SORRY X1, YOU'VE CURSED ME FROM THE START!

X1?  X1 Expanded? B,C,D?  Tutorials?  Tips & Tricks?  Fixes?  WHAT'S NEXT?  WTH?  I am down to my last ounce of patience with this and I pray that God isn't working me in this mysterious way.
I have a record deal.  You know, paid in advance to complete a project with a deadline.  Just today, I turned on my dedicated DAW system, opened the project that I was working on just yesterday and this is what happened:

Hit space bar.  After about 15 seconds elapsed, now time started moving (weird #1).
No sound (weird 2).  Now time continues to play.
Levels are frozen on all audio channels (weird 3) but bouncing on midi channels.
Space bar (stop).  Levels still frozen.
Hit space bar again.  Same thing (including 15 sec. delay).
Close song and opened another song.  All songs.  Same Deal.
Restart (reboot).  Same Deal.

The system was down since yesterday.  No installs or changes.  In fact this workstation has NEVER been online.

I have been with cakewalk since the 80's (twelve tone systems) when I was a rep for them and demo-ing their early sequencers with the Atari ST.  That was before digital audio was available to general consumers.  Through Pro Audio and Sonar, I decided to pursue the X1 Flagship!  I have always used the producer editions.

It's been about a year now, and my confidence level is declining to next to nothing in this version.  I believed the transition was going to be flawless, where I can load previous projects with ease, etc., but it has been a nightmare!   For a year I have been upgrading hardware/memory/storage, operating system updates etc.  I'm gonna give it a last shot because I still believe that it may work.

I'm a songwriter before anything.  My recordings are not complicated or drowned with fx.  Recordingwise, I can say that I am a purist.  I surely don't have the technicals to search and destroy these problems, but i do have an extensive background in the operations.  If there is anyone that can help me with this, I will be much grateful for your time and patience.

Now comes the main question: Is it possible to open X1 projects in earlier versions of Sonar?

I am totally holding my breath and hoping for the right answer.  It is my last resort before wiping everything and starting over with Sonar 8.5.

Thank You, Forum, for all the help you have given me, and in advance for all you can provide.

Pat Llanos

Thanks Rimshot, 
Now the meters are not responding at all.  I'm trying to maintain composure and taking deep breaths.
Thanks, Pat

Clean reinstall?
 

You mean only X1 and all the patches?

Cakewalk for Atari? http://www.atariprotos.co.../cakewalk/cakewalk.htm

i'm playing wav and mp3's with no problem.  i'm gonna reinstall my interface and see what happens.

Johnny that is the best advice I read in a long time. Not something one would want to hear but necessary.

I see you're up and running but longish delay after pressing play is usually an interface driver issue. I've tried the latest drivers for my interface (ZED-R16) and they do exactly that as well as other strange stuff and increase my dpc latency by 2-300 usecs. Others have reported similar issues with different interfaces when upgrading/changing drivers.

Needless to say I'm on an older driver and it's all working perfectly.

In my experience, it all comes down to the memory and the settings for it in the bios. If the CAS latency or voltage is wrong, the computer will usually work ok. But, when you stress test it or install a large program, that's when the problems start. When the memory is out of sync, for whatever reason, it'll test as being good, but will constantly either write on hard drive sectors that it's not supposed to, or corrupt the information as it goes to disk. What once seemed like a fresh perfect install of Windows slowly gets worse and worse until the operator does a complete reinstallation of the OS, which appears to fix the problems, until more work is done and the spiral continues. 


Always check your ram settings in the bios, and that you have the proper settings based on the ram and mobo manufacturer. Memory with certain boards can be finicky, and when I read about a lot of the problems here on the boards, it describes exactly the situation I was in a couple of years ago. There was a misprint in my mobo manual that said it could take 1.5 to 1.65 voltage ram, so I bought some expensive and robust 1.65 volt ram. I had nothing but trouble for six months. I then read a review on newegg detailing the misprint. I changed my ram, and everything was smooth after that. I've done the same for friends of mine, and those ram fixes were on off the shelf or parts bundled computers. If everything seems to work fine, then starts getting corrupted, always check your memory first.

Cactus Music


Only thing I can say is after reading 1000 of threads and my own experience is that some computers will just never get along with being used as a DAW. You sound like you have had trouble all along so that is a bad sign. I have installed different versions of Sonar and Cubase into about a dozen different computers over the last few years. Some worked perfectly always. Some were unstable. I'm using same stuff,software etc. I did have a Athlon 3800+ 2.4 and it did not work at all with Sonar but fine with Cubase. It is happily playing movies now. I have never had anything close to your problems when using the right computer.Go grab a $800 i5 and get to work.

 Same old Same old....X1 gets blamed in huge caps no less and then the user finds out that it was his interface drivers....

Starise


 Same old Same old....X1 gets blamed in huge caps no less and then the user finds out that it was his interface drivers....

Don't forget Johnny (and +1 by John) telling him to get a new computer.


Priceless!!!!

John

bapu

Starise


Same old Same old....X1 gets blamed in huge caps no less and then the user finds out that it was his interface drivers....

Don't forget Johnny (and +1 by John) telling him to get a new computer.


Priceless!!!!

You misread me I did not say he needed to get anything I only said that Johnny gave great advice. I suppose a well written post explaining the merits of  good gear is never to be applauded judging by your comments.

There was no plus 1 or any agreement that that was the problem. I was simply recognizing a well written post. None the less I do not see where it is bad advice in any respects or is unwarranted. 

Also its thoughtful isn't it to critique others trying to help and going out on a limb offering their knowledge and advice when you didn't participate in this thread to help or encourage anyone trying to help.

 

John John John.


So serious all the time.


Did you not see the multiple smileys?

Resonant Order

 In my experience, it all comes down to the memory and the settings for it in the bios. 

Very true. RAM can really screw up a system while still testing good.


Never, ever, get the RAM that Newegg bundles with a motherboard without checking to see if it has been tested by the manufacturer on the motherboard you are looking at. So far, 100% of the time when I have checked, it was not test by the manufacturer for the particular motherboard I was looking at.


Always download the manual for the motherboard you are interested in and read the section on RAM. What I do is, copy the model or part number for one of the sticks of RAM they recommend, past it in to Newegg's search engine and keep looking until I find one they have in stock.


A while back I had a nasty RAM problem. I built a PC using recommended parts from Newegg. Found out the RAM I used had not been tested by Gigabyte. Ordered some Kingston RAM that they had tested and confirmed worked without issues, and haven't had a RAM problem since. Neweggs recommended Corsair RAM cost: $125/8GB, Gigabytes recommended Kingston RAM cost: $24.00/8GB.

After reinstall of prg/vst/patches and other settings, I'm back to work.  RAM usage is even lower.  The entire system is more stable than ever before.  No start delays, latency issues or any problems from when it was installed the first time.
Thanks to your posts and PM's!

I have never experienced X1 so stable before, that it was basically all I knew.  I'll see if there are any changes in the next few days.  I hope it stays this solid.

Thanks Again,  Pat