- Trash Cubase preferences... it rebuilds itself at the next start... just for safety.

Kontakt and Superior Drummer should have multicore processing disabled in standalone and plug-in mode because ASIO Guard wants to manage it. If the plug-in also has it enabled, there are often conflicts in ASIO Guard. Omnisphere, for example, should also have multicore disabled... and the libraries on a fast drive helps also.

or:
If you select Studio > VST Plug-in Manager and click Show VST Plug-in Information, you can deactivate the ASIO-Guard option for selected plug-ins eg. Kontakt and SD3... that´s the other way to check. realtime performance goes up and ASIO Guard down


And the thing with the temperature and bifurcation ON in the BIOS and all the other things are also helping bit by bit...

ps:
And of course, very important: in the device manager - USB controller - right-click on each individual object - properties - power management - (computer can turn off the device to save energy) remove all activations per hand...one by one ----- recommended by Steinberg

hope that helps...

cheers......

 

Last edited: Jun 15, 2025 at 8:38 AM

I looked through articles from 15 years ago about setting up Windows XP for music and found that much of it is still relevant today, to confirm I searched for AI in Task Scheduler (just one item for example), it answered:

utilities and programs scheduled in Windows Task Scheduler can potentially cause audio dropouts in a Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) on both Windows 7 and Windows 10. Here’s why:

System Interruptions and Resource Contention

· When a scheduled task runs, it can momentarily consume CPU, disk, or other system resources. Even a brief spike in resource usage can disrupt the real-time processing required by a DAW, leading to audio dropouts, clicks, or pops.

· Some scheduled tasks may trigger background processes, updates, or scans that increase DPC (Deferred Procedure Call) latency, which is a common cause of audio dropouts in Windows systems

Driver and Service Interference

· Certain scheduled tasks may start or interact with drivers or system services. Poorly behaving drivers or services, especially those related to networking, USB devices, or storage, are known to cause DPC latency spikes and audio interruptions

· Tools like DPC Latency Checker and LatencyMon are often used to diagnose such issues, and users frequently find that disabling or rescheduling background tasks can reduce or eliminate dropouts

Examples and User Reports

· Users have reported audio dropouts coinciding with background activity, even when overall CPU usage appears low

· Scheduled tasks that refresh or change audio devices can also cause temporary loss of audio or device switching, impacting DAW operation.
PS Then I looked through Task Scheduler and saw there 12 items...do I need them at all? For example Google, Opera, Adobe Acrobat updates?

 

Quite true. Which is why optimization for a production machine especially running windows 10 or 11 (there is an order of magnitude more autonomous/extraneous junk running on these later winOS versions) is extremely important and not to be taken lightly.

Nope. Not at all. In fact here's a list of the stuff I normally nuke on new builds before installing any production ware. My production machines are never connected to the internet so keep that in mind if your machine needs to be connected for some reason.

 

Last edited: Jun 15, 2025 at 10:30 PM

Opera can disable them, but they keep coming back; they're now forced updates from Opera.
Google and Adobe can disable them. There should be as few entries as possible in the startup program!