amdrecording


Dear all,

My productivity has been severely cut due to constant crashes in X1a. I know it's my own fault for jumping into X1 without considering that it might be terribly unstable, but... it's too late to go back now. I work with the following Virtual Instruments: RMX, Omnisphere, Kontakt 4, Trillian, and a few others.

Lately my machine is worse than ever. Sonar will crash every 10-15 minutes, sometimes even more often. Lately what happens is that I'm in the middle of listening, and audio stops, Sonar freezes, and a Windows dialog box promptly pops up telling me that Sonar has frozen. And since X1 is no longer released by the task manager after a crash, I either reboot immediately or wait 3-5 minutes for it to disappear by itself. I can't figure out what is causing this erratic behavior, but I'm at the end of trying to make X1 work.

For those of you working in X1 with lots of virtual instruments (>5GB of samples) - are you able to achieve stability? If so, what are your system specs? what audio interface are you using? Are you working to picture? I'm desperate! Either I find a solution soon, or abandon Sonar. I hope that X1b will solve these issues, because I'd much prefer to stay with Cakewalk, but I'm losing so much time lately due to crashes, I have to consider making a change.

My specs = 2.66 8 Core i7 with 32GB RAM, Windows 7 64-bit running X1a. Audio Interface = Roland Octa-Capture

Thanks,

Alex

I'm a POWER user when it comes to Virtual Plugins.
I have no stability issues with SONAR X1. My work horses are Kontakt 4, Omnisphere, Stylus RMX, Battery 3, Melodyne Editor etc.... Make sure you are up to date. Spectrasonics have update Omnisphere just recently since 1.5 release. The new updates called Omnisphere version 1.5.3d and patch Library version 1.5.1.
 
 
Still many irritating bugs in SONAR X1 like random scroll of trackview when selecting folders but no stability crashes.
 
 
Best Regards
Freddie

studiofreak


Having a hard time with stability when using virtual instruments in X1 on win64 pro. Lot's crashes and hang-ups and even got one BSOD (never had that happen on this machine before...)

No rhyme or reason to the crashes.  Happens with using a variety of instruments in various combination.

X1 runs ok (for the most part) when just using audio files and vst audio plugins.  (Crashes not as frequent, but still happen...)

Using Sonar for 10yrs and aside from Sonar version 1, this may be the most unstable version for me yet.  I know it's beating a dead horse at this point, but it has gotten to a point where I'm spending too much time troubleshooting as opposed to actual work...seems to be the general sentiment here over the last few weeks in anticipation of X1b. 

I do like the program and new feature set and prefer it for most things over other DAWs, it's just getting rather frustrating when you lose work, etc. due to a crash or hangup.


My system is

Asus Mobo
Intel Core2 Quad
Windows 7 x64
8 gig ram
3 (1T SATA drives: System, Audio and Samples)

Sonar X1a
PT 9
Cubase 5
Waves CLA
Waves SSL
Waves v-series
Duende Native
(2) UAD-1 cards

My collection includes:

Komplete 7
Omnisphere
Trillian
Superior Drummer

The recent update to Kontakt seemed to help tremendously, but I still get the crashes, etc.

Batch re-save all your library Instruments and own build Instruments in Kontakt 4. Makes a big different.
Use the Standalone Kontakt 4 for this process.
 
In Kontakt 4.2.2.4 Standalone  Go to----> Files (DISK ICON)
got to.------> "Batch re-save"
Select the FOLDER that contain the Instruments/Library you want to re-save.
 
 
 
Remember, batch re-save its a destructed process. Don't worry it will not destroy your instruments only re-save it to latest patch version 4.2 Instrument patches. By doing so you will only get benefits like faster loading time and better sound quality.
NOTE: You should be aware of that you can't OPEN the re-saved "Instruments" with any leagacy Kontakt version. You need to use only Kontakt 4 or later...to use your re-saved Instruments.
 
 
 
Best Regards
Freddie
 

JonD


You've got a LOT of ram.  Could be some of it is bad.  An easy test would to drop it down to 8GB or 16 GB and see how it runs.   (You could, of course, run memtest or similar, but I've found that testing the sticks in isolation is a more efficient, time-saving way to go).

Assuming the ram checks out, try to narrow down what is causing the conflict.  I think you have a compatibility issue of some sort.  There are too many variables to simply conclude that Sonar X1 (alone) is causing the problem. 

This is something I definitely need to look into. Thanks for the suggestion! I'm scared to start removing RAM physically - I'll first try to run software tests...

amdrecording

J

This is something I definitely need to look into. Thanks for the suggestion! I'm scared to start removing RAM physically - I'll first try to run software tests...

http://www.memtest.org/

UnderTow

I'm sorry but I don't buy the "it's the fault of the plug-ins" argument.

I've been a long time Cakewalk user and I am also finding X1 unstable. Especially with Guitar Rig 4 and Kontakt.

HOWEVER:

I am now using Reaper ... and it is ROCK STABLE on the SAME PC, SAME hardware and SAME plug-ins that are causing X1 to crash.

SO, looks to me like an X1 problem. Hopefully X1b will fix things... I'd love to come back to Cakewalk.

Please reference this message if you see the "plug-in at fault" argument.

I wonder if this could be an explanation for systems that run great, and other systems that crash a lot. So far that's the single most mystifying (to me at least) aspect of X1. Some people run great, others can't get anything done at all. My optimism for X1b helping a LOT of people has just risen a LOT.

pretty fair comment IMO Mikey. Let's hope for the best.

ba_midi

HumbleNoise


I wonder if this could be an explanation for systems that run great, and other systems that crash a lot. So far that's the single most mystifying (to me at least) aspect of X1. Some people run great, others can't get anything done at all. My optimism for X1b helping a LOT of people has just risen a LOT.

