Cubase and Windows 10 Optimisation

 A Brief Introduction

Since Cubase started using VST technology there has been a need to optimise your PC to prioritise VST processes above any other in order to avoid nasty sound degradation during performance or recording. This is because VST instruments are virtual instruments created much like a virtual PC - by calculating how they would behave if they were present in the first place -. As a result it is important to make sure that all non-essential processes are shut down on a computer in order to keep the flow of information from Cubase to computer resource (CPU, RAM etc.) pure.

Windows 8 is of course more complicated and prone to sound colouration than any previous version of Windows because the graphics for opening the start menu alone require the combined computing power of the 1980's, and so as well as a sufficient ASIO soundcard and driver you also need to minimise the activity of the computer other than the tasks on which Cubase is dependant. This basically means shutting down all non-essential services and applications so that your PC is optimised to carry a clear chain of commands from Cubase to the VST or MIDI instruments.

What you need to decide then is what you are prepared to do without. I am showing an example here of a computer that is to be use SOLELY for music production and nothing else. This computer will not have internet access or work applications installed and will be incapable of network integration. Only the USB and other serial ports will function and the internal clock and hardware systems will be live. Every other Windows component will be dead and unable to be used. If you have only one computer then it is best that you arrange a dual boot or a second hardware profile in your Windows installation so that you can swap between uses. I will explain how to achieve these in a later article.

Before you make any changes to your PC create a system restore point by going into Control Panel and under Recovery selecting the option to create a restore point. This will be how to return to your original settings if anything goes awry.

We shall begin in the Task Manager which is where we can stop any unnecessary applications from starting. In Windows 8 MSConfig.exe has been superseded by Task Manager as the control for start-up applications.

All of the applications that start up with Windows should be disabled including (especially in fact) any antivirus or spyware prevention software. As we are going to disable all network communication we need no longer worry about these. Once we have made these changes Windows may ask us to restart the computer which we can do now.

We now (after restarting) run the command 'services.msc' to open the services console. Here we can change the start-up properties of all the essential services that Windows needs to run. We do this by double clicking the relevant service and changing the start-up type to disabled or in some cases manual. The services we actually need are the following:

Shown running as in the below:

If you have any extra services that run MIDI or Hardware equipment you will need to make sure you reinstate them. The above is only meant as a guide. The system will be more or less crippled with the above and only really suitable for use with Cubase or similar software. UAC is disabled as are many other features.

Once we have rendered all but the above services as disabled or manual we can restart the PC and after restart we should see the following in task manager:

You will now find your PC starts and responds much faster but that many of your usual services and functions are missing. You will also find that growing distortion of your sounds in performance and recording are much rarer and less annoying.