Hello!
 
I've noticed recently that the ARCHIVE track function seemed to be "incomplete". When I am archiving a track, it always was my understanding that any ressource related to that track were "fully suspended" while in that state.
 
So I am just assuming that today, in SPLAT,  this behavior should remain similar (and therefore affect fx bins, prochannels, bus assignments, patch points and sends) and have any ressources related to these archived tracks be deconnected completely.
 
But it does not seem to be the case. I've archived a couple of tracks in an processor-heavy project, and the impact on my CPU was almost nothing. Bypassed the FX bins associated to those tracks and THEN I saw the load on my CPU meters drops significantly.
 
Is this the expected behavior or is the feature somewhat buggy?

 
I'll be honest I never use the archive function and im not entirely sure if there is a bug or not but I do know a work around would be to freeze the track or disable the FX bins and mute the track like you did.
Archive used to be a highly used function back in the day when CPU's weren't  made like they are now a day.
That doesn't excuse the function from not working of course. Later on today I will test it out and get back to you with my filings.
 
You can also get to the Archive function by: Right-click a track strip and choose MSR > on the pop-up menu.
 

Actually, it is because I am working on a cpu intensive project that I kind of noted this. I am aware of the freeze features and use them a lot, but somehow the audio engine is still crakeling even after most tracks are freezed. So I tried archiving some stuff and noticed the strange behavior. Next I'll try removing some aux tracks and reassign their sources to busses instead.

As I recall, archiving a track used to take it (and all it's plugins) totally offline from the audio interface, purpose: to free up CPU resources . . . that was the reason behind it's existence as a feature . . . please correct me if I'm wrong ?

I just tested it here using a cpu intensive patch for a Reaktor 6 Blocks setup and an Eventide Blackhole reverb. When archived, it behaved as it should. Both items were removed from cpu. I use archive a lot, and have yet to run into a situation where it didn't work.
 
What plugs did you have to bypass?
 

I just tried this on the latest release and it does seem to be working as it should.
Possibly your audio interface might be the culprit ? have you tried raising the roundtrip just to get an idea ?

Are any other MIDI tracks using the same synth?

The effect of archiving can be difficult to assess.

• Even CPU-intensive effects and instruments might still represent a small percentage of the overall CPU and RAM usage.
• Use Windows Task Manager to see actual CPU and RAM statistics, as archiving a track may not reflect a discernible change in SONAR's CPU meter. That's because the SONAR meter shows how long it takes to fill an audio buffer, which can be affected more by other Windows processes and services than your archived track.
• CPU usage will vary during playback, so you might have an instrument that only kicks in on the chorus, so you don't see a reduction in CPU until playback reaches that section.
• Sampled instruments that do a good job of memory management won't show much benefit from being archived, because they only preload a small portion of the sample set into RAM and stream the rest from disk.
• Memory that's released by unloading an instrument may not be immediately reflected in Windows memory usage metering, because Windows will cache that data until its memory is needed for something else. If you have a lot of RAM (e.g. 16GB or more), then it may never need that chunk. If you archive a big sampled instrument and are then able to subsequently un-archive it instantly, then that RAM was never truly released. (That's a good thing. It means you have enough memory.)
• If your project isn't pushing the limits of your computer, you will not notice any difference in playback when you lighten the CPU load. The computer doesn't care if it's running at 30% or 80% of capacity. It doesn't get tired from working harder; either it has enough time to service the buffers or it doesn't.

 
 

I archive tracks but I usually remove effects before archiving so I can't help with this specific issue.
 
My normal procedure for a vocal track is to edit in Melodyne, bounce to a new track, and--when completely satisfied--remove Melodyne and archive the source track.  I like having the source as a back up and I can always re-edit if needed.
 
In my case, this is a huge benefit because I used to have a dozen or more instances of Melodyne active.  Now I only have one and only while editing.

Thanks for all your inputs, guys. Plugins involved are AD2, many instances of waves GTR. Eq, comp and console emulation on every track. Couple of vx64 and couple of channel tools. Working remotely with another colleague using splat (same build)... Along the way we mixed up 32 and 64 bits plugins but we cleaned that out. Since the beginning this session behaves strangely regarding the audio engine and system ressources. I have a tascam Us20x20 and he has an rme... Still searching...