Sonar Platinum Ipswich Performance Problems

I've been doing all the Platinum updates through Command Center and everything had been working fine until when I updated to Ipswich today few problems started happening:
 
1. Sonar itself started taking longer time to open. (at least 20 seconds or more)
2. Any project that was created on Hopkinton version started taking much longer time to open (close to 1 minute)
3. When the project opens, starting playback and stopping caused a 4-5 second delay making Sonar unresponsive.
4. If there was a video on the project, video would keep playing another 4-5 seconds even if I stopped the playback (during the unresponsive 5 seconds)
 
I talked to technical support and the agent today. He made me delete the AUD.INI file and start the program again. That didn't solve the issue. I tried bypassing all the FX and synth plugins but that didn't solve the issue either. Even when I created a new session in Ipswich, the problem continued. Finally tech support agent made me roll back to Hopkinton (because I'm under a deadline on my project) via the command center and everything works normal as before.
 
So looks like there might be a problem with Ipswich? I haven't tried unsintalling and installing Sonar completely yet, but since I'm in the middle of a project I wouldn't want to do that now.
 
I'm using Sonar Platinum on Windows 10 with RME Fireface UC soundcard on an Intel i7-3820 with 32 GB Ram. No problems with Hopkinton and previous versions at all. Just Ipswich.
 
On an additional note, for me Media Foundation Video engine is still problematic and glitchy compared to DirectShow. Flickers the video everytime I start and stop playback, doesn't stretch correctly to the aspect ratio, when I hit rewind (W) the video takes 2-3 times to completely rewind. (Using AVI video, other formats even have more problems). So I still have to use Directshow. I would think that would have been fixed by now.
 
Thanks.

PilotGav
When I open a project, not only does it take a LOOONG time... my Faderport fader goes nuts, moving up and down and flashing as if it's going between two tracks every half second.
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r5ebde_a1Ns
 

Mine used to do that for no apparent reason for a few years now. Somehow, the routing for the controller would get screwed up.
To fix this, I would unplug the Faderport usb plug, open Sonar, remove Faderport from the controllers list, close Sonar, open Sonar, add the Faderport as a controller, close Sonar and write protect the two files that reference it, ctrlsurface.dat and one other.
If you're interested, I can look up what the other file is and update this post...

It's been discussed before.
IMHO Sonar is not using a separate process (like auto VST scan has) to update the news feed. Hence it holds it up.
Same thing maybe when it reads in the project files and picture previews. It may also not support lazy loading.
I'm not sure how the thumbnail pictures and other stuff gets cached either. It's likely the first time you run it... It will take longer than the second time..
Also note it takes extra time to save a thumbnail preview, not sure how efficient the code will be.
 
Bakers could confirm if I'm correct or not.
 
Until we get improvements here you could try putting in a firewall rule to block internet from the Sonar app.
Or just disable the start screen.
 
For a quick test disable your network interface card to see how quickly Sonar starts without internet.

Ok. Read the ezine.Was there any performance fixes with Ipswich?
So what is the issue? Have I got anywhere near it?
Maybe OP can still can do the no internet test. Certainly people saw it speed up with the Hop update and no internet hence my conclusions (right or wrong).
Cheers.

^^ The "how long after boot" is a good point that rarely gets asked. Windows has a lot of "delayed start" processes that need to come online/stabilize before a user can have full use of an "idle" machine.

Windows update wouldn't take account of the fact that people have been reporting that blocking the internet speeds it up. Not sure if ipswitch has changed the behaviour. Assuming caching is being used first time you update Sonar and run it's bound to be slow, whether cache is cleared on every update no idea(or whether cache is involved at all or not right now). Nobody has specifically pointed to it as a Win10 issue.

EDIT: I found the main reason why everything is slower in Ipswich for me (which never happened in previous versions including Hopkinton). I have about 340 tracks in my template. They don't have any audio or MIDI data in them. It's just Vienna Ensemble Pro orchestral template that I use for projects. Half of them (170) tracks are MIDI tracks ready for recording something. and the other half (170) are the Instrument (Audio) tracks that are associated with the specific output of each MIDI track. (which all of this is a very common template for Orchestral etc. usage).
 