It's obvious to me that CW are doing all they can/their best to get as much stability baked into X1B as they can.  And we all hope that will make a huge difference.
 
But I think it's not so difficult to understand why some people have issues others don't (even if you remove the "it's your system" chant) ...   just take a good/close look at the current Mar 15 bug fix list.
 
A number of those issues are ones many MAY have encountered.   Other issues -- such as the one Noel just posted about -- would also explain it.
 
I don't think it's such a big mystery, frankly.
 
 

Have to agree there,

Knowing what I know now, I don't find any of this mystifying either - however  understand how it can be that way for many.

Not sure what happened to the OP ?. Hope he's making some kind of progress.

@OP
Mobo is gigabyte X58a-UD5, 6GB ram.
I run all the VSTs mentioned (spectrasonics/Kontakt) and more, with almost zero problems.
However - I typically don't have plugs (see Noel's post above) added in the FX bins OR use the prochannel until I've bounced down to audio.

When I DID use the prochannel while still running VSTis, I ended up with corrupted projects AND some crashes including BSOD.


In my particular case of 'issues', it seems to be the prochannel that causes the most problems.
I've avoided using features which are known to potentially cause a "crash", as much as I possibly can.

I run lots of virtual instruments including Kontakt (which I haven't updated to the latest yet) and don't seem to have issues with Kontakt causing crashes.

I see comments through here like;
 "Stylus RMX tends to lock me up"
 "Playback freezes on my system with Dimension Pro or Rapture"

I run all those and a lot more without having any issues for hours on end - as long as I don't use the pro-channel and possibly some
of the other plugs which Noel listed in his post above.

I probably avoid many potential crashes simply because of the way I've been working in X1.

In the projects I'd started in X1, they've started with lots of virtual instrument tracks - and almost NO FX plugs (except GR4).
Many many hours spent playing keys into VSTs and getting the instrument performances right (well - close anyway).
Could include all the Spectrasonics stuff, Kontakt 4 and other NI stuff, Real Guitar/Strat/LPC, DimPro and/or Rapture.

During this phase of "inputting the performances" I've had very little trouble, and tend to spend a lot of time in this phase.
It's easier to mix a good performance than to try and fix it later on in the mix !.
I've survived many hours of long sessions to this point.


It's been after bouncing some tracks to audio and starting to use the prochannel or other plugs that things have come unstuck for me.

I see others saying they work mostly in audio, and it's not giving them any problems.
If those users are not using over 4gb ram, they shouldn't hit any of the 4gb bugs in Noels list.
I typically use over 4gb with all the soft synths I have loaded when I start moving some to audio and adding plugs.
So it makes sense to me, that's when my DAW starts looking more like a crash test dummy.

Mostly seems to be the prochannel, which appears to have been the likely culprit for corrupting my projects.
I've also used the PX-64 Percussion Strip, VX-64 Vocal Strip, and Boost 11 in some of those projects.

I find if I enable the prochannel "Saturation Module" on a Bus, it seems to be like "asking for trouble" (for me :-).  And when it
starts to behave badly it can corrupt the project and/or crash just by trying to select a prochannel preset.


I've actually managed to complete a couple of projects in X1, but it's been very painful with the prochannel turning modules
on/off at random.

I really am totally frustrated with this, and so dissappointed that we haven't seen any fixes since December.
It's WAY TOO Long (near 3 months) to go without making at least some of the fixes available for such a serious list of problems.


In all honesty, if I knew there was a better DAW I could have tomorrow, I'd have it installed by now.
Oh, that's right ... it's called Sonar 8.5.3 and it IS installed already :-)

Cheers - Cliff

I thought I'd add that the projects I'm working on which crash are not using >4 gig RAM- closer to 1 - 1.5.

Again, I still  truly hope X1b helps.

Thanks Noel for the input.

Hi There,

So far X1a has been totally stable for me and I run a multitude of vsts in a single project. These include NI stuff, BFD Eco, EWQLSO and the cakewalk native stuff.

I'm running on a laptop with 3gb of ram and a dual core. Seems to me that a lot of the crashing is from people with much more souped up rigs.

Funny that some of you say Stylus RMX are a problem...

I have never ever had one single crach ever...ever..never..ever with Stylus RMX. I have used STYLUS RMX both on SONAR x64 and thru 32bit bitbridge before Stylus were X64bit plugin., Cubase x32 and Cubase X64, Logic x32 and Logic X64, Pro Tools HD, Reaper and Samplitude in my studio and other studios. NEVER CRASHED once... Many other plugins can crash sometimes but not STYLUS RMX or any other plugins from Spectrasonics. That's at least my expericence..

...wicked


Well if going back isn't possible, and you said you have non-crashing projects with the same synths, so that may rule out the tried and true method of loading them one-by-one to see. THough I would give it a try. Safe mode the project and choose only one synth and see what happens, then close and re-open and rotate through and see if you find one that smashes it.

Otherwise, I've had a few "haunted" projects, ones where data wouldn't play or crashes would occur. In the most severe case I created a duplicate project (tempo, synths, buses) and just copied the MIDI and audio over and it was fine. Ultimately there may have been an ID'able problem deep in there, but screw lookin' for it.

yep - this is what I'm going to do. I've got a haunted session on my hands!