Dear SONAR users,
 
I'm experiencing a strange audio engine behavior. I stop the engine and do some refactoring work on the project (moving clips, adjusting envelopes etc), but in a few minutes the engine starts again automatically. It happens even if Sonar just runs on the background while I'm surfing on the web etc. It may be connected with autosave feature, but it's not like every autosave turns audio engine on. Is there any workaround to swith the engine off permanently until I switch it back on manually?
 
I'm using Jamaica Plain build at the moment, but it seems to be a long running issue, it appeared in many previous versions too.
 
Thanks, 
Nick.

Sorry to be stupid, but when you say "the engine starts again automatically", do you mean that the project starts playing, or the Audio Engine Button lights up, or something else?

No, it's not playing, but the audio engine button lights up, the performance widget stars showing moving bars etc. And the most important thing is that audio engine starts consuming lots of CPU, that's why I'd like it to be switched off.
 

Can you shed some light on what soft synths you have loaded in your project? Getting a CPU hit with the transport stopped seems odd, but wondering if this is related to threads about streamlining inputs that will be addressed in the next update.

I have never encountered your issue specifically, but more info on your system and project would help folks here to understand your situation better.

mettelus,
 
I'm quite sure that CPU consumption is related to audio engine being on, not the "play" function. You can easily check it by looking at the performance widget. Every time I open a project (mine are quite heavy with 10-15 soft synth / fx running, not to mention audio tracks) the engine is on and the performance module shows first core loaded up to 60-70% and the rest three up to 40-50%.
 
As for the system configuration, I've got Intel Quad Core Q2800 / 8 GB RAM / Windows 7 x64.

If you go to the control panel/ performance page you should be able to confirm how much CPU the audio engine uses. Not sure the little widget in Sonar is very good indication. 

If you are have the "share audio device" option enabled whenever you switch back to SONAR from another application like your web browser, SONAR will renable the engine. This is most likely what you are seeing.

Sorry for the delay as I was confined to my phone earlier. Noel's answer directly pertains to your asked question.
 
The reason I asked about soft synths used is that SONAR gets all "touchy feely" with every exposed in/out (even if unused) just in case it should suddenly "go active." The new Kingston update (out today) is supposed to address this, so would be worth updating to Kingston and seeing how big of a CPU hit your project is giving you. A "massive" CPU hit with the transport stopped implies a "massive" number of exposed VSTi ins/outs.

Wow, that's exactly what i've been looking for! Disabling "share audio devices with other programs" option seems to solve the problem completely.
 
Thanks a lot for your help!
 
Nick.