Alas, I must have posted my bug report CWBRN-20634 too late to make it into X3c. I hope it makes it into X3d.
While they fixed the playlist view in X3 so that it retains its column settings, (MUCH APPRECIATED) they broke its functionality. If you're using it in a live situation and you set your songs to "wait for keypress" to play them, when the dialog "start next song" comes up, you would expect the song to IMMEDIATELY play when you press the spacebar. Instead, Sonar gets confused, loads the next song and just sits there. Hitting the spacebar AGAIN will then play the song. Doesn't work in a timing critical situation.  This is its behavior when the "pin" (keep playlist view on top) button is pressed. It also does this if you have any kind of a wait time assigned to a song. When the "pin" button isn't on, things work more like expected, except the scroll line doesn't show, and you can't press the "N" key which immediately starts the next song. I use that a lot too.
Anyway, I can't wait to see this fixed because in my use of the product I'll have to stick with X2 until then.
And the heartbreaker is . . . I LOVE X3.

I'm still using X1 for live because of playlist problems in X2....Guess I'll be sticking with X1 for live.I bought X2 for our live rig and had to revert back to X1. Using X3c on my main recording rig and love it. Hadn't tried the playlist yet, but now will check it out and see if i have the same problems.

+1 for fixes to Playlist. It could be developed into a great feature for gigging users who want to use X3 live.

I use the playlist function every week.  I send multi-track channels to the FOH with Vocals, keys, horns, and click for the other live players.  PLEASE GET THIS FIXED!  I just started using X3, but I haven't loaded it on the stage machine, just the studio.  I guess I'll have to wait.

The behavior is still the same in X3d.
CakeAlexS asked me to continue this thread so that the discussion could be on its own.
Ryan acknowledged that the problem hasn't been fixed in this update and is still on the docket for a future one. From reading in the forum it looks like getting the video thing happening was a major task and therefore my hopes didn't happen. SuperG mentioned that it worked for him with midi files from his keyboard. But I'm not sure if he had the "Always on Top" button pushed. That's where the biggest problem lies.

Thanks...
I can confirm the always on top issue persists in X3D in that it will become unusable and weird. There seems to be multiple issues around here, it would be good to have multiple step by step instructions on what the specifics are if you are totally familiar (otherwise Cake and others might miss the full fix).
 
Cheers...

It seems to me that this should be an easy fix. The playlist seems to lose focus while the next song is being loaded, which causes the current song not to play until you hit the spacebar AGAIN. The current song needs to take priority and play IMEDIATELY when you hit the spacebar. Imagine that you're playing a gig and you count down the song, 1,2,3,4 and you attempt to start the song on sonar, but it doesn't start, but the rest of the band does.
It makes you look bad, messes up the show, and that makes Sonar look bad. And I love Sonar.

One way to get around this would be to include the "countdown" in the first few bars of the song instead of doing it manually as a countdown to start the song.  It probably has other advantages in addition to eliminating the "false starts".

The "live" setting adds a whole new twist to "tempting fate," since X3 is processing data (not simply playing it). Is this working for you? I do not mean to hijack the thread on you, sorry.

I reality, I use Sonar to run "live" theatrical performances, and have been doing so for over 10 years. Quite successfully I might add. It has been incredibly reliable. We have a backup ipad with a playlist on it just in case a rare crash occurs, the Ipad will play whatever is needed until we get the system back up and running. But it only sends music. Sonar sends midi time code to the light board, program changes to the digital mixing console, passes plug-in effects through it to the performers mics, and plays the music and sound effects. It's the heart of our tech. One technician can control an entire production, lights, sound, and special effects running through Sonar. We really can't do a count off to start a song. I just used that as an example in a previous post. My reality is, the playlist needs to play the cue precisely on time in our application, without ANY surprises. X2 currently provides that for us. Would love to use X3 though and hopefully the next update will bring back the reliability.