I'm using Platinum. In other versions I've been able to disconnect a softsynth? This essentially turns it off and frees up memory. I see no way to do this in the Synth rack. Am I missing something?

Real easy!
Freeze the track--Then 'archive'

Click the synth you want then the dropdown arrow in the synth rack and uncheck synth connected. Alternately, float the browser or dock it in the multidock and it will reveal a power button next to the synths name which you can switch off.

If I have Ivory piano connected in the synthrack it takes up a lot  of memory, regardless of whether I've played any midi notes. I thought you had to have notes recorded in order to freeze a synth.
 
If I have a project that I'm not currently using Ivory or Superior Drummer, if I disconnect the synths it frees up a ton of memory and the project also loads very quickly, since it doesn't put a bunch of notes into Ram. So this is a very handy feature and not the same thing as freeze synth.
 
Is this a lost feature?

swamptooth
Click the synth you want then the dropdown arrow in the synth rack and uncheck synth connected. Alternately, float the browser or dock it in the multidock and it will reveal a power button next to the synths name which you can switch off.

 

Thank you, you nailed it! I don't know how I missed that little arrow, but it's there. What a relief. This is an important feature for me.

Are your pedal rendering issues resolved in Platinum?

Noel Borthwick [Cakewalk]
Are your pedal rendering issues resolved in Platinum?

 
Thanks for asking Noel. I've just downloaded and installed friday night. On saturday I tested the piano pedal issue and the lost focus issue for 15 min straight, playing the piano and recording some and so far I'm hopeful it's all resolved, but I'll know more monday when I record piano, bass, drums, and organ on a song. From the way you zeroed in on the pedal issue a few months ago and fixed it, I'd be really surprised if that's still a problem.
 
I guess I'm more concerned about the lost focus issue. What that is is this. Using X3, if a client came in and they were playing my Ivory piano and Sonar was idle, not recording or playing back. I simply had the active midi track as my Ivory piano. About every 5 - 10 min, all of a sudden there was no sound, the track lost it's focus.
 
I'd use the mouse to click on the taskbar and then click back on the midi track for Ivory and the piano would then play again and a few minutes later the same thing would happen. I went back to Sonar 8.5 and the problem was gone, no lost focus.
 
When I was recording piano I had the same problem, every few minutes it would lose the focus. It happened with other softsynths too, not just Ivory. None of this happened saturday for the 15 min I tested it.
 
I'll definitely let you know if there's a problem with either issue, I'm so anxious to get all of this behind me so I can enjoy all these wonderful new features in Platinum and not be stuck in 8.5 land.
 
Thanks for being on top of all of this,

Losing focus should never lose audio as long as you have "share drivers with other programs" disabled in preferences | Playback and recording. If that is on SONAR will give up the audio interface when the focus is lost!

Noel Borthwick [Cakewalk]
Losing focus should never lose audio as long as you have "share drivers with other programs" disabled in preferences | Playback and recording. If that is on SONAR will give up the audio interface when the focus is lost!

I have it unchecked in Platinum. It has been checked in 8.5, back from the days when I used Win media player and Finale sharing audio. 8.5 does lose focus sometimes, but rarely, not as bad as X3.
 
Now I use the onboard audio for Win media player and Finale. That helps with all sorts of problems. So thanks for the tip about sharing audio drivers, I'll never do that again! I'll report back to you about how it goes this next week with these issues.