Sonar X1 Bugs

As much as I like where Sonar is headed with the new Skylight interface, I as much or more - hate the cheesy bugs that they have allowed to slip through testing. Many of these bugs should have been caught and addressed before releasing.
 
Someone at cakewalk in the management level should get fired for approving this release.

Quite a few annoying bugs indeed. And the fact that the sale went ahead BEFORE the manual is out is beyond my understanding.

Anyhow, here are a few bugs I noticed:

1. Inspector: occasionally clicking from pro channel to other tabs resulted in the meter appearing behind the labels. GUI issue.

2. Staff view: no way to select and edit notes if they are in leger lines way beyond the staves (and out of view). Terribly annoying. I've undocked the staff view, expanded it etc - and I still cannot select the notes on the higher leger lines.

3. For some unknown reason, tracks could not be armed for recording after a while. I had to click everywhere by trial and error, and eventually I could arm again - again for unknown reason.

4. This is probably not a bug (maybe due to my ignorance): for some reason, I just couldn't get the metronome to work. In audio mode, I couldn't assign any audio file to the metronome. In the midi mode, after assigning the right channel to the midi source (and sound source), I still couldn't get it to work. I'm sure this is my problem - but then since there's no manual, I'm left in the dark. 

5. When I start up X1 Producer, the message "Cannot find Master.ini" kept coming up.

However, I do like the Skylight interface. Having most things right up front is a definite improvement from the previous versions. Definite improved workflow. Really like the ACT function (good thinking - almost like the Automap function in Novation controllers), but haven't got time to play with it yet. Rushing to complete a project - and I'm half shooting myself for having uninstalled SP8.5 and installed X1P in it's place. 

Yikes! I think there have been some harsh things said, but this might take the (wait for it..........)
cake.

stickman393


So far, no crashes here. 

Whoever approved the work on stability issues at the expense of cosmetic trivia deserves some credit.

I've had one, but it was DP (the groove stuff which I believe has been a problem since forever??)

chrisharbin


Yikes! I think there have been some harsh things said, but this might take the (wait for it..........)
cake.

Anyone working for Cakewalk that is familiar with recording and programming midi in 8.5 could sit down and work with X1 for a few days trying to record and use virtual instruments and would have a LIST of issues (Scan through the recent posts here). It is clear that someone up the chain chose to IGNORE this list and push it out the door.

You want to make sure this doesn't happen again? Fire a manager and watch everyone else get the message.

I'm not trying to print sheet music, just editing. My preference is editing through staff view, not piano roll or other view. Thanks for the PRV tip though.

Another issue I just found out:

During sequencing of midi, real-time recording of CC changes (mainly volume) via the Inspector does nothing. I've already enabled the Write Parameters. I can see the changes reflected during recording/sequencing. But somehow the volume change via the Inspector is not linked to the VST instrument.

Other issues may be due to Kontakt and not Sonar, something I've not noticed in 8.5. CPU peak appears to be more than before and caused Kontakt to hit a snag during playing, then all audio stops (although midi is still going on). A few seconds later, the audio returns. Probably also because I'm using Kontakt 3.5. Perhaps version 4 may be better. Probably not a Sonar issue, but nevertheless something that came up that wasn't there before.

During sequencing of midi, real-time recording of CC changes (mainly volume) via the Inspector does nothing. I've already enabled the Write Parameters. I can see the changes reflected during recording/sequencing. But somehow the volume change via the Inspector is not linked to the VST instrument.

 
I just checked this and had no problem. I can write both audio and MIDI volume envelopes using the Inspector volume widget on both playback and recording, and the synth responds to the MIDI envelope both while recording, and on playback.
 
Are you saying no envelope is written, or the synth doesn't respond to it? Whatever the problem is I don't think it's X1. Have you verified the synth even responds to CC7? Some don't.
 
I prefer to put the envelope on the audio output in any case. Some synths don't respond smoothly to real-time MIDI volume changes.

Ok. A number of issues had been resolved while others are becoming clearer when they actually happen.

1. Metronome issue resolved. Looks like it has something to do with my Master.ini. Resetting that solved it.
2. Volume changes now working! Looks like an erratic issue. It wasn't working. After I restarted Sonar, it worked. A few things I realised require some kind of reboot of Sonar. Will report if the problem recurs. Now I'm happy I can make volume changes real-time.
3. Another issue is note hanging after stopping recording mid-way when a midi note is playing. Not difficult to get rid of it. But will be nice if notes don't hang all the time when I press the stop button.
4. Audio "blackout" (I'm not sure what else to call it) is resolved each time when I restart Sonar. I'm trying to isolate when it actually happens. And it appears that it occured when I'm typing in this forum! I'm sure it's nothing to do with the forum of course! But running Internet Explorer somehow stops all audio. I'm Ok with this - since my machine is a dedicated DAW and I almost never go on the net. Only these few days because of the issues I'm encountering while working on my project.

