Sonar will not stop at end of project (and a long and winded story)

I am on X2 (64bit). Under certain circumstances, Sonar will not stop at the end of the project and continue to play for another 4 or 5 minutes. This is an irritating bug, and a search on this forum has once again confirmed that it is a know bug for a long time and has been reported to Cakewalk many times. The fact that Cakewalk is not interested in fixing it has caused them, and me serious business. I checked my option stop at project end is ticked and there are no midi events or automation events after the real project end.
 
And now for the long and winded story. Names places and story details have been changed to protect the innocent.
 
I have been bugging a big time engineer friend with a big time studio (and a wall full of gold disks) a long time to throw some work my way, which he has kindly done. I've done some orchestrations for some of his projects. Most of the time pretty successfully. Well, Mr big-time-engineer uses that other big-time-DAW that some people consider the industry standard. Needless to repeat I use this non-industry-standard DAW called Sonar. Mr-big-time engineer has this big-time-client who wanted some orchestrations done, so Mr-big-time-engineer threw the bone my way, who did this most beautifully job. The whole job was done in Notion 4 (another not-so-industry-standard-I-know) and Sonar and rendered down to a big wav. After a night-through-no-sleep session I am done. With pride in my step I walked into Mr-big-time-engineer's studio, with the big-time-client anxiously waiting on Mr-big-time-engineer's leather sofa in the back of the studio. I handed the CD to Mr-big-time-engineer, who duly pop in said CD into computer and copied the wav file into the project for listening pleasure of  the big-time-client, casually questioning me "Why is the file 5 and a half minutes. The song is only 3". Feeling a little confused I had no answer to offer, which was OK then, as Mr-big-time-engineer started playing the song for the big-time-cient, who giggled of pleasure upon hearing the results. The big-time-cient immediately demanded a copy of song on CD to play for the producer, sponsor, friend, mother, and any other random persons he would convince to listen to it. Mr-big-time-engineer duly complied to request and burned project to CD. Upon investigating CD before handing it to the big-time-client Mr-big-time-engineer suddenly let go of one load and ugly swearword. "This song is 5 and a half minutes. What is wrong here" or something similar with a few extra F words. Then Mr-big-time-engineer looked at me and asked THE question: "Eric, are you still using that ......... software? If I remember right this has been a problem with Sonar for a long time. When are you going to move over to a professinal DAW?"
 
OK, needles to say, Mr-big-time-engineer had to save the day by burning another CD and the big-time-client could not stop laughing. Finally commenting something like "If you want to play with the pros you have to start playing like a pro" before leaving.
 
Needless to say I felt like a total donkey and probably lost out on a big break. Mr-big-time-engineer has many other orchestrators to call upon. I embarred him in from of a client, something that will not be mentioned again, but remembered forever. The big-time-client will probably never ask for my services again. At the end of this story I die in a gutter, a forgotten genius artist with no penny to spare.
 
Cakewalk. When are you planning to solve this problem?

Bristol_Jonesey


In my experience, there is ALWAYS something out there causing the project to play longer than where you THINK it should stop.

Off course there is. We just have to find it and avoid Sonar from putting it there

Have you checked for Tempo changes? Meter/Key changes? These events do not get recorded in the Event List
 

Checked, Checked

Are there any hidden/archived tracks with data out there? Have you checked the Event List displaying ALL tracks simultaneously.
 

No, Checked

sounds like MRBTE is an unprofessional hypocrite. He made the same oversight as you did by neglecting to check the length and then tried to save face by pointlessly blaming you for something so trivial, infront of a client no less. Its nothing to do with sonar at all. Set your timeline selection before bouncing and then give your final file a proof listen. Standard practice.

I'm with bristol_jonesey. In my experience there is always an event somewhere that is present that keeps Sonar going. Nothing that has ever appeared on it's own either. YMMV of course.

Not sure I'd be rendering down files of such importance and handing them over without having listened to them first either, but that's just me.

That kind of thing can happen with any DAW. 

Like Karl, I ALWAYS listen completely through a rendered take before handing it over to a client. Just best practice.

Somehow, I just knew this thread was going to be a backlash: that error is the kind of boneheaded thing that can happen to anyone.

Still, in this day and age, people are quick to blame 'the computer' whenever things go stray.

I honestly think this is just a case of it not working right when you use it wrong. Tell the program what time range to export. This is not a bug. 

Oh and MBTE sounds like an arse. Pleased with the content but bent out of shape about something so trivial? WTH?

Actually, too much 'extra' time isn't the usual 'issue' - it's getting your effect tails chopped off by default. In Sonar, you have to manually select more time than the piece just so your reverb doesn't sound like it got hit with an axe. It would be nice if there were someway you could just tell Sonar to run past some certain amount of time - (anybody?). 

Another one is Sonar is sensitive to which audio tracks (or not) are selected when rendering - despite the 'Export' dialog (really should be named 'Render'..) showing 'Entire Mix'.

Hi Folks, I've got the same problem. When exporting, the song runs past the end point for about 7 seconds. I've checked the events list and piano roll--nothing past the end point. When I go to export I deselect "fast bounce", thinking I'll just hit the space bar at the end point. Trouble is the program keeps going 7 seconds past the end point. I'm not sure how to "set the timeline selection before bouncing" as perfectprint suggested. Any ideas? Many thanks! Mike

What you're missing is, end of project is not end of track. If you're working on a track in a project that is shorter than the longest track in the project, Sonar keeps going until the end of the project, not the track. Select the tracks, the individual clips you want, and it won't happen. That's the seperation method.

deved.com


Just curious (and I get the same problem of Sonar playing forever or the opposite, truncating a verb trail)... How does Sonar know what the end of a project is? What event does it use to stop? Would be cool to be able place a stop point in purposely.

It goes on the last event written to the project, and that could be one a not small number of things


Many, if not most, have been talked about on this thread already:

• Clip/Midi event
• Audio event
• Envelope node (synth or automation)
• Time signature
• Tempo
• "Shape Event"

I'm sure that's not an exhaustive list

Bristol, Thanks so much! It was all about selecting the correct length of tracks to record by, as you say, swiping across the time ruler. Works great now. Thanks again! Mike

Another quick way to jump to the end of a project is simply to hit ctrl + end. ctrl + home does the opposite