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I think I am in trouble, and I am ready to kick somebody's butt! (not sure who, but just somebody!) Grrrrr. :mad:

I just posted this on the forum at cubase.net, but thought I'd run it up the flagpole here as well, just in case (this song was just about ready to send out to the talent for review too, btw... Grrrr. :mad: ):

I upgraded to 1.05 today, and after working for about 2 hours on a song, I find that I am in big trouble at one particular part in the song. At the same spot every time, (right at bar 88 as a matter of fact!), the song locks up...the speakers are honking like a fog horn, and I get an error message about writing to the Cubase log, etc. (The log shows a problem with cubasesx.exe). I can play the song just fine right up to that spot, and if I roll past that spot and play, it works just fine as well. It just won't roll past bar 88. I even tried exporting a mixdown, and it locks up at the same spot too...(not good, eh?).

I am hoping in desperation that a rollback will fix this (Otherwise, I am pretty ticked...my last saved version of this song is 2 days and about 3 hours worth of work old!).

I hear people talking about "rolling back" to earlier versions, but even after searching all the docs and this Forum, I can't figure out how.

Anyone got any suggestions as to what could be wrong (and why at that one particular spot?)...everytime the cursor gets to bar 88...crash and burn!

If no suggestions as to the problem, how about a hint as to how to roll back to 1.03...it is worth a try...it's all I've got at this point (other than a headache!).

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Comments

anonymous Sun, 11/17/2002 - 11:09

It's possible that Karl Steinberg may ride to your rescue or somebody here will have a one-button fix, but if you find yourself out on a limb with nothing to lose, maybe you could try this. I seem to remember rescuing a song this way in VST/24 4.0:

1. Make a separate backup of the song NOW before you start to experiment further, under a new name. (And get in the habit of saving often, now that you have molto-undo.)

2. Cut out the offending bar 88 and trash it, every track.

3. Copy bar 88 out of the most recent regular same-name backup with a working bar 88 and put it in the song.

If it's still broke, you can restore from the new-name back-up and no NEW harm is done. If it fixes it, you only have to update the 3 hours work on 1 bar.

Even if it works, this is a clunky fix and it's no explanation at ALL -- but it's entirely possible that it may never happen again. Unless, of course, you switch from Cubase to Pro Tools!

:)

RW

Doublehelix Sun, 11/17/2002 - 16:16

Robert, thanks for your suggestion, but believe it or not, I have tried just that, and to no avail!!!

I even tried using the latest project file with all the backup WAVs, and guess what, it still locks up at bar 88! It must be a corrupted PRJ file, that's all I can think of...the WAVs are fine.

I even tried a test by deleting 1 bar on both sides of the "offending bar", and when the playback reaches the spot where I cut out the bad part, it freezes up in the same way.

I have a thread started over at Cubase.net, and have found several others now with the same problem with 1.05...bummer.

I have reconstructed about 90% of the song by copying and pasting into a new song...long tedious process that doesn't copy all the fader settings, automation, plug-ins, etc...really sucks! :mad:

anonymous Sun, 11/17/2002 - 22:24

Wow. Sounds systemic.

And likely, if indeed it IS a one-button fix, the button is someplace in Germany....

I'm already holding off on moving to SX for Mac until after the first of the year for several reasons -- looks like I just added a new one to the list.

If you get the chance, post the ultimate resolution in this thread for those who follow....

RW

Doublehelix Mon, 11/18/2002 - 10:28

I actually waited a week before I upgraded to see if there was any large fallout from the upgrade...nothing on the Cubase forums that I could see. And to be fair, it looks like most people are fine with 1.05, but I have now found quite a collection of users with the exact same problem...really sucks.

To rollback, I need to completely uninstall SX, reinstall from the original 1.00 CD, the upgrade back to 1.03 (which worked fine for me). I am hearing some nightmare stories of those folks that had to reinstall Windows XP also...something about having to overwrite the newer drivers...crap I hope it doesn't come to that. I am running Windows 2000, so I hope I won't have to go to that extreme.

I am going to be out of town for a couple of days, so before I do anything rash (again!), I am going to let things sit for a few days, and see what happens over at the Cubase forum...

Next time...no upgrades to a new version unless there is a new feature/bug fix that I *have* to have...and even then, I am going to wait at least a month!

