Loop Explorer Not Displaying Loop Files (SOLVED)

I'm using Sonar 1.3.1. When I open the Loop Explorer (with a loop CD in the drive) it displays drives and folders in the left pane, but no files of any kind in the right pane. I can see the loops in Windows Explorer, and even drag them to track view and use them, but they don't display in Loop Explorer, and obviously I can't preview them, either.

Anybody have any ideas how to fix this?

Intel Core2 Duo @ 2.4 Ghz
2 MB RAM
Windows XP fully patched
M-Audio Audiophile 2496
Sonar 1.3.1 (all updates installed)

Thanks for reading!

I tried copying some loops to the hard drive, but no dice - Loop Explorer still can't see them, or any other files, for that matter. It sees the drives and directories, but no files. Thanks for the idea, though. As for upgrading, what I have meets my current needs, except for this thing with Loop Explorer, which used to work...

If I remember correctly, Sonar 1 Loop Explorer sees only .wav files and will only play them if they are 16bit 44.1kHz (or perhaps it was that it would only play loops that were in the current project format - I don't recall exactly).

More recent Sonars are much more broad-minded and will see and play .wav; .aiff, .mp3, etc. in a wide variety of bit-rates, encodings, and sample rates.

Maybe the loops that you are attempting to use are not .wav format - many commercially-produced CDs have parallel folders with .wav and .aiff available.

Christopher M's comment above made me think of this: My most recent project was from an outside studio, and I had to change my setup to 24-bit to accommodate it. I'm pretty sure in the past I have always been at 16-bit when I used Acid loops, so I changed back to 16-bit (Options|Audio...|General tab), but the problem persists, exactly as before. Still looking for ideas...?

Sonar 1.3.1 can't see the acidized .wavs extra information

As I recall, Sonar 1 could handle acidised waves - wasn't that the great leap forward from PA9?

If it isn't something bit length or sample rate related, I can only suggest trying an uninstall and reinstall of Sonar, because I do not recall there being anything configurable about loop explorer (other than being able to select the preview bus, but I can't imagine how that would affect whether or not loop explorer displays the files). Sorry ...

I realize that this is now an old thread and no one is still following it, but I have the solution to this problem, so I thought I'd put it here, since it's such an oddball situation and it takes so long to get help from the factory. For the record, I have been able to verify that the same problem happens with Sonar 6, although I don't know for sure if this solution will work with that version (I think it will, though).

After my last post a month and a half ago, I reinstalled Sonar 1 over the top of the existing installation, then updated it to 1.3.1, which is as far as Cakewalk went with updates. This didn't help. So I completely uninstalled Sonar, and reinstalled it and the updates. No dice.

After a couple of weeks I got an answer to my plea for help from Cakewalk. who said "This can happen when there is no C drive present." Sure enough, my computer had no C: drive. When I bought it, it had a built-in 4-slot card reader, which the BIOS detected as disk drives. When I installed the OS, I didn't notice that drive letter "C" was already taken -- by one of the card reader's "disk drives." I had created a separate partition for the operating system, and Windows, being the smart OS that it is, went to the first available drive letter, which was not "C". I discovered this after everything was installed, but I didn't think anything of it. After all, the system and all apps seemed to be working. My first project with this installation of Sonar was mixing only, so it was a couple of months before I noticed that the Loop Explorer wasn't working.

It turns out that Windows XP will let you change any drive letter except the one that has the system on it. There is a convoluted procedure suggested by Microsoft, but they say you should not try it unless the drive used to be called "C" and somehow got changed and you just want to change it back. They also say that you're on your own if you screw up your system. Further, there is chatter on the internet to the effect that if you do this, there is a good chance you won't ever be able to log on to your system again.

So I made sure none of my other drives were named "C," then I deleted the system partition and reinstalled Windows. Since "C" was available this time, that's where Windows got installed. It took most of a day to do this and reinstall the other apps -- 2-track editing software, CD mastering, disk-burning, etc. -- but Loop Explorer now works as it should.

So that's it, folks. You need a C: drive. I can't recommend trying to change the system drive letter to "C" because of the difficulties mentioned above, and if you have mingled your data, applications and OS on the same drive or partition, you are going to have a long weekend of sorting stuff out and backing things up. But if you need the Loop Explorer and it's not working, now you know what you have to do.

Michael: Sorry, I missed your question until now. There's virtually no chance that I am the guy you worked with. I'm from Minnesota, but I've been in California for decades.