When I play my 88 key keyboard controller that I've had for 15 years, Platinum is turning off the audio engine sporatically. So far it's only happening with softsynths like Ivory and Superior Drummer. Maybe it happens with all soft synths, not sure.

I can be playing my Ivory piano with it's midi track as the active track. Input monitor's blue button is lit up. The transport is not moving, no playback, no recording, just playing the piano or drums. Then all of a sudden the notes are abrupltly chopped off and there is no sound. I can see the audio engine button  turned off. Nothing I can do will turn the sound back on except clicking on the audio engine button in the Transpsort so it lights back up or I can hit playback or record and then I can hear the piano or drums.

I'm not getting any other dropouts except in rare instances. I can have lots of audio and midi tracks with lots of FX playing back or recording audio and no problem, no dropouts except rarely. Yet if I'm just sitting there playing the piano, the audio engine shuts off. And it happens very often, maybe every 10-20 min. It happens also during recording midi, never during playback. I tried changing the default DropoutMsec from 250 to 400 - no effect. 8.5 certainly doesn't do this.

Any suggestons?

Is all Windows and any device maintenance up to current levels?
 
Also, what driver mode is Sonar running with?
 
The above are guesses, by the way - just a place to start.
 
Bob Bone
 

Gosh, did your buffer size get changed??? If I set mine to low it will play recorded audio and vsts ok but sometimes choke on realtime notes...I don't know! Good Luck! -Shawn

If it is regular, maybe something in your PC is powering down the USB port?
 
Regards,
Dan

If you have Share Drivers With Other Programs enabled, try turning it off (Preferences > Audio > Playback and Recording). It sounds like something is hijacking your interface. Or there's a more general problem with your interface or drivers that's causing SONAR to lose the port. Any hardware/firmware/driver changes recently?

robert_e_bone
Is all Windows and any device maintenance up to current levels?
 
Also, what driver mode is Sonar running with?
 
The above are guesses, by the way - just a place to start.
 
Bob Bone
 

I've been doing Windows updates fairly regularly and did it about a week ago. I also updated my Nvidia video driver. I'm using Asio. Even with 8.53 I've gotten strange dropouts when recording midi with no load, few audio tracks, no FX.
 
But this is much much worse with Platinum and with 8.53 it didn't seem to turn off the audio engine. I would be recording and it would stop with a dropout. I would just continue recording. There was still sound on the piano when the transport was stopped momentarily.
 
I can't recall getting this audio engine problem with 8.53 ever with the transport stopped. With X3 sometimes Ivory would lose focus and I'd just click on the taskbar and back on Sonar and the piano would come back.
 
This method doesn't work with Platinum I have to turn the audio engine back on by clicking it's icon in the transport or I have to start the transport.

shawn@trustmedia.tv
Gosh, did your buffer size get changed??? If I set mine to low it will play recorded audio and vsts ok but sometimes choke on realtime notes...I don't know! Good Luck! -Shawn

Which buffer were you referring to?
Playback I/O buffer size = 512
Record I/O buffer size = 512

Under midi / Record
# of buffers = 64
Playback prepare using 500 buffers
 
Not sure why playing live midi into Sonar would be any kind of load or difficulty for Sonar.

brundlefly
If you have Share Drivers With Other Programs enabled, try turning it off (Preferences > Audio > Playback and Recording). It sounds like something is hijacking your interface. Or there's a more general problem with your interface or drivers that's causing SONAR to lose the port. Any hardware/firmware/driver changes recently?

Share Drivers With Other Programs is unchecked. I agree it sounds like something is highjacking. I wish there was a better diagnostic for Win 7 to tell us what is going on. No hardware/firmware/driver changes.
 
Baffled!

dcumpian
If it is regular, maybe something in your PC is powering down the USB port?
 
Regards,
Dan

I checked Under Power Management and USB Selective suspend settings is disabled. Is that what you were referring to? I wish there was a diagnostic tool with Win 7, that would tell us what the computer is doing when this happens or at least give a clue.
 
Any suggestions?

Problem solved - I did a clean Win 7 install - Platinum only plus Ivory and Superior Drummer. I recorded piano, bass, and drums on several songs over the last few days, did lots of punching in and didn't have one dropout or loss of focus like I had been having. With the other Win7 install I'd been having a dropout about every 20 min doing this sort of recording, so it looks like this problem is solved.
 
I'm amazed at how fast everything is, Win7 had gotten sluggish. I did very few tweaks, just "no sounds" in Windows, made sure my onboard Realtek audio was playing wav files with Win Media Player, etc, turned off Power Options. I left indexing on for my C drive and left Windows Search on.  As I install others things I need I'll watch things closely and keep making new image files, in case I need to revert.