2 issues - one on-going re placing a driver on bus will 'melt-down audio, and CPU usage

Hi guys, I'm throwing this out here on the forum in the hope some of you enlightened Sonar aficionado's can suggest solutions.
 
Firstly CPU usage on this month's update seems overly high comparing to Sept. Working with one of my older projects today, I had to freeze a number of synths to reduce overhead. Currently running at around 42%, which is comparatively high. Selecting to use the new CPU load button - buffer at highest...like full and over the recommended 512 - actually make things worse. I've also tried this CPU load thing on a few other tracks and in each case it ends up running my 8 cores higher and unusable. So I don't know what's going on. I was impressed with the CPU load on last month's (SEPT) update...really low and balanced.
 
Secondly, I've had this 'audio meltdown' for quite a while through a number of Sonar updates. Every now and then - usually at some point during most project work - if I add a vst plug-in - always 64bit - on a bus, I experiencing an audio meltdown...that's what I call it as it's hard to explain...high and low LOUD frequency 'spitting/stuttering' and am usually unable to continue to work on the project. These days, I always save the project before loading a vst on a bus - and can sometimes do this after this meltdown even though audio has dropped out - and close Sonar, restarting and load the project and it's always good to go again. I never have a problem with this particular plug-in again. It can be WAVE, FAB Filters and even Sonar's CA-2 compressor. So like it's not consistently one particular vst...it seems random in this respect. 
 
RME says it's probably software-related. I don't know but it's really concerning for my monitor's health as it's overloading the volume levels when this happens...did I mention it was loud? 
 
Anyone experiencing higher CPU load this month and/or this weird meltdown as it relates to VST insertion on buses? I don't think these issues are related. 
 
Thanks
 
 
 
 
 

thanks for your reply. Yep, I figured that re vst's...it just makes the cpu load worse. 
Yes, the 'meltdown' is a puzzle. 
 
cheers

Hi Noel, thanks for replying. No I haven't rolled back yet. I thought I'd throw it out there to see any responses. I loaded another project I've been working on and it appears high than norm cpu usage, but yes, I'd have to roll back and test it to really get a less subjective observations. How do I share a project file with you, given that it's probably quite high in terms of memory....quite a few wavs?
 
Yes the 2nd issue is perplexing. I initially thought it was some of the Fab Filter plug-ins but they they can't confirm this issue...and it's not just their filters as mentioned. Compressors seem to cause this more often than not. I have no idea how to find out what's going on. So I thought I'd again throw it out here to see if any other members had this happening. 
 
Thanks

Fabio Rubato
Hi Noel, thanks for replying. No I haven't rolled back yet. I thought I'd throw it out there to see any responses. I loaded another project I've been working on and it appears high than norm cpu usage, but yes, I'd have to roll back and test it to really get a less subjective observations. How do I share a project file with you, given that it's probably quite high in terms of memory....quite a few wavs?
 
Yes the 2nd issue is perplexing. I initially thought it was some of the Fab Filter plug-ins but they they can't confirm this issue...and it's not just their filters as mentioned. Compressors seem to cause this more often than not. I have no idea how to find out what's going on. So I thought I'd again throw it out here to see if any other members had this happening. 
 
Thanks

Hi Fabio,
 
If you do find that there is higher CPU you can send us a zip of your project with audio. You can trim it down if necessary by deleting tracks. If its larger than you can send via dropbox or google drive let me know and I can provide an egnyte link for you to upload to.
 
 

When it's doing the audio meltdown, is the app still responsive?  If it's hung then that could be the result of a crash.
In that case running 22.9.1.41 should allow the exception to be visible (dump file/fault report, etc.)
 
 
 
Otherwise, if the app is still responsive, does a toggle of the transport clear things up?
 
Keith

Alan,
 
Sorry, I was referring to Platinum.
You are on X3E? 
 
What you are describing sounds like a crash.  In the crash response handling, X3E tries to shut down the devices right away but we've found that part of the process can hang so it's less obvious that a crash occurred.
 
To capture a crash dump in this situation, you can run a utility called procdump from Microsoft TechNet.
https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/dd996900.aspx
 
Download the .zip file.  Extract it to a path that's easy to type/remember such as c:\utils\
 
Then when SONAR appears in this state, from cmd prompt type this:
[current folder]> c:\utils\procdump64.exe sonarpdr
 
You should get a minidump file in the folder that cmd prompt first opened in (what appears to the left of the prompt > in [current folder]
in my case I had c:\Users\kalb>
 
To view the resulting dump file, type this to launch explorer showing the contents of the folder
> start .
 
Then you could attach the .dmp file to a problem report, support case, etc.
However, if you don't mind installing an additional tool, you can find out if the crash is related to a plugin without waiting.
 
Analyzing dumps isn't trivial.  But I managed to find a tool that gives a nice user accessible report.
 
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=49924
 
So if you want to get a high level mention of a faulting module in a crash dump, install the tool, then find DebugDiag 2 Analysis in the search box.
 
Run it and
Check the CrashHangAnalysis box (1)
Then click Add Data Files (2).  Choose the minidump that was created by procdump.
Then click Start Analysis (3). 
 

 
After awhile, it will open Internet Explorer and ask for permission to load, choose allow blocked content and then the results will appear in the browser window.  The faulting module will appear in the red error section in the style module!functionname.  The report lists the path and manufacturer, so that should provide enough info to see what plugin could be causing a crash.   Here is an example report.  This specific example would require more detailed analysis to get at the cause.  One possible cause we've been seeing is the Dell Shell Extension crash.
 

 
Keith
 
 
 

Hi Keith...this issue is occurring in Platinum. I haven't used X3 for a couple of years now. Is 22.9.1.41 the latest update?