2. Staff view: no way to select and edit notes if they are in leger lines way beyond the staves (and out of view)

Cheez, I experimented some more this morning, and found this while working with notes on extreme ledger lines:  I can place a note as much as 13 lines below a staff--!, and move it up to change its note value, but notes already place that far down can't be selected again. 

And while I can place notes as low as 13 lines below the staff - that's hardly a practical way to work.  That indicates that wrong Clef is being used.

The highest I could go above the staff was 4 ledger lines - or, if I wasn't displaying another track/staff above that staff, I could go to 5 ledger lines.

--When I first started using Cakewalk (Pro Audio 9), I did a lot of work in the Staff View because the Piano Roll View didn't feel right to me - it doesn't look like Music in there.  But then I slowly changed my work habits - and am glad I did.  There are severe limitations to doing sequencing work in the Staff View, the ledger line issue you brought up being just one of them.  Now the only time I go to Staff is to take a look, double checking what I've done, but my editing just Has to be done in PRV where I can access all data controlling the MIDI part of my projects.  And I can slip notes around if I want, with the Grid off, not resulting in the horrible mess you see in Staff View if you have unquantized notes.

This PRV isn't improved from previous versions.  As has been said many times, it's safe to say it never will be. 

RB

Thanks rbowser. My issue with the staff view is the ledger above the staves. I don't mind switching over to PRV. It's just not my preference and how I'm wired. My arrangements is highly complex and sequenced live - PRV to me looks just like a load of messy dots all over the place. Staff view editing works way faster for me. I see the entire music and I know exactly where I am and which notes I need to edit. Personal preference. Perhaps I do need to re-learn my workflow.

Anyhow, I'm glad I completed my project - and within the given time frame. But not without a few problems. And I had one crash (thankfully I've saved my changes just prior to the crash).

I also realized the staff view takes up quite a bit of CPU resources when opened, especially when it's open during recording and playback. The crash I experienced happened when I attempted recording when the staff view is opened.

Kontakt 3.5 appears to be quite a problem in X1. I load quite a bit of samples (large libraries). And the larger samples are the ones that cause some kind of audio "blackout" - requiring me to reload the sample, or restarting Sonar.

The midi note hanging is getting to be quite annoying. The ONLY way to get rid of it properly is to play the hanging note (by the correct VST). Hitting the "reset audio and midi" button stops the hanging note, but also reset a number of my plugins' volume (a selective number of them had their volume reset to the 127 value). The volume is reset within the VST control, not the Inspector. I had to readjust the volume level again if I hit the reset button.

Giannis


Can anyone get Audiosnap to work properly?

I certainly can't get it to quantize any audio.

The only method that worked for me, my young padwan, is to right click somewhere in the AS enabled clip (avoiding transient markers) and choose Quantize to Pool from the Pool option (second from the bottom).  The only thing you need to do before you make this option work is to add a clip to the pool.

All else fails, without the force.

Kind regards,

Living Room Rocker
livin in a van down by the river.

bmdaustin, my specs: Sony Vaio notebook C2D 2.8 GHz (my desktop mobo is not working at the moment - otherwise a quad core there), 6GB RAM, external USB 2 HD at 7200rpm (dedicated sample streaming), Win7 and entirely dedicated and optimized for DAW, Echo Indigo DJ, M-audio midi interface. All drivers up to date. I've been using Kontakt since ages past. And I've used my notebook for live performance using Kontakt many times. This is the first time I'm encountering issues with Kontakt - so I guess it's a mismatch with X1. 

I'm planning to upgrade to Komplete 7, but then because I just got X1P, I won't be upgrading my Komplete anytime soon. Wonder if I should have upgraded my Komplete instead of Sonar... The key performance boost with Kontakt 4 is the loading time. Doubt 3.5 is that bad - it served me well. It's also natively 64bit, just like Kontakt 4.

Doubt HD is the issue. I've done 30+ simultaneous full orchestral tracks for sample streaming before (on an old P3, but using SCSI HD at 10,000rpm running Giga). So I know how much a 7200rpm can push. My current project is only 9 tracks of sample streaming.

Try raising the MIDI playback buffer in the MIDI Playback and Recording preference pane. It may have defaulted too low.

cheez


Actually, I'm trembling with fear. I have a live performance in a few days time, during when I'm using X1P. I shouldn't have uninstalled 8.5. I can only cross my fingers that nothing happens during the performance. Need a backup plan...but no backup plan will work if the "audio blackout" happens right in the middle of my piece.

Why do I feel we're beta testing here?

Occasional crashes when recording, I can't seem to draw a line envelope for the Volume envelopes. 
Some **** with my macky onyx 1620, sometimes sonar gets the sample rate wrong and after restarting a few times it works well...