Problem with Volume Envelope just "Not Working"

I thought I had posted this before, but can't find it.

SONAR 8.5 Producer ...

I have an MCU Pro and 2 extenders ... normally everything works great. Today, and this has happened before, I'll record some automation, usually by moving the Mackie faders during play as it is in "Write enable" and it draws the envelope fine. It will also playback the automation fine for awhile, and then ... bam ... all of a sudden it just quits working! Fader does not move in SONAR or on Mackie while playing, although the automation displays fine, and yes ... "Read" is enabled. Also ... the level does not change - like the automation is not even there. Automation on other tracks continues to be fine.

Two notes on this ... first, if play is stopped, and I click around in the timleine, it does snap to where it's supposed to be at that moment - so at some level it still "sees" the envelope. Second ... If I CLONE the entire track, automation on the new track now works! And no, it is not limited to a certain Mackie fader channel. Happened at least three times today to me while doing some heavy volume automation with a client sitting here. Embarrassing.

I have not yet tried it without the Mackie connected to see if that is part of the issue. Neither have I rendered to see if it ignores it there too.

Any ideas on this anyone?

I have seen effects cause that. Some of the Sonitus effects specifically.

I have also seen what Jeff was describing, where the automation stopped responding but came back after closing the project and re-opening it.

Most of the other envelope weirdnesses were back in SONAR 7, and I haven't seen any of them in 8.x. But the problem with the Sonitus plugs is still there.

I'll record some automation

Just to be clear, this is an audio volume envelope, not MIDI volume, right?

I've not had any issues with the Channel Tools plugin, and I use it a lot - on every stereo track. I doubt the Mackie is at fault because it wouldn't prevent the levels from changing within SONAR.

Your description sounds exactly like an old bug from SONAR 7, where automation would stop playing back, but if you manually moved the Now marker the correct envelope value would be read. The most common incarnation of that bug was losing automation after a track had been frozen and subsequently unfrozen. In that case, I was able to get automation back by bouncing the track.

If you can strip your project down to bare minimum to consistently show the problem, send it to CW. I know they'd want to diagnose the problem, and maybe slip a fix into the next version, if not 9.0 then 9.1.

Thanks guys .... I guess it's just a bug and I'll have to try these things to get a "functional work-around" - quite frustrating ... and if there a lot of tracks and some subtle envelope moves ... could be easily missed that one is not working - therefore exporting a mix that is not really what you want or did.

+1 on the envelope problem. 

It seems to happen very often when I add a new envelope to a track - the envelope doesn't actually work (no fader movement) until I close and re-open the project. This has been happening for the last several versions and is fairly reproducible.


This happens on tracks recorded in sonar and tracks imported - so i don't think that makes a difference.

I'm having the envelopes not working problem too. I'll tell you what, I wish I could get back the 8.5.3 set up. I've been with 2016 for a couple of months now and my workflow is being crippled.

I know, just looking for envelope answers and ran into this.