Problem with Native instruments software/hardware and Sonar 8.5 studio

Hey there, new guy here needing some advice.

I just recently brought 8.5 Studio and have been using it with NI's Mashcine, Kore Player, Guitar Rig 4 and Reaktor 5. But it just doesn't seem to work. The NI programs are working fine as stand alone software, no issues with opening/saving, hanging or slowdown and crashes are very rare. As soon as they are in use within Sonar (with all the patches) it all becomes an unstable mess.

My current issue is constant crashes when saving, so much so that I've now carried out the same edits about six times. This is occurring in a small project including Maschine and Kore player (CPU at <5%). Also experience crashes when doing something, say turning an EQ on, while audio is playing back.

I'm running Windows 7 64bit
E8600@3.3GHZ
4Gb Ram
DX 11
NI Audio Kontrol
All service center updates for the NI stuff
Maschine is v.1.5

Checked the Windows event viewer and it is stating that it is Sonar.exe that is having the issues.

I've had a good look through the NI forum and here and haven't really found a solution. Any ideas? This is all getting a little frustrating.

Cheers,.

Bartak202


Hey there, new guy here needing some advice.

I just recently brought 8.5 Studio and have been using it with NI's Mashcine, Kore Player, Guitar Rig 4 and Reaktor 5. But it just doesn't seem to work. The NI programs are working fine as stand alone software, no issues with opening/saving, hanging or slowdown and crashes are very rare. As soon as they are in use within Sonar (with all the patches) it all becomes an unstable mess.

My current issue is constant crashes when saving, so much so that I've now carried out the same edits about six times. This is occurring in a small project including Maschine and Kore player (CPU at <5%). Also experience crashes when doing something, say turning an EQ on, while audio is playing back.

I'm running Windows 7 64bit
E8600@3.3GHZ
4Gb Ram
DX 11
NI Audio Kontrol
All service center updates for the NI stuff
Maschine is v.1.5

Checked the Windows event viewer and it is stating that it is Sonar.exe that is having the issues.

I've had a good look through the NI forum and here and haven't really found a solution. Any ideas? This is all getting a little frustrating.

Cheers,.

Although I'm on Win XP Pro 32bit, I run all those NI products (except Audio Control).   I have literally no problems with them.  But - in general - crashes (subject to the type of crash) are more often caused by a driver conflict.
 
So a few questions:  
 
- Are you sure you're running the "64 bit" versions, especially with the Audio Kontrol?
- When you do crash, what error messages (specifically) are you seeing?   Are there any blue screens of death (BSOD's) or generic windows error messages, or Sonar error messages?
 
The more information you can provide the more likely some of us can help solve this.
 
Also - have you checked your RAM, Power Supply, Cables, etc?  (Ie, maybe there's a hardware problem in your system)? 
  
 I'm guessing, but I suspect it has nothing to do with the software (NI), but either a bad Sonar install, system hardware (RAM, etc), or audio driver problem.
 
I say this because you say you get a crash just by turning on EQ, which is not related to the NI software.
 
 

A1MixMan


I use Kore 2 and Win7 64bit as well as Sonar 8.5.

At first I thought Kore 2 was crashing alot, and then I discovered that it was just waiting for me to click on some dialog box that WAS BEHIND Kore 2. Kore 2 seems to always want to be on top of other widows, even it's own dialogs. So check behind Kore 2 (or even Machine) and see if that's the problem. Otherwise, Kore 2 is working great for me, as well as Kontakt Player 4 and other NI synths.

Just as an FYI (ie, I'm not challenging you on this), I don't have the "behind the screen" or "always wants to be on top" problem on my system.  So I wonder if it's a Win7/64bit issue, since I'm on XP Pro 32bit.
 
 

Hey guys,

Thanks for all the replies. Working through some suggestions now.

Couple of answers:

@Fog

Using as a VST and using ASIO (worth trying ASIO4ALL?)
Sonar is has both 8.5.2 and 8.5.3 updates.
I've been checking the crashes using Windows Event Viewer. eg:

EVENT 1002 Application Hang

The program SONARSTD.EXE version 17.5.3.282 stopped interacting with Windows and was closed. To see if more information about the problem is available, check the problem history in the Action Center control panel.
 Process ID: 14bc
 Start Time: 01cb278b39fb878e
 Termination Time: 28
 Application Path: C:\Program Files\Cakewalk\SONAR 8.5 Studio\SONARSTD.EXE
 Report Id: f22dadd5-937e-11df-8ccf-002522059217

@ba_midi

Interesting, any ideas how I'd go about checking whether these are 32/63bit? I'm pretty sure Kore is still at 32bit as they haven't got Reaktor up to 64bit yet and that is used within Kore2

There are two drivers for the interface on my machine one in program files and one in program files (x86). It is currently using the newer file that is not in the (x86) folder.

I tend to just get program freezeing, then if i click the Arrange it goes to (Not Responding), whites out and then i get the Windows message informing me the program has stopped responding and will close. Same every time, no BSOD.

Haven't checked out my hardware yet. Was gonna see if there was a known problem/solution first then start diagnosing RAM/PSU etc.

@A1MixMan

Quite sure that isn't the issue, though I know how annoying that can be. Reaktor VST is a killer for that, also with the hidden auto save box when you open a new ensemble.

Thanks again all.

Bartak202



I'm running Windows 7 64bit
E8600@3.3GHZ
4Gb Ram
DX 11
NI Audio Kontrol
All service center updates for the NI stuff
Maschine is v.1.5

Checked the Windows event viewer and it is stating that it is Sonar.exe that is having the issues.

Which version of SONAR are you running..? 32-bit or 64-bit?

-eB

"I tend to just get program freezeing, then if i click the Arrange it goes to (Not Responding), whites out and then i get the Windows message informing me the program has stopped responding and will close."
 
This sounds exactly like my problem.
 
Yeah, my problem could be related to Win7. I don't know as I started using Win7 before Kore 2.

For me, Kore 2 would be working fine and then I would click on something, and the dialog would open up, but I wouldn't know it because it was behind the main Kore 2 screen, so I would sit there waiting for Kore 2 to do what I wanted it to, but instead it was actually waiting for me. Which I then interpreted as a crash. I would then try to close Kore or even Sonar and then it would crash for real. Once I figured out what was happening, that problem was solved and Kore has been very stable. It still might crash once in a while, but that's to be expected.

@A1 Mix Man
Gave your theory a good test and it's not the issue, though it's certainly caught me out before.

@eBlue

Interesting, I think you've got a good point. I've made some progress, but still having issues with Kore 2. So i think yours may be the solution till things have moved on a bit. Cheers

I have a main VST folder to keep things simple within Sonar and it looks like I dragged the standard .dll's into it, guess I didn't see the folder clearly labeled VSTPlugins 64 bit!

That seems to have fixed the issues with Machine and Guitar Rig.

Kore seems to still have a few issues, but my guess now is that cause it is only 32 bit. Would JBridge sort that? Whats the deal, do you load it as the instrument then load the VST into it?

Thanks again for the help.