Every version since Ipswich had absolutely no slow down at all with this template. But now with Ipswich I tried deleting the tracks in chunks and more I deleted these empty template tracks, it started doing the lag less and less and when there is only 3 to 5 tracks left, the audio tracks itselves (3 audio tracks only with data) play perfectly.
Again, this never happened in previous versions. Looks like there is some handling problem with Ipswich.. So rolling back to Hopkinton again until there is a fix.

Just updated to ipswitch and the program is freezing and shutting down when I select midi & audio tracks and "copy" them.. FYI.  I rolled back to the previous update.
 
CM

Arghhh
 
Updated and now I'm freezing on audio edits and the lag on my virtual synths is nasty :/

Maestro6
EDIT: I found the main reason why everything is slower in Ipswich for me (which never happened in previous versions including Hopkinton). I have about 340 tracks in my template. They don't have any audio or MIDI data in them. It's just Vienna Ensemble Pro orchestral template that I use for projects. Half of them (170) tracks are MIDI tracks ready for recording something. and the other half (170) are the Instrument (Audio) tracks that are associated with the specific output of each MIDI track. (which all of this is a very common template for Orchestral etc. usage).
 
Every version since Ipswich had absolutely no slow down at all with this template. But now with Ipswich I tried deleting the tracks in chunks and more I deleted these empty template tracks, it started doing the lag less and less and when there is only 3 to 5 tracks left, the audio tracks itselves (3 audio tracks only with data) play perfectly.
Again, this never happened in previous versions. Looks like there is some handling problem with Ipswich.. So rolling back to Hopkinton again until there is a fix.

Now, this is interesting. Large / extreme projects are good for spotting performance issues when small changes accumulate ... there have been major changes to how MIDI vs. audio tracks are handled now that you can record synths. I wouldn't be surprised if optimization in the code is possible in a few places ...
 
You should share that template with Cakewalk support.

Open in Safe mode and don't load any plug-ins as a baseline point of comparison.

davec69
I recently subscribed to Sonar Platinum, on the Hopkinton release.   After installing everything, Sonar worked fine.   I was noticing high activity on core 1 of my cpu, but everything seemed to work.
 

Interesting - I opened a project I finished mixing about half a year ago (Braintree?) in Ipswich and I got this unusual high activity on core 1 and lots of drop-outs but haven't had time to follow up yet ...
 
To be honest I have no clue as what could be causing this high CPU use on core 1 (plus the total imbalance with other core which are far less used)  ... of course I have also updated win7 and NI plugs since finishing that mix...
 
Anyone else that???

So, to report back on my findings last night, I started up Sonar in safe mode.  First attempt, I bypassed all plugins, and the project loaded no problem.   Next, I loaded each plugin one at a time until I found the plugin causing the problem.   I found that If I didn't load the Nebula 3 plugin on my drum track, the project would load with all the other plugins.   I was using the same plugins prior to Ipswich, and they were all loading fine.  Not sure what changed.
 
Update!!!!!
I found the cause of my problem above.    A couple days ago I was trying out WASAPI mode, to compare with ASIO.  After I finished, I forgot and left my driver set to WASAPI mode.  This is what caused the sudden problem with Nebula3.   After switching my driver back to ASIO mode, I was able to load my previous project files with out disabling Nebula 3 first.
 
FYI.  I still get the high CPU activity on CPU 1.  Not sure what's going on there. 

FreeFlyBertl

Maestro6
Now, this is interesting. Large / extreme projects are good for spotting performance issues when small changes accumulate ... there have been major changes to how MIDI vs. audio tracks are handled now that you can record synths. I wouldn't be surprised if optimization in the code is possible in a few places ...
 
You should share that template with Cakewalk support.


FreeFlyBertl, what you wrote makes sense, I wonder too if the new recording synths feature might have caused this. I just shared my template with Cakewalk support. Let's see what happens. Thanks!
 

post edited by Maestro6 - 2015/09/22 16:29:09