Issue with Yamaha Steinberg USB Driver V2.0.3 for Windows 10

Steinberg Lounge
1

I have been playing around with Cubase Element 10.5 Trial version on my Windows 10 Home edition Laptop. I use Yamaha USB Mixing Studio MW 8cx as the interface with my laptop. It all worked well.

I purchased Element 10.5 today and installed it on my new Surface Laptop with Windows 10 Pro version (and intel i7 processor)
I could get no sound from Surface to the USB mixer. After hours of troubleshooting, it turns out that Yamaha Steinberg USB Driver V2.0.3 for Windows 10 was the culprit.

I removed it and it worked; with Windows Generic low latency USB audio drivers

This is unexpected and strange. The only difference is that my new Surface machine has

  1. More powerful processor i7
  2. Windows 10 Pro (not home)

Questions

  1. Why is Steinberg’s provided driver not working?
  2. Will I be OK with Windows Generic low latency USB audio driver?

A bit technical issue but hoping to get a response

Thanks

2

According to the manual for the Yamaha USB Mixing studio 8cx it does NOT support ASIO. It’s a 2 channel USB windows audio device. This means it doesn’t support ASIO drivers directly and instead uses Generic driver which bridges over to Windows.
The manual seems to suggest you should try using the ASIO DirectX Full Duplex driver, this may have lower latency with your mixer than the Generic driver and is likely installed when you connect the mixer to the system or is supplied as a separate item or download. You would need to check the manual and/or Yamaha for this driver if it isn’t already on your system.

ASIO supporting audio devices have specific drivers from their manufacturer. The Steinberg USB Driver works with the Steinberg audio devices like the UR22, UR44, etc. ASIO drivers generally have much lower latency than the Generic driver bridging to windows.

Depending on your particularly recording style and use you may find the latency you have is sufficient for your needs.

What you can be assured of though is everything is working as it is intended to work (including the not working Steinberg driver since you don’t have a steinberg interface).

3

Thanks for replying.

  1. The mixer is from Yamaha, Cubase is from Steinberg. The driver is from Steinberg and is called “Yamaha Steinberg USB Driver for Windows 10”.
    So seems like one happy family of products that should work with each other :slight_smile:

  2. And all these products did work nicely on my other Windows 10 (Home) machine. No problem

  3. The problem came when I switched to a dedicated Surface Laptop that has Windows (Pro)

Not sure why. I will see what issues I run into if I keep working with Generic Window ASIO drivers.

4

Is there any USB Mixer out there that works Cubase?
I would like to use a USB mixer as my Audio Interface

5

Now that I understand setups for home recording better, I have solved my problem (kind of).

  1. I now use both the Yamaha USB Mixed MW 8cx and M-Audi Fast Track Pro. The stereo output of Yamaha to M-Audio.
  2. Previously, for Full one month, I was using only Yamaha USB Mixer as my Audio Interface (so did not need the M-Audio at all) and it worked on Windows10 Home edition. So I thought that’s simple setup wise and assumed everyone worked like that
  3. But when I switched to Windows 10 Pro (new Machine); the same driver, Yamaha Steinberg USB Driver V2.03 worked stopped working

I would like to use only a USB Mixer that also serves as the Audio Interface. Does such hardware exist? (that also had MIDI ports). I am guessing no so will have to use both a mixer and Audio Interface