Cubase SX3 frequent crashes

[kborkowski]

Hello,

I'm running Cubase SX3, and I'm having loads of trouble. It crashes so much! Especially over night, which I don't understand. I'll leave it go, go to bed, come back and Cubase won't be running. Thankfully I always have a backup file. But then I'm ending up with five or six backups, until I start consolidating. I also think I'm using way to much processing power on songs that contain like 20 tracks, with few effects. I would think my system is more than strong enough to handle it. Here are my specs:

Nvidia nForce 680i motherboard
Intel Q6600, or 6400 quad core. I can't remember which one
2 GB 800 Mhz. DDR2 ram
Presonus FP10

I could really use some help. I've been dealing with this for months, with no luck at solving the problems. I have more problems, but they are minor.

Thank you.

[richiebee]

Why would you leave it running overnight? If its because it takes so long to bounce down, then yeah, there's a problem.

Can you do a screenshot that shows your mix window and all the effects you're using? Try a typical track. I think you'll need to do one showing all the sends and one showing all the inserts.

Also, what sample rate/bit depth are you using? And what OS?

[kborkowski]

I always leave it running. But it goes in phases. It hadn't crashed for like 4 months before that. I don't usually have problems mixing down. What program would be best to use to do a screen shot? Preferably something free? I record at 24 bit/96K I don't have any effects really. I mean on any given song, maybe 10 out of twenty tracks have that classic compressor plugin on them. Most of the time my songs aren't even finished. I'm not exactly an efficient worker. Just out of curiosity, my computer is built for Vista, but I'm running XP. Could this be part of the problem?

[richiebee]

irfanview can make a screenshot (alt + print screen) into a jpg that you can post.

I wouldn't be surprised if half your problem is because you're running 96k/24bit.

A fragmented hard drive won't help especially when making these grossly unnecessarily large files.

[kborkowski]

I noticed a quality difference with 24 bit/96k. Better sounding kick and snare drum. I know a guy with a professional studio in Nashville running cubase. 24 bit/96K, never had a problem. He had know ideas for me. Freshly defragmented hard drive.......Come to think of it.........I might have defraged the first night it started happening again. I'll get a screen shot up asap. I can't at the moment.

[richiebee]

Is your buddy using the same hardware and plugins? If you're only using Classic Compressor on the tracks, and no other plugins, then we don't need a screenshot.

[kborkowski]

He's using a dual core dell xps. He runs a lot of the waves plugins and a lot of others, like drumagog. He's running probably about 100 tracks sometimes. Same amount of RAM I have, 2 gigs. All I'm running is classic compressor and occasionally room works. I've had much larger projects with a lot more plugins that haven't crashed. This is why I'm so confused. Like I said earlier though, it goes in phases.

[kborkowski]

Oh, and just for the record, it's a totally legal version. I bought it brand new.

[richiebee]

Are you running anti-virus software? That could cause a problem. Do you use your computer for everything, or is it dedicated to use as a DAW?

[kborkowski]

It's a dedicated DAW computer. No anti-virus software or anything, no internet connection.

[roysboy]

Hi folks ...thought I'd chime in here. I have tried Cubase 3 and am currently running 2.2 . Both of these softwares crashed quite regularly ....in particular when using the EZ DRUMMER plugin . I am assuming its a ram thing but we have two systems here using the same software and both have experienced Cubase crashes under similar circumstances. We are talking 6-8 tacks MAX and MAYBE 2-3 effect plugins.
Windows xp sp2
amd athlon 3000 2gb ram

[kborkowski]

I'm confident it's not Cubase 3. Like I said, my buddy in Nashville is running three; well 5 now, but he went from 1 to 3 and never had a crash. With two gigs ram also. Is "EZ Drummer" similar to Drumagog? I have used this on a snare track, which I believe I forgot to mention. Now virus wise, it's safe, but it is torrented. I neglected to mention it, I guess because I didn't think this could be a problem, because this has happened before I had drumagog on there. I didn't know if just the presence of a little corrupted data could be a problem though.