MPC+Cubase: Instrument sound cuts off when voices overlap

Hi everyone,

I’ve encountered a strange issue while integrating MPC Studio with Cubase, and I’m hoping someone here might have run into something similar or can help shed some light on it.

Everything is set up correctly — each instrument (pad, lead, etc.) is routed to a separate track and assigned its own unique MIDI channel, both in MPC Studio and Cubase. Playback works fine in general. However, I’ve noticed that when two instruments (like a pad and a lead synth) play in the same pitch range, the pad sound gets interrupted or drops out.

What’s more, if I mute the lead track in Cubase, the pad plays flawlessly. But as soon as I unmute the lead, the pad starts glitching again. This doesn’t happen when instruments play in different ranges, and the exact same MIDI project plays perfectly inside MPC Studio alone — no dropouts.

To me, it seems like there’s some kind of internal conflict or voice-stealing behavior happening, even though the MIDI routing is clearly separated across channels.

Has anyone experienced anything similar? Any idea what might be causing this or how to work around it?

Thanks in advance!

@Lampdog: that’s what I was about to suggest/ask. But does the older MPC Studio have the same bugs that newer MPCs have?

Same here. I just assumed the MPC Studio hardware has a similar firmware update process/procedure as the newer touchscreen MPCs. And thus might be potentially susceptible to their bugs.

Limited polyphony. 32 or even 64 note polyphony really isn't much to work with, especially if you're doing anything complex. I assume you have Cubase set for multi midi playback & tracking. But I honestly believe you're being robbed of notes based on the limitation & possibly a bug like the other guys mentioned.

The bug midi note off is mode controller too