e.Blue
I'm glad someone else is noticing this. I have also encountered a situation where certain plugins (Machfive 3) will essentially cause SONAR's meters and GUI elements to completely stop refreshing. I suspect that it is the Nvidia video card. I never saw this issue when I used to use AMD (ATI) video cards. I reported it a while back to both Cakewalk and MOTU, but nothing was ever done. I've just learned to minimize those plugins to get the GUI back to being usable.
 
-e.B

Read post #54 (
I have the same problem with ATI or Nvidia.

In the case of specific plug-ins I wonder if the plug-ins are hogging the UI thread or windows message queue preventing SONAR updates from happening in a timely manner. If this is the case, there is not much Cakewalk can do about it.

Yes it doesn't seem to be the same issue that was reported to Sonar (see my steps). I would put this on a new thread.

Not sure if this has been mentioned in the thread, but having Aim Assist (X) on and moving the cursor during playback back gives me the "jerky lag" 100% of the time.... shut it aim assist off and everything is "fine."
 
Edit: when using the auto-looping during comping (shift-enter) it was very noticeable.

Hi all,
I have the same problem with the jumping / stuttering nowtime playhead and made some additional observations:
The problem only occurs when I move the mouse over a MIDI clip in TV and only when the Smart tool or Edit tool is selected.
The stuttering increases by extending the height of the track.
Open task manager shows a huge spike in CPU load from 2 - 3 % to 50 - 60 % when moving / circling rapidly over a MIDI clip.

What's interesting:
If I lock the data of the MIDI clip, either from context menu or clip inspector, the CPU usage drops down and the nowtime playhead moves normally without any lags.
Locking clip's position alone (without data) doesn't fix it.

So in summary, these are the steps to reproduce the issue on my system:
1. Create new project
2. Insert a MIDI track
3. Extend track's height or double-click on track's pane to maximise the track
4. Minimize Inspector and Browser view (edited)
5. Insert or create a MIDI clip (one single note does it)
6. Select Smart tool or Edit tool
7. Open Windows Task Manager to see the CPU load
8. Switch back to SONAR and move the cursor rapidly over the MIDI clip

Result:
CPU load climbs from almost nothing up to 60 %.
(To see this it's not necessary to start playback, the CPU usage is high even when playback is stopped)

During playback, if track height is very low or minimised, the laggy playhead is not really evident, so you have to enlarge the MIDI track vertically!

Note: I did these tests not on my DAW-PC (i7 2600) but on another computer with an older dual core AMD CPU, so CPU load, which causes the playhead lag I think, might be lower on faster machines.

Best,
Klaus

Klaus, what happens if you follow your steps with aim assist off?
I can confirm just turning on aim assist reproduces the behaviour(#55,#64), I think there are multiple ways to repro this issue.
Thanks..

CakeAlexS
Klaus, what happens if you follow your steps with aim assist off?

Hi Alex,
 
aim assist is actually off.
I updated eventually my DAW Computer to X3d (specs below) and can now reproduce the same behavior on this machine, too.
The only difference is that on my older computer the CPU load is getting high even if only one MIDI track is in the project, while on my DAW (4 cores + HT) CPU load is quite low at the beginning but increases when I insert more (empty) tracks. 
So, after adding 5 or 6 tracks, MIDI or audio, and one MIDI track contains one MIDI clip as described in #65, the CPU load on one core spikes to almost 100 % and the now time (playhead) jumps / stutters.
The tracks must not be minimized, otherwise the effect is barely noticeable (see #65).
 
Best,
Klaus
 

 

Thanks Klaus, it would be great if it could get reported? Would you mind doing the honours?
http://www.cakewalk.com/support/contact/problemreport.aspx
 
It looks like several ways to skin the same cat is going on here (possibly) - cheers

I've reported it: CWBRN-24532
 
That cat must already be naked...
 
Best,
Klaus

Thanks!