Quick Start

22
Setting up your system
• Under Mac OS X, audio hardware with properly written
Mac OS X (Core Audio) drivers can be very efficient and
produce very low latency times.
However, there are additional features currently only available with ASIO
drivers, such as the ASIO Positioning Protocol.
Making settings that affect performance
Choosing a driver for your audio hardware
As described in the section “Selecting a driver and making
audio settings in Cubase” on page 16, it is recommended
to install and use a standard ASIO driver if available for your
specific hardware. Check the manufacturer’s web site for
the latest drivers, etc.
Making audio buffer settings
Audio buffers affect how audio is sent to and from the audio
hardware. The size of the audio buffers affects both the la-
tency and the audio performance. Generally, the smaller the
buffer size, the lower the latency. On the other hand, work-
ing with small buffers can be demanding for the computer.
If the audio buffers are too small, you may get clicks, pops
or other audio playback problems.
• Under Mac OS X, you can adjust the size of the buffers
on the VST Audio System page in the Device Setup dialog.
You may also find buffer settings in the control panel for the audio hard-
ware.
• Under Windows, you adjust the buffer size settings in
the control panel for the audio hardware (opened by click-
ing the Control Panel button on the driver page in the De-
vice Setup dialog).
The advanced options
On the VST Audio System page you will find the “Advanced
options” section. Here you find advanced settings for the
VST Engine, including a Multi Processing option. When this
is activated (default setting if you have a hyper-threading or
multiple-CPU system) and there is more than one CPU in
your system, the processing load is distributed evenly to all
available CPUs, allowing Cubase to make full use of the
combined power of the multiple processors. See the dialog
help for details.
Activating the “Lower Latency” option will basically disable
the CPU overload protection, but allow for lower latencies.
See the dialog help for details.
Optimizing processor scheduling (Windows
only)
To get the lowest possible latencies when using ASIO un-
der Windows XP (on a single-CPU system), the “system
performance” has to be optimized for background tasks:
1. Open the Windows Control Panel from the Start menu
and select System.
2. Select the Advanced tab and click the Settings button
in the Performance section.
The Performance Options dialog appears.
3. Select the Advanced tab.
4. In the Processor Scheduling section, select “Adjust
for best performance of: Background services”.
5. Click OK to close the dialogs.