I finished tracking. I bounced all soft synths, effects, and external gear to new tracks, then deleted all of the original tracks and saved as a new file. This left me with a project file containing 27 tracks of audio, my original markers and nothing else; I had a perfect file in which to start mixing.
My final mix has fader automation on all tracks and panning automated on about half of them. I have quad curve on all tracks, and the s type compressor on each of my three basses and all 7 of my busses. That's about it. All of the 'creative mixing' plugins I put to work during tracking, so nothing else is active. Just to keep things clean I also removed all pro channel processors that were not being used (sonar default has a compressor, eq, and tube saturation on all tracks).
Here's the rub: I am now three hours into a 'what you hear' export (wav, 44.1, triangle dithering from 24 to 16, fast bounce, everything but the 64 bit option selected) and it is less than 10 percent complete. The progress bar still reads 'processing audio data'.
What gives?
The same computer setup cranked out files under X1. In fact, the 27 tracks I bounced from my tracking session all bounced in record time. I've tried numerous combinations of settings in the export menu and all lead to this same unacceptably long export. I also tried messing with the buffer settings in the configuration file, and it killed virtually every process running on my PC that wasn't called sonarpdr.exe. I've already cancelled the thing two hours into an export - twice - thinking I had some magic new idea that would save time. I am inclined to just let it run for the 20 hours it looks like it will take. I've already missed my deadline, what's another day?
Does anyone have any fancy ideas that should inspire me to kill the export and try again for something faster?

So far during this single remix project I foolishly upgrade to X3, thinking it would be a smooth transition, my Axiom49 died and I replaced it with a Nektar Impact LX49 that only works about half the time, and my trusty midisport 8x8 crapped out. I replaced the midisport with an iConnectMidi4+. So far it is all promise and no value as the configuration software crashes every time I try to run it. I think there's a hex on my studio. It might be time to shelve the electronic music for a bit and pull out my acoustic guitars.

Thanks for reading, and thanks for any help on the export issues.

Is there an event (maybe an automation node) far to the right causing an unusually long track? IOW, was a time range specified for the export?
 
FWIW, no need to worry about the plug-ins in the ProChannel if the ProChannel is turned off. Also the plug-ins have on/off switches too.

I keep what I don't need turned off, indeed. I like a clean interface, though. If it's not being used it has to go.
 
I did try exporting just the first four bars of the piece (by selecting the clips across all tracks within the first four bars). After around 10 minutes and a progress bar that still showed 0% I cancelled the export.
 
The export that is now processing (into hour seven) has all clips across all tracks selected as the export 'range'.  Thinking about your comment further it occurs to me that I selected all of those parts using the handy CTRL+A command, rather than windowing around the clips I wanted. If there is in fact some data sitting at bar 10,000 it would have ended up in my selection set. I vaguely recall seeing the timeline was only greyed out as far as my 'end' marker, though, so I don't think there is any 'far right' data in the selection. Also, when I hit Shift+F to fit all tracks to the screen, my track fits neatly in the available window. I'd expect there would be a lot of blank space to the right side when using this command if there was some data floating way out in the timeline. 
I suppose it's worth verifying, but its not a good enough lead that I'd be willing to risk having to start the current export all over again if it doesn't pan out.
 
Could this be a hard drive fragmentation issue? I defrag weekly, so it seems unlikely. My CPU load shows 25% fairly consistently and the hard drive meter in sonar hangs out around 60%. I can play clean through the track with 2ms buffers and never hiccup. I have my latency around 60ms round trip for export purposes.

Running any additional export tests while the long running export is processing are probably not going to generate meaningful results and may just make matters worse. Assuming this project is not hours of 27 audio tracks+7 buses there is no reason to expect the current export will produce a usable file.
 
It is not a fragmentation issue, if anything the defragmentation process is being run to often.
 
If the export region is properly selected it may be a corrupted project, a failing or overfull hard drive. The Windows Event logs may provide some insight.
 
