@Freddie H:  I can't agree about the Matrix.  It has vastly more capability than the Nucleus.  It's what I crave more than any other gear ($23,000).  Not only a DAW controller, but also 16 audio channels in and out for true zero latency overdubbing!  No more f**king with the ASIO buffer slider.  Then with a couple of button pushes, it becomes a summing mixer.  The routing lets you insert any of your hardware pre's, eq's or compressors on any channel -- for tracking and/or mixing.  And it saves your routing setups! 

I would probably kill for a Matrix.  Satan, be gone!

Scott and Freeflybertl:

I also do not believe the interface could possibly cause these things (and I only provided a partial list).  I believe the system was set up wrong to start with but Sweetwater is taking the position that I need to try another interface before they do anything else because they are out of ideas.  Fine, but that is a major task for me and it may make things worse.  My greatest fear is that I will switch to the Motu to test their theory and then my system will be hopelessly screwed up when I try to go back to the Roland.

Sweetwater says they have opened tickets with Cakewalk but Cakewalk has no ideas.  Cakewalk asked for a dmp file but then said it didn't really tell them anything.  Unfortunately, Cakewalk and Roland are acting like two separate companies and pointing fingers at each other.

Freeflybertl:

• I never turn the Console or IO off because it takes too long to reset everything (like mic pres and other stuff).
• About opening two projects with Fantom: if I try to open a second project that has Fantom, the system locks up and crashes and does not even give me a chance to tell it not to load the Fantom VST.
• The Staff crash happens whether I use a shortcut button I created on the console or the Sonar menu; however, I cannot predict when that will or will not happen.  Sometimes it happens constantly for weeks, then goes away for a while.
• I have also had lots of problems with VSTs but think they are at least temporarily sorted out.

I would probably kill for a Matrix.  Satan, be gone!


 



The focusrite 2802 looks pretty handy too but alas it doesn't talk with Sonar

Personally if I had the money this is the sucker I would go for http://www.slateproaudio.com/ I'm not sure of the price but it is the most awsome peice of kit I have seen in a while.  A digital mixer and virtual control surface in one!!
 
Peace Ben

Ben, north of USD 17,000.  It is a touchscreen and more.  Still seems a bit rich.

@

konradh

I also do not believe the interface could possibly cause these things (and I only provided a partial list).  I believe the system was set up wrong to start with but Sweetwater is taking the position that I need to try another interface before they do anything else because they are out of ideas.  Fine, but that is a major task for me and it may make things worse.  My greatest fear is that I will switch to the Motu to test their theory and then my system will be hopelessly screwed up when I try to go back to the Roland.

Hey Konrad... installing another interface shouldn't interfere with any others you have installed. I have multiple interface drivers on the my system and it doesn't cause trouble. Although, I don't use them at the same time, but that's not what you'll be doing either.


Before you install anything though, you should image your drive with Acronis first, just in case.


Have you tried using other software with the V-Studio interface? If the problems are just occurring in SONAR and not other software, that would rule out the interface.


Scott

--
Scott R. Garrigus - http://garrigus.com - SONAR X2 Power! - http://garrigus.com/?SonarX2Power
* Author of the Cakewalk Sonar and Sony Sound Forge Power book series: http://garrigus.com/?PowerBooks
* Author of the Cakewalk Sonar ProAudioTutor video tutorial series: http://garrigus.com/?ProAudioTutor
* Publisher of the DigiFreq free music technology newsletter: http://digifreq.com/?DigiFreq
* Publisher of the NewTechReview free consumer technology newsletter: http://newtechreview.com/?NewTechReview

I would take a hard look at the Mackie Control. Its strengths are: Most all DAWs support it. It will work on any system because it uses MIDI either via USB or through a MIDI port. I have had mine for many years and it is solid. It has not become obsolete or lost its status as the de facto industry standard.

It has physical controls with high quality components. Its extensible. It is affordable.

I have seen a lot of CSs come and go. The MC just works.    

Mackie Control works great.  However, there are build quality issues in recent versions.  I had the original Mackie Control for about 5 years, and it was solid.  Maybe one record button wore out.

Then I went to Mackie Control Universal Pro with two extenders.  The scribble-strip LCD's faded to darkness within six months.  I had them replaced, and those also faded to black in less than a year.  I'm in touch with Mackie recently:  the newest batch of LCD's should be better.

It's be best bang-for-buck controller.  I just hope quality control over there in China has gotten better.  (He says, knowingly, wink wink, say no more.)

Hi konradh

• I never turn the Console or IO off because it takes too long to reset everything (like mic pres and other stuff).
 

I'm under the impression that my (any?) DAW wants to be booted first before turning on the USB audio devices (somebody may prove me wrong, but things seem to work better this way)
 
Unfortunately the VS-700 does not (like e.g. the Octa-Capture) save mixer and pre-amps settings internally. However, I figured the easiest way to keep the settings between projects or reboots is to use a settings file saved by the VS 700 IO Editor (standalone application). I actually have a batch file set up that I just double click after a reboot, which triggers loading the most recent settings and the clock synchronisation option (DIGITAL 1 IN in my case as I also use the OctaCapture)

• About opening two projects with Fantom: if I try to open a second project that has Fantom, the system locks up and crashes and does not even give me a chance to tell it not to load the Fantom VST.
 
• The Staff crash happens whether I use a shortcut button I created on the console or the Sonar menu; however, I cannot predict when that will or will not happen.  Sometimes it happens constantly for weeks, then goes away for a while.
• I have also had lots of problems with VSTs but think they are at least temporarily sorted out.

On the rest I can't help much other than mentioning that I also had a lot of VST problems lately, BUT mine are now pretty much gone (fingers crossed, but I'm running very stable at the moment!)
 
The 2 issues I could identify causing the problems were (a) 32 bit plug-ins that caused random crashes, but that was fixed by getting jBridge installed and (b) a corrupted installation of Acronis True Image, which somehow messed with my drive performance and caused crashes in 64 bit Kontakt instruments (I discovered that Acronis problem by accident when trying to do another backup and kept getting crashes in Acronis; since re-installing Acronis to get a working backup I haven't had a single of those random Sonar crashes) ...
 
Trouble really is that every PC is soooo differently set-up, so we can only try to help, and sometimes you need a great portion of luck to find that needle in the haystack that causes all the headache.
 
 

I think that the MACKIE control is one of the safest choices. depends on how much money you want to allocate for this controller. I use very successfully a controller type M-AUDIO PROJECTMIX I / O which I am very pleased. I have not had any problems with it and I used the time of sonar 7. is perfectly integrated in sonar x2.