Mono drum track(s) + DMG Compassion - fine in X2, crashes project in X3
Hi,
I've had a complicated problem, and I've worked out a solution. I doubt there will be an easy "fix" for this (is the problem caused by SONAR X3 or the plugin?) - but here is a solution for anyone who stumbles across this. I have not filed this "officially" with cakewalk support - as I'll see if a baker picks up on this thread. I'll also send an email to Dave a DMG Audio - in case he knows what might be causing this.
THE PROBLEM
My drum tracks (from Superior Drummer) consist of some stereo files (ambience, overheads and cymbal direct files) and some mono files (kick, snare, toms etc). in X2 I set up all my mono tracks to use DMG audio compassion - which has a "mono" version of the plugin for the mono tracks and a stereo version for the others. There is also a "no side chain" version (more on that later). I use all my plugins in FX chains in ProChannel now (so they're all in one place). This all works great in X2.
After upgrading to X3, when I try to open up a project that was started in X2, it crashes SONAR. I spent 3 evenings scratching my head over this, trying to find the cause of the crash. I could open the file in X2 and archive all the drum tracks, and then it would open in x3! I also tried the hold shift while opening the file, and every plug loaded fine - the the crash came at the very end (with all plugs loaded). It was hard to troubleshoot, as I could unarchive different tracks and open the file ok - then other times those same track unarchived - would cause the crash. I also had this thing where some (stereo) tracks were set to mono interleaved and could not be changed to stereo. This was on different tracks and also a couple of busses. After a *lot* of troubleshooting and narrowing it down (because I could always open the file in X2 and "fix" it - so it would open in X3 eg by archiving a couple of tracks) - I narrowed it down to using the mono compassion plugin on a mono track - caused X3 to crash (unless that track was archived)
If I change my mono tracks to stereo interleave, but still use the mono drum file, and then use the compassion *no side chain version* - everything works fine. Also the VST3 version of compassion (there is only one dll for VST3 - rather than separate mono, stereo and no side chain) works fine.
CONCLUSION
1 Something has changed between X2 and X3 in the way they Handle mono files.
2 If you use the mono compassion dll on a mono interleave track (with a mono clip), or the stereo version of compassion on a stereo interleave track with a mono clip - your file is liable to crash SONAR X3.
SOLUTION
If you have a mono clip - make a stereo interleave track and use either the "no side chain" dll of compassion or the VST3 version.
This problem will probably be hard to duplicate and maybe there are other variables - but it caused me plenty of aggro this week, and a few choice swear words were used. I don't know if it is an issue with compassion or SONAR X3 or both - but if it happens to you, here's a solution ;-)
Once again, these mono tracks with the mono plugin work fine in X2.