 

Regarding the additional tests notion: should i be able to do other tasks in Sonar while an export is processing? I have the basic Windows7 busy icon in place of my cursor and nothing in Sonar functions while the export is active. I can only hit the little 'X' in the progress window to cancel the export. Everything else is non-responsive.
 
It's hard to imagine a corrupt project would only manifest trouble in exporting. I have no issues playing back, saving, nor loading the project.  Is there a reasonable way to rebuild a corrupt project?  OR do I need to just work backwards through previous versions of the project file until I find one that doesn't exhibit this behavior?
 
I didn't think to dig through the event logs. Seems a long shot but worthwhile.
 
The piece is only 5:06.

+1 Scook

Run chkdsk /R perhaps. Turn off antivirus or malware scan? I would also backup project, save as a bundle, open the bundle and save as a project again...

Also check out:
http://technet.microsoft..../sysinternals/bb896645

Cheers..

Is there anything in your CD/DVD drive? There was a thread a while back where it took forever to render a Kontakt file. As soon as the person removed an optical disc from the drive, the problem went away. Some have reported similar issues if the floppy drive is enabled in the BIOS but there's no floppy drive.
 
I've never had an export take more than a minute or two, and I run some pretty complex projects sometimes.

reactor222
Regarding the additional tests notion: should i be able to do other tasks in Sonar while an export is processing? I have the basic Windows7 busy icon in place of my cursor and nothing in Sonar functions while the export is active. I can only hit the little 'X' in the progress window to cancel the export. Everything else is non-responsive.
 

I found this confusing and could not understand when this  export was attempted or what information was trying to be conveyed.
 

reactor222
I did try exporting just the first four bars of the piece (by selecting the clips across all tracks within the first four bars). After around 10 minutes and a progress bar that still showed 0% I cancelled the export.

 

reactor222
It's hard to imagine a corrupt project would only manifest trouble in exporting. I have no issues playing back, saving, nor loading the project.  Is there a reasonable way to rebuild a corrupt project?  OR do I need to just work backwards through previous versions of the project file until I find one that doesn't exhibit this behavior?

It may not be corrupted but I am not sure a corrupted project has a specific set of behaviors. Assuming the project is the problem and that has yet to be determined, it is hard to say (without knowing a whole lot more about the project and versioning techniques used) what would be the easiest way to go forward. Regressing through the versions is one way another would be copying tracks from the current version one at a time into an empty project testing the export as you go along. Twenty seven 5 minute tracks takes no time to export, save the good project after each successful export.

There's some good ideas popping up here. I'm killing the current render after around 8.5 hours.  I've got to try some of these things. If Craig's 'empty the CD drive' suggestion solves the problem I think i'll pack it in and sell all of my gear.  ...but there is a disc in my drive. I always new Autechre's work was something more than just music.

Sorry for the confusion scook. The export that has been in progress for hours has taken over Sonar. I cannot do anything else in Sonar while the export operation is in progress. I have only three options: Click the 'X' to cancel the export, wait for the export to finish, or force quit sonar/shutdown the computer.  Something you wrote made me think that I should be able to continue working in Sonar while an export is in progress. 
 
OK, new data:  I killed the processing export, restarted my machine and opened Sonar. I now get a pop-up window when loading a project (any project) that says I don't have enough memory to load several of my connected midi devices. I have a Kore2, Oxygen8, MiniLAB, Impact LX49, and MPD18 all connected via USB, and a CZ5000, Nord Lead2X, Electribe A and two iPads connected via MIDI DIN to an iConnectMidi4+, which is itself connected via USB.
All devices were previously recognized by Sonar and I never saw a memory error in any earlier program startups. I noted previously that Impact and the iConnectMidi were not working correctly, but thats a configuration issue within the devices. Sonar acknowledges them just fine. The subset of the MIDI devices that is cited in the Sonar error message varies with each restart of the program and includes between two and four of the devices each time.
 
I am beginning to think it may be Sonar itself that is corrupt. Perhaps I need to reinstall.  Maybe I have some memory beginning to fail within the PC. I'll run some diagnostics.