I am pretty ticked right now, and am scared to even fire up SX for fear of corrupting something important! :mad:

Patience my son...patience...

anonymous Mon, 11/18/2002 - 15:10

I hear Brock loud and clear, but let's be fair -- Steinberg surely isn't the only company in the world that shoves it's less than perfect products out the door and into the pockets, drives and lives of an unsuspecting populace...

Windows is on what, it's 23rd major flavor and they've never perfected vanilla? Pleeze.

The Beta groups for SX should have turned this one up, no question. How it slipped past is perplexing, since fatal errors like this one are usually the center of early attention and the Beta tribe loves to skewer one on its pike -- trophy heads, bragging rights 'n all that.

It never hurts to treat ANY major new release as if it were still in Beta, especially when you are going to rely on it as soon and as seriously as DH is doing now. Separate partition or drive, separate drivers, separate EVERYthing if you can until you are confident it can really fly.

But the view from here is always 20-20, desu ne?

:roll:

RW

anonymous Tue, 11/19/2002 - 06:30

Be that as it may, I have never had this problem with Samplitude. As a matter of fact on their newsgroup the developers themselves participate. If a release comes out that has a bug it is not uncommon for a fix to be out within days or weeks. I have never had problems with stability or sound quality (which are the most important to me). I've literally been through them all and as a mostly audio guy have a need for a program that freakin' works... and that I have. They all basically do the same things, it is just finding the app that fits your working style and Samp does that for me. SX is such a cool program and I have thought about picking it up. However, I ain't spending a dime on something as buggy as that for that kind of money. Samplitude wasn't cheap, but I have had no problems. With Nuendo and SX they just keep trying to pack more and more in there without fixing the previous problems... I can't tell you how many times I have heard, "well they added this, but this STILL isn't fixed...". Granted, I'm not sure how much of that kind of talk boils down to operator error (as I don't own the program, do use Nuendo from time to time in a few studios around town) but that is still enough for me to steer clear. The reason I have the software is supposed to be for ease of production, not troubleshooting. I want to make music, not figure out what the *$%@)# happened this time...

anonymous Tue, 11/19/2002 - 10:25

OK, geez, Brock, thanks a node load:

Now I have to go Jonesing around investigating Samplitude instead of blithely waiting for SXMac to mature.

Some of you guys up in here really give me a pain -- the pain of being reminded how dumb I am.

Actually, I think there's a big swag bag in the front closet somewhere, with a Roland keyboard on one side and a Marshall amp on the other, from last year's Winter NAMM -- I seem to remember stuffing some Samplitude glossies in there.

If I can just get the Flowbee and the golf clubs out of the way without all those old office-name-draw-gift-recyclables crashing down on my head, I can get cracking....

:confused:

RW

anonymous Tue, 11/19/2002 - 11:28

lol... well, Samplitude is a great program for audio (probably amongst the best), but is lacking in the midi world. It has basic stuff for midi but not in the form the rest of the world has implemented it. Version 7.0 which will be out next month is supposed to have more extensive midi in a fashion that would be recognizable for those used to working in that world. Also full asio, vst, vsti, and a few other notables that it has lacked in the past. They are also working on synching two or more via lightpipe (ie, system link). Another cool feature is that if you have a dual processor, and you open up two instances of samplitude, it automaticall splits the two instances so that each one has its own cpu to work with. Cd mastering and burning from directly within the program. Realtime convolution for room simulation usable as inserts and aux sends (coming in ver. 7.0). The whole gui is customizable and they made it even easier for 7.0 (you can literally take the mixer into a graphics program and change whatever to whichever you like... for me I just use the default as it looks good and I prefer to make music over painting pictures...)
Now, Robert, the down side for those on macs...
PC only...

anonymous Tue, 11/19/2002 - 14:23

Yeah, OK, when you're right, you're right.

I dug out the swag bag and the NAMM stuff I had was for SampleTank, a software plug-in sample player for a number of platforms/formats, including Mac/ASIO/VST.

Looks like I'm stuck with Cubase for now. Not to mention a couple of new gravity dents in my skull from a cheap pair of binoculars and a particleboard dart target that have been in the closet long enough for the office staff to recycle.

When the staff recycles, so do their gifts.

Deck the halls.

The life I save may be my own.

