through those with the latest versions of Cubase 8 and VE PRO asap. 

Thanks, 
Paul

Grateful for your attention, Paul - this was first reported back in January and it's pretty debiliating to pro composers.  I'm away from base for specific files, but here's the steps to reproduce I posted in the original Steinberg thread:

SYSTEM

Win 7 64 bit SP1 Aero on, i7 4930, RME Babyface, 64gb RAM, Cubase 8.0.0 64 bit, VEP 5.3.13407

PROBLEM 

VE Pro tracks audio muting when switching between channels in Cubase if asioguard is set to normal or high.

STEPS TO REPRODUCE

1. In Device Settings, enable asioguard, set to nornal or high.
2. Open VE Pro server and create two instances. Insert VIs on first channel of each (I'm using Kontakt 5 and Play for a test, but think the VIs used are irrelevant).
3. Create two VEP rack instruments, and connect to the two VEP instances.
4. Switch between the two VEP tracks in the Cubase project window (or switch monitor enabling between them)
5. Result is that the audio output mutes as they are switched.

Note 1 - length of time that the mute occurs varies according to the general complexity of project, whether or not playing back at the same time, and the asioguard setting. I've experienced up to approx 3 seconds.

Note 2 - problem does not exist when asioguard is set to low. Audio is uninterrupted.

Note 3 - these results on my system at a buffer of 256. Specifics will vary depending on your soundcard and buffers, processor, platform etc.

I believe the Low setting in ASIO GUARD 2 sets everything to a 256 BUFFER.  So that is probably why the problem is not there on the low setting for you as you are already at a 256 BUFFER.  I use a 128 buffer and the problem is there at the LOW setting as well.

-D

@noiseboyuk said:

 

Note 3 - these results on my system at a buffer of 256. Specifics will vary depending on your soundcard and buffers, processor, platform etc.

@dlpmusic said:

VE PRO VST2 does not support ASIO-Guard 2 you have to disable ASIO GUARD, also VSL has to implement a VST-3 interface that supports ASIO- Guard. 

They have been informed about this. 

I will post this in the Steinberg forum.

From various posts by Steinberg and VSL employees on various forums and support posts, here's the situation as I best understand it.

There was an issue internal to Cubase which has been fixed. However this won't do anything until VSL update VE Pro, which they cannot yet do. The VST2 version is incompatible with ASIOguard. The VST3 version VSL cannot update until Steinberg updates the SDK, which has no time frame to be done. So until that unknown time, users are unable to use VE Pro with Cubase 8 without severe side effects.   Its probably best to disable ASIOguard from VE Pro in the plugin manager until this whole issue is resolved.  Unfortunatly it looks like this whole issue won't be fixed any time soon.

This sums it up as far as I can tell.  I am so anxious for this to resolve an Vienna to get this implemented.

@noiseboyuk said:

From various posts by Steinberg and VSL employees on various forums and support posts, here's the situation as I best understand it.

There was an issue internal to Cubase which has been fixed. However this won't do anything until VSL update VE Pro, which they cannot yet do. The VST2 version is incompatible with ASIOguard. The VST3 version VSL cannot update until Steinberg updates the SDK, which has no time frame to be done. So until that unknown time, users are unable to use VE Pro with Cubase 8 without severe side effects.   Its probably best to disable ASIOguard from VE Pro in the plugin manager until this whole issue is resolved.  Unfortunatly it looks like this whole issue won't be fixed any time soon.

This post has been interesting reading. I had never used Ensemble before in previous versions, so v5 is my first experience. I have pretty much been unable to use this (running slave on same machine as DAW, not had opportunity to try via networking but suspect the results will be the same or worse). I found similar advice re disabling asio-guard in plugin manager on the steinberg forum, this hasn't stopped VSL from corrupting any project it's inserted into along with causing other mysterious issues (although I'm still to 100% confirm it's VSL doing it, the first project I've made deliberately not using VSL seems to have solved this issue also). Really hope Vienna & Steinberg can sort this out between them, as it's looking like going back to having to open a new project for anything involving kontakt libraries.

As it seems the answer to when it'll be fixed is "when the new SDK is released ie we do not know", where would be a good place to lurk occasionally to receive updates on this issue? It's disappointing that to use the program I bought to solve my RAM-problem, I have to turn off a feature that then gives me a huge CPU problem :)

@dlpmusic said:

VE PRO VST2 does not support ASIO-Guard 2 you have to disable ASIO GUARD, also VSL has to implement a VST-3 interface that supports ASIO- Guard. 

They have been informed about this. 

I thought I'd bump this thread since I'm sure many are eager for this fix -- looks like Steinberg has version 3.6.5 up from a few days ago. I couldn't find anything on this topic in the documentation with a quick look, but hopefully it's buried there somewhere. Any news on the issue?

This sounds like good news that a new SDK is posted.  Can we get a response from Vienna?   Do you now have the information to fix VE PRO 5 to behave correctly with ASIO GUARD 2?

@dlpmusic said:

VE PRO VST2 does not support ASIO-Guard 2 you have to disable ASIO GUARD, also VSL has to implement a VST-3 interface that supports ASIO- Guard. 

They have been informed about this. 

I thought I'd bump this thread since I'm sure many are eager for this fix -- looks like Steinberg has version 3.6.5 up from a few days ago. I couldn't find anything on this topic in the documentation with a quick look, but hopefully it's buried there somewhere. Any news on the issue?

It's looking hopeful.  Fabio Bartolini from Steinberg posted this today:

"The new extended VST SDK (v3.6.5) has been released a few days ago. The new version supports the scenario described above by Mr. Seleteg.

http://www.steinberg.net/en/company/developers.html"

Would be great if you can let us know if this is indeed what you've been waiting for, Vienna.

Can we get a reply from Vienna on the status?  It would be great to get a comfirmation that you have what you need to fix the ASIO GUARD 2 problem so we can stop making requests to Steinberg.

@noiseboyuk said:

It's looking hopeful.  Fabio Bartolini from Steinberg posted this today:

"The new extended VST SDK (v3.6.5) has been released a few days ago. The new version supports the scenario described above by Mr. Seleteg.

http://www.steinberg.net/en/company/developers.html"

Would be great if you can let us know if this is indeed what you've been waiting for, Vienna.

Hi everybody, 

I have informed our development team about this, hope they can get back to you soon. 

Best, 
Paul

Please keep us posted Paul.

Many of us have not chimed in on this issue, but it's a huge deal for anybody usiing Cubase 8 and (in my case) Nuendo 7.   Here's hoping the new SDK allows you to resolve the issue.

Jules

Seems like enough time has passed. It would be great to get some sort of comment back from Vienna when we will see this fix implemented.

Martin or Paul....any word on this yet?

Hi, 

I talked to Martin, here is his answer: Prefetchable support disabling will be available in the upcoming new version of VE Pro. 

So Asio Guard will be disabled programmatically in the VST3 plug-in, every other change would introduce a dramatic raise in latency. 

Best, 
Paul