I decided to try the EastWest Cloud Composer subscription and was looking forward to adding Strings from Hollywood Strings to my compositions. When it works it it sounds very nice. I am using Sonar Platinum Kingston and EW Play 4.3.1. I am using 64 bit Windows 10 on a Intel core i7-4770k @3.5 GHz with 16 GB of ram with a 2TB 7200 rpm Hd. The Windows system is on a separate SSD. I have the Play loaded as a VST2.

The problem is dropouts, loss of sound while adding notes. One minute it works the next, adding a note causes the instrument to become silent. The only remedy is to delete the play and reload it. This can happen at random times with tracks that are completed. The composition will work fine many times In a row and then the next time the track is silent. Ion even the sound is lost, the only way to regain it is to reload Play. I noted that when this problem happens, the Midi signal sill shows up on the input meter but the output meter shows nothing.

The cpu and memory usage is always very low. The voices never get higher than 30 and the maximum setting for the instrument (a legato viola) is 256. I have increased the midi playback buffers to 1500 mS (this had little effect). This does happen with other strings in HS too - mostly Legato.

Sadly, I very excitedly started to replace the strings in several compositions only to discover this problem. Any solutions or advice that more knowledgeable or experienced people might provide would be most welcome as I am at a loss and very frustrated / disappointed. If I can't find a fix then the EW package may not be useable for me.

Thanks in advance to anyone who might help.

AllanH recently posted a review of HS which you might find helpful:
 
http://forum.cakewalk.com...-License-m3323321.aspx
 
EDIT:  Seems it was actually Hollywood Orchestra, but info should still be applicable.
 
Also, I see that Allan installed on a SSD which could make all the difference.

Thanks. It seems to be something other than a disk issue. I have adjusted buffers and voices and sampling rates, no effect. The issue still happens.
I noticed that once an instrument stops working, the only way to fix it is to reload it again from the browser in Play. If you save an instrument that stops working in Sonar as another file and reload it, it still does not work. This is true if you are do so in the original sonar project or start a new one. This is true even in the stand alone version of Play. If you take the non-working instrument file you saved in sonar and load it into the standalone version of Play it will not play. It behaves the same as it does in Sonar, namely the midi signals are registering on the input but there is abolututely no output. If you load the same instrument from the browser or a file in Sonar containing a working version of the same instrument, into the standalone version of Play, it works perfectly.

This is a bit hard to describe but let's say viola 2 is working in Sonar. Unpredictably it will stop working; sometimes while editing, sometimes when simply when simply playing a track that uses viola 2. Nothing can make viola 2 produce any sound except reloading viola 2 fresh from the Play browser. If you save the nonfunctional viola 2 to another file, it won't work in Sonar or in the standalone version of Play. If you reload viola 2 from the play browser either in sonar or the standalone, it works. Reload the file with the nonfunctional viola 2and it doesn't work (ie. No sound output). If you save a working version of viola 2 and then reload it either in sonar or the standalone browser, it always works. Greatful for any thoughts or advice.

Many thanks

Sonar has a per-project option to zero controllers on stop, I've seen cases where it will send a VSTi a zero message on a controller channel that the synth uses to control filter cutoff.  This cases the synth to stop making sounds, and with lots of instruments it's not visibly obvious the filter got turned down to zero.
 
The option is actually per-project, so depending on your templates (I had to fix every template on my system) you can easily get this to show back up again.  It's never been clear why exactly Sonar decides to include a specific control channel in it's "zeroing".  It doesn't zero everything, it's "picky" and so the behavior appears to be kind of random.  For a long while it doesn't include the controller that is rigged to the filter cut off.  Then suddenly decides it needs to zero that channel also when you press stop.  From then on your instrument is silent.
 
The option is in preferences under Project->MIDI "Zero Controllers When Play Stops"

I will give that a try. Many thanks.

I cannot make sense of your situation. i just looked at one of my projects. I have 6 instances of play active, 4 of those are multi-timbral so I'm loading probably ~15 instruments all of the Diamond variety. I have a lesser system (and older AMD with 4 cores and 16 GB of RAM). I do, however, load EWQL off SSD. I have no clicks, pops etc. This particular composition sits at about 40-60% CPU, so it's definitely busy. Kontakt is also playing, and I have EQ/Compr in some form on all tracks and busses.
 
I would start with rendering some of the tracks to audio and see if it's one instrument in particular, or all of them together.
 
One random thought just occurred: My soundcard operates natively at 96k/24 bit using ASIO. How about yours?
If you're up/dn sampling (maybe on playback), or asking your audio card to do so, that could wrecks things pretty quickly. How about FX that up/down samples?
 
Those are my "best" ideas at the moment.
 
Allan

Many thanks to everyone who responded. MSorrels, I tried the turning the zero controllers switch off, so far so good. I have not been able to make it fail. This doesn't "reverse" the problem once it occurs, but I am cautiously optimistic as doing things that were almost guaranteed to cause the problem haven't caused it to reappear. The EW stuff sounds really good and I am really looking forward to using it. Allan, after your suggestion about the sound card I did some research and am going to have a hard look at the soundcard too.-thanks. What are you using? I am just starting out and any advice is really appreciated.

Thanks again

Firesong X
 Allan, after your suggestion about the sound card I did some research and am going to have a hard look at the soundcard too.-thanks. What are you using? I am just starting out and any advice is really appreciated.
Thanks again

I have been very happy with this soundcard: Creative Sound Blaster Audigy PCIe RX 7.1 Sound Card with High Performance Headphone Amp.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00EO6X7PG?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_search_detailpage
 
I realize others use external audio interfaces, but this one, combined with good headphones has been excellent.
The cost is reasonable and it has good ASIO drivers. Make sure you get the latest drivers/software from Creative. Also remember to turn off mother board audio in the bios, if that applies.
 
Edit: here is a good thread, where you also can see a few more comments I posted regarding this specific card.
http://forum.cakewalk.com/Best-Soundcards-for-Sonar-and-Windows-10-m3312313.aspx
 
 
 
 

Many thanks for the advice and the info. I will check both out.

To reverse the problem once it's happened to a project you'll need to go through every control in the instrument and figure out what filter or volume knob has been turned to zero.  It can take awhile with some instruments. 
 
I have/use Play but don't have any of the string stuff though so I'm not sure where you should look, it does have a lot of filter controls any of which could be your problem.  You also can make a new instance and visibly compare the "bad" one to the freshly created one.  Usually it ends up being a high pass filter of some sort or part of a ADSR set that is causing the sound to be zero.
 
Good luck.