;)

RW

Doublehelix Tue, 11/19/2002 - 17:31

I am sitting here in a hotel room, using a phone line modem, and can only connect at 19.2...Grrrrr...I am so used to my cable modem and having broad band access, that this 19.2 crap really hurts!

Before I left on my trip today, I decided to try messing with my newly re-created song in Cubase SX 1.05...*big* mistake!!! I was hoping that it was all just a fluke somehow, and that the .CPR file got corrupted somehow that had nothing to do with the 1.05 update, since I was able to recreate most of the song by copying and pasting into a new file w/o problems. Also, considering that there are tons of people using 1.05 without problems...

Well, I am *not* one of them!!!

I have agree with Brock, I hate this stuff! I am a big backer of computer-based DAWs, but for the last 3 weeks, I have had BIOS problems, Windows problems, and now SX problems!!! What the @#$%* is going on here??? I have been basically "problem free" for such a long time...you definitely get spoiled. Earlier today, I was thinking about throwing the whole computer in the garbage and starting over with all hardware and *no* computers!!! Grrrrr....!!!!

I *hate* computers!

I won't go into the gory details, but suffice it to say, I had a long day today! I lost a couple of cool new guitar tracks that I recorded, and a bunch of other smaller tweaks...gone forever!

I ended up deciding to remove SX completely, and re-install...easy, n'est pas? NOT! It took me an hour just to find my original SX CD!!! I put it away for safe keeping, I just couldn't remember where!!! I tore the whole house apart looking for it!

Anyway, after several uninstalls/installs, I got things back to 1.03 successfully. This was a major pain...newer drivers that don't get un-installed by the "un-install routine" had to be hunted down by hand and deleted...etc....it really sucked! The old software won't install with the new drivers in place, etc...The whole procedure left a really bad taste in my mouth about the way the way the SX install/un-install routines are designed...very poor and not very robust. I now know why several people on the Cubase forum just re-installed Windows...it might have actually been easier that what I went through!!! (probably not, but it makes for a good story!).

After re-installing 1.03...I had another major lockup!!! What the...? (I hate this crap!!! Where is my old Fostex 4-track casette??)

I hate computers!!!

I am beginning to wonder if it also has something to do with my new Echo drivers for my Layla??? So I rolled that back to 6.04 (the roll-back was easy and painless btw...are you listening Steinberg???).

After going back to SX 1.03, *and* the Echo 6.04 drivers, everything *appears* to be ok. I worked on it for about 2 hours after that without a crash, and actually made a lot of great progress... :)

Here's hoping!!!

Did I mention that I hate computers??? :D

Stay away from SX 1.05...I'm warnin' ya!!! There are lots of others out there going through the same thing that I am...

KurtFoster Wed, 11/20/2002 - 08:07

Another reason to but cheap sh*t software and hardware...it is usually a generation behind and all the bugs are worked out. Thanks to Opus and his tweaks guide I am running flawlessly at 10% CPU load for 16 tracks with all the extras! Older software VST 5.1 and tried and true 24 /44.1, Frontier Dakota...cheap, not so cutting edge, works, gonna ride this mother f*#ker 'till it or me dies....Don't be disenchanted DH it will get better and you will forget. .... Fats

Doublehelix Sat, 11/23/2002 - 04:30

Originally posted by Opus2000:
So James...does this happen with earlier songs made in SX or any? I'm thinking it's got be earlier only as I'm just did a 100+ bar techno/ambient style tune and works great.....
I haven't gone back to any other songs cause I think they suck and don't bother with them! :p
Opus

Hehe...not sure Gary, I have been scared to use it since the "glitch". Unfortunatly, I am in the middle of a 6 song project that has already had the basic tracks laid down (lead vox + drums + bass + rhythm guitar), and the musicians/writers are back down in Texas (I am in Indiana), so it would be very difficult to re-record!

