Very slow project loading - any fixes?

Hi, I'm a new X2 user. Everything works OK, but when I load a project it takes forever, literally minutes! It's very strange. Not a very heavy project, few tracks, no audio so far, 4 or 5 vsti, a few plugins in inserts and master. I can't figure out what's going on. I tried with several freshly created projects - always the same long loading time, but usually just first time after bood. If I close Sonar and open it again then loading seems a bit faster although still not very fast by any means. Is it normal to wait for 3-6 minutes to load a project? Any ideas on how to fix it if it isn't. I'm running a decent system - Core i7, 6GB Ram, good HDDs, Win7 x64 and Tascam FW-1082 audio interface/control surface. I know that Cubase AI loaded projects very fast on this machine - in 10 seconds or so. Any advice? Thanks.

That is not normal. Projects like yours but with the addition of several audio tracks usually load in about 10 secs here. 

I think the defrag tip was a good place to start. You may want to look at the vsts you're loading. Maybe one of them is delaying your startup. Maybe start a new blank project and save it. Then try duplicating the vsts you have on this long to load project and see if one of them is causing this... 


The other thing that comes to mind might be the tascam or midi interface driver needs to be replaced. 

I seem to remember one of the Cake staff saying it's worth leaving the scan on start up on all the time, as it takes very little time nowadays, and makes life easier.

On my system (Windows 7 Professional), Sonar X2a booted slowly, the VSTs loaded slowly and Sonar crashed often! Dan Gonzales, with Cakewalk, had me remove any "Legacy" drivers (not your problem, I think) and said to run Sonar "as Administrator". Since making those changes, Sonar & the VSTs load noticeably faster and have not had any crashes (or other issues) for three days.
 
Doug

Running Sonar as Administrator is always a good idea.

if you have alot of midi softsynths in your project they take time to load,its not always about audio tracks,its loading soft synths.
it can take up to a minute under heavey loads but not 6.
id call tech support or your just going to be guessing along with everyone else,including myself.

Easy way to find out if it's your sample libraries that are causing the long load time: freeze all of your sampled instruments, save the project, close SONAR and re-open the project. Most of the time, the difference will be dramatic. It's not about having Kontakt in your project per se, but rather what libraries it's having to load.

Given the extreme load times you're experiencing, though, the plugin-scan theory is the more likely explanation. There is really no reason to do the scan on every startup. It's only enabled by default to simplify new installations for new users.

slartabartfast

I seem to remember one of the Cake staff saying it's worth leaving the scan on start up on all the time, as it takes very little time nowadays, and makes life easier.

Maybe so. And if un-checking the scan on start up makes the OP's startup faster, maybe the question should be "why does scanning on startup on my machine take so much longer than it should?" If it does not then he can rule out that as the cause of his problem.

The OP is talking about loading projects which surely makes scanning for vst's irrelevant in this case? He's not talking about opening sonar.


I would have said open the projects in safe mode and load each vsti one at a time to see if any are particularly slow.


Steve


Steve

How about adding your vst directories to the "exclude" list of your antivirus software

Your VST scan will never scan your antiviral software unless you go into it and tell it to.. It only scans the VST folder as default. It doesn't scan you whole PC
 
Cj

If you run Kontakt or other NI synths projects will load slower because they need to load their samples into memory. VSTis take a little time to fully load. VSTs shouldn't take much time.

There in no need to stop VST scan on startup now. CW did a lot to make it instant if there is no change. If you have added a VST it will only scan that one. 

Doing the disk defrag and the other scans is good.... also consider a registry scan/repair. Every time I do a registry scan it finds a number of issues.  Good links to locations helps it find things faster. 

That may or may not help. 

It kinda sounds like it's taking the time to load lots of things from disk to memory. I would try an experiment. 

Start a new project and record or drag in one audio track... it can be any audio. 

Close X1 and then reopen it. Note the time. Now add one synth track and record a few measures. again repeat the close/re-open and note the time. 

Your post #20 says that you believe it IS a VST causing the issue. 


There may be one synth in particular that is the culprit. One synth that is taking 4 minutes to load. You may just need to find that one, and it may take some detective work to do. 

Keep notes on what synths are in the project. Then, if and when you find a synth, that when added, causes a long load time, delete if from the synth rack so it's gone from the project and repeat the close/reopen. 

add it again.... recheck the load time, and then remove the OTHER synths and recheck.... It may be one synth, it may be several..... but unless someone else has the definitive answer, this is how I would start on the quest to locate the reason for the long load times.

You can and should also do this if you have not yet done so. Cold boot the the computer and when you run Sonar, RIGHT CLICK the icon and select Run as Administrator.  Don't ask me the particulars but doing that will sometimes allow it to run normally and do what it's supposed to do even when you simply run as a user from that time forward. It's worth a try. I know doing this has solved some other issues in the past for a few people. 


If all else fails, an email to tech couldn't hurt.... just be patient on the reply. 

moebiuscat


The thing is that it only takes a long time after the cold boot. Then if I close X2 and open it again - project takes 18 seconds to load... I already tried it with removing instruments from the rack one by one. Addictive Drums is the worst (3 min), others are more or less equally spread.

That's interesting, have you tried cold booting, opening sonar but not loading any projects, then closing and reopening sonar and seeing if still take 4 minutes.
What is the time gap between cold booting and opening sonar? you would think there was some process running at windows start up that was using your ram or cpu but if that were the case
it should also effect cubase.


Steve

Guitarhacker


AD takes 3 minutes?  That's where I would spend time looking. If they have a forum, go there and ask this question and or contact their support. It sounds like it might be loading tons of samples and not just the one kit it might need. 

Come to think about it, I believe Jamstix ...also a drum program takes a bit longer to load than most of the other synths,,,,, I had forgotten that since I don't use it much these days..... but still nowhere close to the 3 minute mark.... maybe 15 or 20 seconds depending on the kit it was loading....  Most things (VST synths & samples) are loaded in 5 to 10 secs. 

I don't have a particularly large or fast DAW.  Intel i5 with 4G RAM and normal (2) internal drives. 

The thing is it's not happening with the same projects in Cubase which really throws a spanner in the works and makes most of the suggestions here a bit pointless as no one seems to have picked up on this ? 
Also that it's only after a cold boot, once he's opened and closed sonar, and then opened it again projects load normally, but, cubase doesn't do this.
This might suggest something in sonars setting needs to be changed but then why do projects load ok once it's been opened and closed. I'm stumped.

Steve

I was kinda wondering about what drives you were using as well...extrenals can definetly slow things up...I have one that takes about 3-4 minutes to load...

John


If you run Kontakt or other NI synths projects will load slower because they need to load their samples into memory. VSTis take a little time to fully load. VSTs shouldn't take much time.

There in no need to stop VST scan on startup now. CW did a lot to make it instant if there is no change. If you have added a VST it will only scan that one. 

VST scanning is quick IF one has not engaged the 'Rescan existing ...' or 'Rescan failed ..' settings in the VST control panel. If one of those is on, and in particular the former, scanning can take a long time depending on the number of VSTs and associated hardware that is used with those VSTs (ex: Maschine).
 
KEv