CakeAlexS
> hmm... but how could it do that if it's windows that is rearranging/dropping things?

Sonar would keep a table of USB MIDI devices which would be compared everytime a USB MIDI device goes online (or offline). The track that has USB MIDI devices assigned could be flagged (automatically by default) to automatically change to a particular MIDI device when it starts up.
 

That's what cubase does.  No auto re-routing, instead on the midi device input for a track there is a placeholder "Missing: <name of controller>" that you can reroute on your own. 

swamptooth

CakeAlexS> hmm... but how could it do that if it's windows that is rearranging/dropping things?
Sonar would keep a table of USB MIDI devices which would be compared everytime a USB MIDI device goes online (or offline). The track that has USB MIDI devices assigned could be flagged (automatically by default) to automatically change to a particular MIDI device when it starts up. 

That's what cubase does.  No auto re-routing, instead on the midi device input for a track there is a placeholder "Missing: <name of controller>" that you can reroute on your own. 

That makes sense. Like when a plugin is missing.

That would be a good option to have in preferences, the second option would be the current behaviour, the third option would be to have the same behaviour as your suggestion and attempt to reroute it to the previous value automatically when the MIDI device comes on line (to clarify the first option just wouldn't automatically do this).

Bumping this thread to remind me to test it in X3D.

Ooooh, 50 demerits for resurrecting the dead.  

Well I can reproduce with X3D and logged under: CWBRN-22575.
Hey Cake if you are out there please please fix this for X3E. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated...
 
BTW not that it should matter but all Softsynths have MIDI output enabled.
 
STEPS FIRST ISSUE

Turn on 3 USB MIDI devices (such as keyboards), each MIDI device has it's own channel (say 1 + 2 + 3).
Start Sonar X3D
Create new project
Insert 3 Dimension Pro softsynths.
Assign an exclusive sound for each softsynth.
Assign a single MIDI device to each softsynth track, making sure the MIDI input channel is specifically set correctly. i.e. If it's a Yamaha keyboard on channel 1, assign Yamaha Keyboard ->  MIDI ch.1.
Check to see if instruments play correctly.
Save the Project.
Close Sonar X3D application.
Turn off one MIDI device.
Start Sonar X3D
Open existing project.
Now play the MIDI controllers.


EXPECTED...

a) Some warning that MIDI devices have disappeared.
b) All three MIDI tracks have maintained their values, however the missing device is flagged up in some way.

ACTUAL...


The track with the missing MIDI device seems to have had the MIDI input changed to one of the other MIDI Input devices (which is weird).
Another MIDI Controller will have it's value changed for no reason whatsoever.
A third MIDI Controller will have the value persist.
 
STEPS SECOND ISSUE...


Try exactly the same as above, but this time use MIDI Presets.

EXPECTED

All Controllers are listed correctly.
A warming about the missing MIDI preset.
MIDI Sounds play for two of the three controllers.

ACTUAL

All Controllers are listed correctly.
No warming about the missing MIDI preset.
No MIDI Sounds play for two of the three controllers!
 
************************

Hey Guys,
 
I run a bunch of midi devices and did get very sick of this issue. What I did to solve is as follows:
 
1) Set up a bunch of virtual midi ports to represent all of my my devices with a vitual port driver like midi yoke or loopmidi (available in 64 bit)
2) Configure Sonar to use the virtual devices
3) Set up routing in Midi Ox from the physical ports to the virtual
 
If something was not on when I started MidiOX and Sonar, Sonar won't hiccup because its looking at the virtual ports
All I need to do is get the devices started and bounce midi OX. This is much smoother for me.
 
This also works well because sometimes I need to pull a device for some other use mid session like running a patch editor etc. I can handle all of this without ever taking down Sonar by just changing the routings in Midi OX.
 
George

That sounds like a very elegant work around to this chronic problem. Thanks very much for sharing it.

If something was not on when I started MidiOX and Sonar, Sonar won't hiccup because its looking at the virtual ports

I have to say that - as much as I use virtual MIDI cables for everything under the Sun - that kind of application never occurred to me.  Deceptively simple.  Thanks.

I do not have this issue. This is because I use a HUB and almost never unplug any peripherals from it.  My MIDI port is USB powered and has no switch itself tho the HUB's power does. I need to switch it on and off sometimes but that never affects the order of things because they are all routed to a single USB port on the computer.
 
I use a HUB because everything is shared between 2 computers thru an A/B switch.
 
Steve