I am thinking of giving it one more try with 1.05...am I brave or what??? I honestly am beginning to think it might be the Echo 6.05 drivers...

chrisperra Sun, 11/24/2002 - 07:53

i've got sx with 1.5 and no problems. what os are you guys with problems running? i'm using xp with a 1.8 gig p4, and 512 of rd ram.

i've had lockups when i use alot of plug ins and solo tracks there is a build up of a residual feed back loop somewhere that eventually locks up things. also defragging is important. some lockups and audio stutters can be caused by too much info spread everywhere.

for me, so far so good.

to me, the whole computer industry totally blows, nowhere will you find on a consistant basis the pile of shit they claim works great and doesn't.

in the end, a good tape machine and board always win.

chris perra

Opus2000 Sun, 11/24/2002 - 09:27

Yeah, I haven't come across a single problem with SX 1.05 yet.
Remember, when a new upgrade comes out I start fresh....wipe it and reinstall. I have a ghost of XP Pro with all the tweaks then I ass the software and I'm done.
Computers are fun that way Chris! lol
I would love to have an SSL and a Studer! :D
Opus

chrisperra Sun, 11/24/2002 - 23:03

i think the only way to do your best to avoid problems is to find out what they test stuff on for the most part.

i have a dell. i initially bought it because i have never owned a computer before. and wanted to have support. after 2 months because i had a pc, and had to learn irq's, what computers were made up from and how they worked.

i thought i spent too much.i was of the mindset that i could just look around and pick parts that were given good ratings, and great reviews.

dells cost more than if you to build it yourself or get a buddy to do it for you. i thought the extra money was a waste. now i realize it was worth it.

i have many friends that got computers around the same time a i did for musk less. they were all somewhat comparible for power, speed ect. but after a year i have had way less problems than all of them. from software compatibiliy to even just burning a cd i've had an easy time of it.

i would suggest for any one thinking of getting a new software platform to phone tec support for the company that designs it and ask them whats the best thing to put together?. what do they do beta tests on? dells are probably not what they use but so far, after i went through irq hell it's been great.

chris perra

KurtFoster Mon, 11/25/2002 - 08:49

chrisperra wrote;

in the end, a good tape machine and board always win.

Yeah, until you have a session and you fire up the 2" and the wow a flutter is so out of whack or the tape speed takes five seconds to ramp up….you call the tech who tells you he can't possibly get to you in the next 3 or 4 days unless you want him to come in on overtime...keep in mind this guy charges $80 and hour, lives 60 miles away and charges for drive time...to and from! Every time you call him it costs $300+. Not to mention the loss of revenue from another session down the terlet! I spent over $5k on maintenance on my MCI 636 console, not including losses from downtime, in just over 5 years and I suspect that if every time an advance in electronics came along I was upgrading my console like we do with software, I would have had even more problems.....yeah that stuff is great sounding and it's easy to use but it's not practical anymore. While I was sitting there writing cheques to the tech, my buddies are sitting in their home project studios charging half of what I have to and keeping more of it for themselves. I found myself being envious of my friend who had a Mackie 8 Bus and a Tascam 2424 in his basement! We are in the dawning of the computer age… we are the new millenniums answer to the ones who drove the first Ford Model "T's". Forge ahead brave hearts! ……….. Fats

Opus2000 Mon, 11/25/2002 - 17:52

Uhhh...A Dell? :p
Dell's are great for office applications...too many wierd issues on Dell machines with DAW systems. Graphics drivers, BIOS issues, boot up problems, etc etc etc.
Even if you add or remove hardware you still need to deal with IRQ's.
Here's a great example. Buy a car...does the car salesman teach you to drive? Nope. You teach yourself(or die trying!) Does the car salesman teach you to fill the tank when it's empty? Nope...you do or you run out of gas in the middle of the desert and get eaten by vultures!
Does the car salesman tell you how to use a toll bridge lane change properly? No...you learn by doing.
Same with PC's...IRQ's are like a toll booth setup...many cars all trying to get to one lane...share a lane with two cars(PCI Cards) and you crash!
Simple as that. Never tell this forum to buy a Dell.....rule no. 1 in here man!
Opus :roll:

chrisperra Mon, 11/25/2002 - 23:48

to cedar.... i said a "good tape machine"

to opus.

yeah i had bios and irq problems.

i learned myself and am better of for it. i had to learn the inner workings of a computer and how it ticks.it was hell...

the thing about dells, is there components work.they are not set up to do music initially at all. but businesses use them because they are rock solid when configured right.

i'm not saying to everyone to get a dell. i'm saying before you buy software that you depend on find out what they test stuff on. pc's blow because you get too many different components thrown together.

dells do alot of trouble shooting to make sure there stuff works together. plus if anything goes really wrong they come to my house and fix it for 3 years. but don't get one unless you are a hands on person that likes to know how things work.

irq's and bios tweaks are a bitch and not fun.

chris perra