External FX Ping with RME Interfaces Still Not Fixed

Strange today when mixing I tried the ping again, and it worked on all the hardware inserts.

I’m having this same issue with a Yamaha spx2000 effects processor. I have several pieces of outboard gear, and the latency ping is working on all of them except for this box. Which is really bizarre considering the business relationship Yamaha has with Steinberg. I’ve had this issue in both the analog and digital ins/outs of the box. It only works on a few of the presets, specifically those that are modulation related. But anything that has a delay or reverb either calculates as ‘0’ or the maximum of ‘100’. I’ve tried adjusting the send and return levels and done about everything I can possibly think of. Very frustrating.

Have you tried setting the external delay/reverb to dry ?
Then ping, and after it got the latency calculated, back to wet.

I’m not able to ping it with the reverb off unless I switch to a different effect. What I did try to do was ‘0’ out all the settings and then ping it, which appears to have worked, even though the time calculated is far longer than it was for all my other outboard gear. The strange thing is all the other outboard gear calculates exactly the same (.98ms) while the spx2000 calculates 21.18ms. I I have yet to see if using any different reverbs, delays, modulations, or amp simulator effects from the box will yield different ping calculations, but that’s what I was able to come up with just in case anybody else has been having this same problem.

Maybe next time I’m in the studio I’ll experiment with testing at different latencies. Maybe that has some affect on whether ping works or not.

The last few times I have attempted to use the feature though, it would only report 0ms. Very frustrating…

That would make sense in a way and could be the root of this whole thing, since I often switch latency settings for different projects, I’d hate to have to re-ping every time. If this is the case, seems like Steinberg should have noticed this and made the info more available.

Im always using a 128 sample buffer with ASIO guard set to max. Using the RME Raydat I get low enough latency to play/monitor and when not recording, enough room for mixing even heavy projects. What is strange to me is that I use the ping and get 0ms latency, and the next day when I load the exact same project/hardware plugin it works.
It has worked since and I’m in heaven right now, there is something a good 2bus hardware compressor does that I can’t get from any plugin (the ones I have tried, to be fair).

I sometimes like to run external compressors - especially for drums… and that is where phase issues become very noticeable…

I just tried to ping my external hardware at various latencies… Cubase ALWAYS reports 0ms no matter what I do. I even tried just looping the input on my converters right back to the output - Cubase still reports 0ms. I tried bypassing all plugins in the entire project - Cubase still reports 0ms.

I wish so badly that they would fix this problem… it is so unbelievably frustrating… a long time ago, this feature used to work! It was one of the things I really loved about Cubase. When it stopped working, I figured a fix would be a few updates out - maybe a few months… It has been like 5 years… I just don’t even know what to think anymore. I’m losing hope that Steinberg will ever fix this.

Ok - an issue here - I’m confused…

  1. I tried using an external hardware plugin on a drum buss (cubase reports 0ms, so I leave it like that for now)
  2. I export the drum buss and reimport into the project
  3. I look at the snare track compared with the exported/imported drum buss file to see how the timing compares, and I notice that the drum buss export is slightly EARLY! Why is it early??? Shouldn’t it be slightly LATE?

I’m confused… not sure why it’s early…

I believe you always get negative delay using digital outs/ins with a separate converter.

If you can connect to an analogue i/o of the interface you should get an accurate ping and it can correct but even then you shouldn’t really trust it to be sample accurate for parallel processing.
The safest way to parallel process with a hybrid setup is to also route the dry out and back through the same converters.

It certainly works with ADAT and a mix of ins and outs from different converters. I use the output of my mr816x to feed a compressor that goes to the input of a Motu 828mkII.
But them we could discuss if the ping latency should be measured in samples and not ms.
I do parallel compression with this setup, but the compressor has a wet/dry knob, that makes it easy and always in phase. I have heard that the external instruments/fx is on the todo list from a Steinberg employee, but what was around the time Cubase 7 came out. Anyhow with the major popularity of modular synths and the need to feed those with signals I hope what a remake of external instr./fx has moved up the todo list.

I certainly hope it’s on the todo list… This problem has existed for far too long. It is very limiting… It results in slow workflow and much frustration.

I find myself wishing I had bought different hardware… I have $3000 worth of RME hardware installed, and it doesn’t work with Cubase delay compensation.

At this point, maybe it’s time for me to seriously consider selling the RME stuff and buying something different.

My madifx works fine?
Roundrip via madi SSL Alphalink 1.92ms
Roundtrip via madi SPL Madison 1.88ms

I’ve never seen higher roundtrips on RME gear than 2.20ms
If you fill those values out in the external fx window you should be spot on. You won’t be able to hear 0.2ms difference

When I’m using external “digital” equipment, the delay can be more - it depends on how large of a buffer the external equipment is using. It’s not just an issue of the RME hardware alone…

As far as the MADI cards, they won’t work for my situation. Maybe the RME AES and AIO cards are just no longer well supported by RME or Cubase… :frowning:

RME Raydat works as well.

So the Raydat and the MADI cards work.

The HDSPe AES, and the AIO cards do not. Anyone considering RME - beware that Cubase cannot calculate the delay for external hardware on the AES and AIO cards. This feature has been broken for about 5 years now, so the likelyhood it will be fixed is slim to none.

So here we are in 2020…

I recently bought Cubase after many years of using dodgy copies, upgrading to 10.5… WTF has Steinberg done to Cubase? in addition to the entire UI being ruined by someone who clearly doesn’t get what was good about Cubase, one of the most important features, External Instruments and FX is broken… Ping is working for me, MADI FX going to a Hammerfall MADI and back again (Mac to a PC) but if I save the project on the Mac, some random crap ends up in the output audio buffer of Cubase (RME Software Playback 1/2). It’s not my Mac, it’s not RME, it is Cubase, closing Cubase or resetting the audio in Cubase clears it.

I have spent two days testing, with either External FX or Instruments disabled the problem doesn’t exist, with them enabled, at small or large buffer sizes, with or without asio guard, crap ends up in the output buffer when saving. Logic and everything else runs flawlessly at 1-2ms latency, this is a complete deal-breaker for me and I will be contacting Steinberg for a full refund…

Steinberg, if you are not going to maintain your products then what is the point in anyone buying them?



Interesting moral dichotomy … :unamused:

well, it turns out that moving to Mojave resolved the issue, but the mess of trying to install Cubase on Mojave, Steinberg you should be ashamed of this crap… Basically we have install version 10 and then upgrade, installing raw 10.5 fails due to some issue/typo in the installer scripts for the sample lib/bloat that they include…

Thankfully I have just bought bitwig and I am selling Cubase and moving to Linux, see ya!