2017.3 UWP Midi Driver Mode
TL;DR - Not compatible with the
Output ports in virtual midi port utilities
I changed my midi mode to UWP, and when loading a new project I had a strange lock up, from which the only way out was to kill Sonar via the Task Manager
Steps taken:
1. Open Sonar (no project loaded, just started Sonar without a project)
2. Set Midi Mode to UWP
3. Re-Enabled the Midi Ins & Outs (as changing to UWP loses any MME settings)
4. Opened an existing project
5. Sonar starts opening the project, then stalls, then I get the following modal dialog:
Server Busy
This action cannot be completed because the other program is busy. Choose "Switch To" to activate the busy program and correct the problem.
6. There are three options
Retry - Doesn't do anything, just causes a screen refresh and dialog is still there
Cancel - Is disabled (greyed out, so can't be clicked)
Switch To - Pressing this opens the Windows start menu, but doesn't close the dialog
7. As the dialog is modal, I can't click on anything in Sonar, even the close window button, so only option is Task Manager
After re-starting Sonar, I get a message in a 'MIDI Device Failure' dialog, which tells me the MIDI output devices could not be enabled, as 'The specified device handle is invalid'.
The midi output device in question is a virtual midi port created using Tobias Erichsen's loopMIDI. A known issue with Microsoft's UWP MIDI implementation is that any virtual MIDI output port created will always show up with the name 'MIDI', regardless of how it's named in the loopMIDI utility (The windows MME implementation picks up the correct name). I reported it to Microsoft and apparently it's on a bug list, so it might get fixed one day... It seems likely that this is related to the issue in Sonar.
Would be great if Cakewalk could implement a workaround for this, while we wait for Microsoft, as I'm sure other users out there use loopMIDI, and this will be a showstopper.
I've now switched back to using MME, as i need loopMIDI in my setup. It's a pain as the MME drivers are not multi-client, which is why I was so excited so see Sonar switch to UWP.
Update 1: Seems any virtual midi cable may be a problem. If i try to use a LoopBE virtual midi cable as an input/output I get the same issue 'The specified device handle is invalid'.
Update 2:Seems the issue only occurs when selecting a virtual port as a Midi Out device. Once the 'Server Busy' dialog has happened, any midi device, virtual or otherwise, can suffer from the 'The specified device handle is invalid' error, until after a re-boot (could be a consequence of having to use task manager to kill Sonar). Made it a bit tricky to pinpoint the exact cause.
post edited by MattyBoy - 2017/03/22 17:12:12