Long Running MIDI Input Issues With Sonar

Been having this problem for YEARS.
 
MIDI controller stops working with Sonar until a reboot.
 
I can control standalone VST's no problem.
 
Things I checked:
 
MIDI DEVICES:  Midi Device Input is ENABLED and checked
MIDI TRACK INPUT:  set to Omni or set to MIDI CONTROLLER Omni
 
Just wont work. Sonar doesn't even see the MIDI messages coming in (system tray doesnt show red light) until a reboot.
 
Very annoying.

hehe, well i will give it a try :)
 
thank you. i will report back.  sucks you should have to do anything.  this is a long standing issue.

Rasure
Just a thought, you could check to see if your USB selective suspend setting is not enabled. I had similar issues with USB hard disks disconnecting until I disabled it, never had a problem since. Not saying this is the issue, but worth a check. I`m on windows 7 so you`ll have to check for your settings in your own windows version :-)  

Hi Mark,

Thanks for the input.  Mine is ENABLED.  So I guess that's not it either :(  Thanks though.

Cool beans, will try this first tonight, when I get home.  Thank you for the input.
 
It is weird that my MIDI controller works with stand alone VSTS and not Sonar, so one would figure it is Sonar... but I will try this setting first and report back here.

Thank you for the help!

One truly Bizarre thing I found with both my M-Audio Keystation Pro 88 and MIDISport USB 8x8 MIDI interface.  If they were plugged into USB port next to my USB Mouse, as you know USB ports are often paired on PC cases, the MIDI device connected would just lose connection with SONAR after some indeterminate time.

All the usual power management had been set, and the suspend disabled but still they would just stop working.

My solution is one device per pair of USB ports since I adopted this approach I have not had a single dropout. 

Anderton
Good point. I added a USB PCIe cards exclusively for audio. With some audio interfaces, it really cut down on digital hash noise.

Did the same on a friend's system -- solved all of his quirky issues.  I have long done this on my Firewire-based system (Three systems so far, starting with PCI, now with PCIe).  I suspect it's the main reason I don't seem to have all of the problems others do.

It's not that it's exclusively for audio, it's a regular USB 3.0 card that I've dedicated to only audio devices. It was the cheapest one that Best Buy sells and it still works. 
 

JonD
Did the same on a friend's system -- solved all of his quirky issues.  I have long done this on my Firewire-based system (Three systems so far, starting with PCI, now with PCIe).  I suspect it's the main reason I don't seem to have all of the problems others do.

 
Preach it, bro! 

bwbalint
Craig/JonD

Do you have a link to the USB PCIe card that is exclusively for audio?

Thanks!

It took me a moment to realize you meant "exclusive" as in the PCIe-supplied USB ports are devoted exclusively to the audio device.  In that sense, yes, that's correct.  A definite improvement over the typical USB controllers shared between other USB devices -- and then there's the added benefit of the PCIe bus having greater bandwidth. 
 
As Craig implied, you can buy these cards anywhere, and just about any will do the job, assuming your audio interface isn't too picky about the USB chipset.  You should go to your interface's support site and check out their knowledge base.  In some cases the devs have done their own testing, and have helpfully provided a list of chipsets that will (or won't) work with their interfaces.
 
It also wouldn't hurt to Google "USB chipset" and "your audio interface" and see what others have experienced. 

Okay - I'm chiming in as having the same (or similar) problem as AdamGrossmanLG. I've also had the problem, on and off, for years - thought I'd fixed it a couple of times but it comes back :-(. It used to occur more often when starting Sonar but it has progressed to frequently occurring during record and playback. 
 
The problem is when I stop playback or record of a track in a project containing a MIDI track(s), my system freezes (but I can still play a soft synth with the MIDI controller! - just no response to keyboard or mouse). It used to happen occasionally but now with 2017.07 it occurs VERY frequently. Sonar (still) also nearly always hangs at the splash screen. My workaround for both these issues has been to unplug and replug my USB MIDI controller - that frees up everything and I can proceed once the MIDI device is recognized again by Sonar.
 
After reading this thread, I did find that USB suspend was enabled but disabling it had no effect. I also followed Craig's procedure for disabling audio devices. I had no duplicates but VIA High Definition Audio was active (which I did not expect) - I removed that as I recall it had been a problem in the past. I imagine it got reinstalled with my new Dell Monitor software but not sure.
 
If anyone has more ideas how to diagnose or correct this issue, I'm all ears! It can no longer be ignored since it has become such a huge pita for me. I may temporarily revert to an earlier release but I prefer to move forward instead of backward.

Yes, I did that while I was in the device manager. Thanks for the suggestion.

Im sorry I havent reported back here yet.  I have been too busy.  I will try this tonight though for sure and report back here :)

Anderton
I assume you have a sufficiently high MIDI playback buffer value? I have it set to 1500 ms. I think the default value is too low, and often leads to MIDI issues that are solved by increasing the buffer value.
 

TStorms
I also followed Craig's procedure for disabling audio devices. I had no duplicates but VIA High Definition Audio was active (which I did not expect) - I removed that as I recall it had been a problem in the past. I imagine it got reinstalled with my new Dell Monitor software but not sure.

 
It's not just about audio devices, but about the MIDI Port Limit. Try following the advice in this article.

Thanks Craig. Yes - MIDI Record buffers are 128 and Playback is 2000ms.
 
That article is the "Craig's procedure" I was referring to. In addition to the advice in the article I also checked the driver level and other properties of all audio and USB devices to ensure they were up to snuff. Additionally, I disabled HD Audio in Device Manager and also in my BIOS.