Morning!
 
I´ve seen somewhere in the SONAR documentation saying that when archiving tracks, the synths will be loaded out of RAM (apart from taking load off the CPU)
I´m using 25GB of RAM with my template and I tried archiving all tracks to see the result, but the result is that it looks like the CPU is offloaded but the RAM usage stays the same. I´m using instances of Kontakt 5 and EW PLAY in my template
This would be a really helpful future and I know that in Cubase for example a similar function exists (disable track) which does unload the tracks out of RAM, but it doesn´t seem to work that way in SONAR
Am I doing something wrong?
I wrote cakewalk about it, but still waiting for an answer....
 
Thanks!!
 
Gis
 
 

Archived tracks basically become nonexistent as far as the project is concerned (except for the space that they take up). They are not processed in any way so you are correct in thinking they shouldn't take up any CPU power, Ram or hard drive bandwidth.
TBH, I don't think I've ever even used archive tracks feature. I may have experimented with it back in the late 90's on Cakewalk Pro audio when I had a Pentium 2 Actually im not even sure if PA had an archive feature.
 
With this being said, the synths might need to be unloaded. After archiving, try restarting the project / Re boot Sonar. 

Yes, the synths indeed need to be unloaded in the synth rack to take them out of RAM. 
It would be very handy if this was done automatically when archiving tracks, like this disable track function in Cubase.
Maybe something for the future....
 
Like this, in a big orchestral template, I would be able to archive all tracks to start with to have a low CPU and RAM usage from the start and then un-archive (is this a word?) just the tracks I use for that project.
 
 

What about this for a suggestion?

Save those "archived" tracks as track templates - then use a small template project, and add the track templates as needed.

It doesn't make sense to load up a template project with a bunch of archived tracks that you may never use.

Please ignore this if I'm not understanding what you're trying to do ;-)

Hey!
 
Thanks for your input!
I´ve done this already. I´ve saved every orchestral section as a separate track template
But for orchestral scoring it´s quite normal to have a template of hundreds (or more) tracks to have all sounds at hand, so if the archive option would take the samples out of memory, that would be a great RAM saver in such a big template!
I´m asking because I saw a youtube video where someone does exactly that in Cubase. Have this big orchestral template but "disable" unused tracks and they are removed from RAM, but unfortunately this doesn´t seem to happen in SONAR as far as I´m aware.
So I´ll have to find a way to work around that trying to keep the RAM usage within limits :)
 
 

How about "disconnecting" the synths in synth rack - that should unload them from memory.

Or, maybe put in a "MIDI dummy note" on each track - and freeze the synth?
Then you'd just unfreeze and delete the dummy note - to use the track...

I run my orchestral template using 5 or 6 instances of Play (EWQLSO Platinum)
Each instance is disconnected via the Synth Rack so loading the template takes literally seconds.
 
I then just connect each one as I need it (strings, brass, woods etc)

Since you can route more than one midi track to a synth, it is logical that archiving a track does not unload the synth itself.