So I suddenly started having a lot of dropouts with this one project I'm working out, and it's not even very complex. The song will be a track for the mixtape I'm working on so I have maybe 5 mono audio tracks that are blank (I haven't recorded any vocals yet). I have one stereo track that's the main instrumental (with a Waves EQ on it), and about 5 more stereo tracks, each of short .wav files of loops where I've touched up the percussion, (I think the kick may have EQ and that's it for other FX). For some reason though, when I load this project, Sonar (Sonar X2 Studio) is using just over 400MB of RAM. I have other projects, similar arrangement (some even with vocals recorded already) and most of them only get to 100-200MB RAM.
 
Does anyone have any idea what behind the scenes stuff could possibly be selected or happening that could cause this ridiculous usage? I can barely play 4 bars in a row without a dropout. Thanks in advance for any help.

Audiosnap? Melodyne?
 
If you have either of these enabled, you will see a RAM hit.

Anything on your busses or master?

This is insane. Okay so I don't have Audiosnap enabled, I searched the Cakewalk site briefly for "Melodyne" (because I have no idea what it is, which I didn't know what Audiosnap is, had to search for that too), the only results I saw for Melodyne were for X3, so I don't think I have it or at least don't have it enabled. My basic template is 7 mono tracks each with EQ, Compressor, and Limiter. Then I have the Master bus, and before that a bus B and C (B starts with a Reverb which all the tracks go to and that goes to the master), the C bus is in case I want certain tracks to have some other FX before/instead of the Reverb.
 
I have this basic setup for nearly all projects and like I said, most don't exceed 200MB RAM. I have now gone and deleted all events, most tracks and all FX and the file still uses (now over) 400MB RAM (see pic). There must be some history data that is saved or just some memory leak that gets saved into the file. Does anyone have any ideas?
 
Okay I can't display the image because apparently I can't upload, and Dropbox share links don't show up here. But at least my description sums it up.
 
Even if it doesn't display here, this is the link for the screenshot:
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Okay, I guess even pasting the text for the Dropbox link won't work. **** this I've had too many issues in the year that I've had Sonar. I finally actually BUY some software, and it gives me issue after issue, and the only place to go is here rather than someone from the actual company. You users are, however, very helpful, but I'm about fed up with this product. I might Just go back to Acid, try Cubase, or check out the recording potential of FL Studio again.

For whatever reason you see an increase of 200Mb, if that's causing dropouts your system must be severly underpowered.
 
Stick around a bit, I'm sure you'll get the help you need.  If you give us your system's specs it might help in judging where the problem is coming from.
 

Paul P
For whatever reason you see an increase of 200Mb, if that's causing dropouts your system must be severly underpowered.
 
Stick around a bit, I'm sure you'll get the help you need.  If you give us your system's specs it might help in judging where the problem is coming from.

 
+1
 
I load a drum kit in ToonTrack and, cripes, that's 200-300 MB right there...
 
A DAW should have a bare minimum of 4GB ram, the more the merrier..

ZeroContrast
Okay, I guess even pasting the text for the Dropbox link won't work. **** this I've had too many issues in the year that I've had Sonar. I finally actually BUY some software, and it gives me issue after issue, and the only place to go is here rather than someone from the actual company. You users are, however, very helpful, but I'm about fed up with this product. I might Just go back to Acid, try Cubase, or check out the recording potential of FL Studio again.

Right. Calm down and step back a bit.
 
You can't post links or images because you haven't made 25 posts yet - but you're nearly there, a couple more and you'll be golden.
 
Now, back to your problem..
 
There are couple of simple things to try before we start digging deeper into the murky undergrowth.
 
1 - select all your tracks (hit ctrl + a). Now, with all clips selected, right click any of them and select 'Bounce to Clip'
      Save the project. Does this make any difference?
2 - if 1) doesn't work, do a 'Save As' of your project to a completely different location on your hard drive (the Desktop is perfectly suitable).
     IMPORTANT - before you hit the Save button, make sure you've got 'Copy all Audio With Project' checked. At this stage you can safely delete the      original project from Windows Explorer. Now you can move your copied project from the Desktop into the original location.
 
Please try both of these and report back.

@Bristol, thanks for the info on why they won't allow me to post a pic. I don't see the point of such a rule, but at least I know there is one now. As for your 'Save As' idea I had someone tried it already. As I said, just to try to figure out what's causing the issue I have been saving a copy of the project (song name is "Take Control" so I had already saved it as "Take Control2") and I have literally deleted ALL audio clips and ALL FX from the project. The project "Take Control2" is now literally just a single mono track, the master bus, and about 7 markers where I had marked transitions in the original instrumental. Yet still it must be hanging onto some original information of some sort because when I load it, Sonar is still using the same amount of RAM. Even with this nearly bare project.
 
As far as my system, it's on a slightly older laptop (originally came with Vista, but I've had it running XP for years, which is less resource intensive too), I've got a 2GHz dual core processor and 4GB RAM. I realize I could do for an upgrade, and I've priced parts to build a new desktop, but have other expenses at the moment. Most other projects run fine though since most don't seem to get bloated like this one's become for some reason.

Also, Bristol, I did go load the original project, try the 'bounce to track' option and saved it as another copy, reopened, still the same, using around 435MB RAM.