Project and Audio Stops

Konrad, you get the award for most off-the-wall Sonar problems. I wish I had an answer for you but have never experienced anything even remotely like that. I guess the only way to get a significant clue is to find out what happens at those repeatable points in songs that makes the project stop. Normally it would be an audio engine overload, but poltergeists are a strong possibility as well. 
 
Try this:
 
Archive all your tracks except for the most plain-vanilla audio track in the project. See if it plays all the way through (and hope that it does...).
 
If it does, then keep adding tracks to see if something about one particular track causes the problem. If so, then it's time to get out the magnifying glass to see what's going on with that particular track.
 
Good luck!

Wasn't X1 real buggy?? 

Thank you for the thoughtful advice and, yes, my so-called turn-key purchase has been a nightmare from day 1. I have an album now one year overdue.

I will try the advice but how do I archive tracks I can't freeze, and what do I do with Melodyne tracks I can't bounce? (Freezing has not worked reliably since EZD2 and I've never been able to bounce Melodyne.)

So, I froze most of the VIs thinking that would help since there has been a long standing problem with audio disapparing when there are several VIs.  (It's never the same number.)
 
After freezing, when I hit play, the transport doesn't move and the green play light on the console flashes in Pause mode.  Then I get the busy spinning thing.
 
After trying a couple of times to play the project, Sonar crashes.

OK, thanks.  On my agenda today:
1-Try the Anderton Archive method.  Maybe that will unlock the mystery.
2-Check all the inputs and outputs and see if they were somehow changed, since this is a known EZD2 issue.  (It wouldn't explain the transport issue but might explain the silent audio).
3-If all else fails: a-save off the MIDI (to desktop as *.mid) for the tracks I have changed b-save off the drum MIDI the same way, c-open an older version of the project, d-completely delete EZ Drummer and recreate the drum tracks with another VI, e-try to remember the many Melodyne edits I did to get the doubling right and to get fix the singer's rhythm, and f-start from scratch mixing since my mix changes will be lost and I will have a new drum kit.
 
Strange note: When I tried to load the project again last night, I got the message that there was no audio device present.  Audio was working for non-Sonar apps, so somehow Sonar got screwed up.  A reboot usually fixes this but it was late and I was too annoyed to mess with it anymore.
 
Just a comment: As popular as Sonar and Toontrack are, I can't believe this Ez Drummer 2 issue is just hanging out there with no resolution and no updates from either company.

sock monkey
Hmm, I was just wonderin about X1 as it seems the  upgrade has been real cheap, so wonderin why anyone would keep using an older problematic version. 
Konradh, me myself I would download the X3 trial version or upgrade and see if you issue goes away. Sort of worth a look see..

I agree, but I've had offline dialogs with Konrad, and his computer is highly problematic. I think X3 would definitely be worth using instead of X1, but I get the sense there are other problems that don't relate specifically to Sonar. I suspect when he finishes his current project he'll regroup.

konradh
Catch-22: a rather full disk is probably making things worse but these weird issues force me to keep saving versions which in turn eats up disk space.  GRR.

Go to Best Buy and for under $100, get an external drive for saving your Sonar per-project folders. You'll thank me 

The Picture Cache defaults to the C: drive, so that might be your problem.
 
In the AUD.INI file, you can specify a different location for the picture cache AND increase its size. This documentation should help - they're the second and third items down.
 
You can change the location of the Wave files folder in Preferences > File > Folder Locations. Move the folder, then specify the new location.

The real advantage to bundling and unbundling a project is the process rebuilds the project file. It may clean up some issues. It will definitely shrink projects that have been bloated by excessive audio snap markers. Of course the projects cannot be actively relying on audio snap at the time of bundling.

Thanks, guys. Y'all are awesome.

 
 

Konrad, I'd recommend trying the least invasive things first. You didn't mention which drive had disk space problems...but if it's the C drive and the problem is the picture cache (I have no reason to believe it is or isn't, other than a tech mentioning it), then saving to a different drive would cause the same problem because no matter what drive you're saving to, you're still saving pictures to and loading them from the C drive. Also the documentation I referenced tells how to increase the size of the picture cache. If the size of the folder equals the maximum space allocated, that could be a problem as well. But these are all things you can check out without having to make any fundamental changes to your setup. You can park the picture file anywhere, as long as you tell Sonar where to look for it in the AUD.INI file, as described previously.
 
Removing a string library is something that your projects likely reference. That kind of thing should be done as a last resort and only if you suspect the string library is the source of the problem. Usually a library is going to be an innocent bystander. There are other ways to reclaim disk space. Also I don't know if you tried archiving the tracks to help isolate if a particular track is causing Sonar to stop.
 
Finally, the filename without the disk references is 69 characters long; with them, 103 characters. Microsoft says "Windows usually limits file names to 260 characters. But the file name must actually be shorter than that, since the complete path (such as C:\Program Files\filename.txt) is included in this character count. This is why you might occasionally encounter an error when copying a file with a very long file name to a location that has a longer path than its current location." So you're probably okay, but just be aware there are limits.
 
I get the feeling a lot of these attempted fixes are making the problem worse because the problem has not been defined closely enough. I think we need more diagnostics. For example before counting out the picture cache as a possible source of problems, we need to know where it lives, how much space it takes up, and the capacity of the drive it's on. Then it's possible to decide whether it might be an issue or not. If not, then it's time to gather data on the next option. If so, then you can try moving it and seeing if that makes a difference.

hi Konrad, hang in there...
To get the missing audio you can just copy the 'audio' folder from your old project to the folder where your new project is, don't let some missing audio clips get you ;)
Or search your computer for the missing files, if you find 1 you have them all right there....copy past the location or just copy the audio files to your new location.
Had a few projects that crashed when I did audio snap or made sample rate changes....especially in combination with multiple VST sometimes Sonar cannot read the project and crashes.
I found that Sonar not being able to properly read the project is more often the problem rather than a 'real' problem like a software prob....so many VST's and they sometimes not work well together and Sonar fails to read it.
good luck
 
 

BTW I assume you have the latest Kontakt update, but you might want to check the NI service center just in case.

Well, all the tech's theories about the C drive being too full were logical, but I just checked C and it is (and has been) 53% free.  Since I cleaned my D drive up, it is 40% free.
 
Either D and not C was the problem or this had nothing to do with disk space.  After I cleaned off D I was told D didn't matter and C was the problem.  So, I am back to square one.
 
However, this thread could be worth researching:
http://forum.cakewalk.com...e-SOLVED-m2690113.aspx
 
QUESTION:  I am reading about the PictureCache being too large and also about cleaning out the contents.  Is it OK to empty the picture cache?  I have lots of projects that do not display the waveforms except as straight lines.
 
BTW, I cannot find the Picture Cache on my machine.  I have searched for every variation I can think of.
 
EDIT:  The error message I got referred to pictures on the D drive.  If that means "Cakewalk Projects | Pictures" then the file is not large and it is not on C.  Here's how big it is:
 
598 MB (627,624,248 bytes)
 
The error message said:
 
RIFF File Open failed:
D:\Cakewalk
Projects\Pictures\Project1--Kontakt-5-1-Kt--st--1-Kt--st--1--Mix--2359--1cfc01390287334.WOV