I have been experiencing frequent crashes doing certain things (see below) and Sonar X3 will freeze. It will never recover and I try to stop it in Task manager. After a few minutes it finally dies - usually it is easier to just restart or log out/log in.
 
I'd love to send a crash report so this can get fixed, but I never see a crash dump. Are there any things I can do to help out?
 
The crashes all seem to be related to MIDI channel routing. I frequently use an external application (a fractal sequencer) that sends MIDI events (notes, controllers, etc.). I use LoopBe30 to create internal MIDI ports and I select them as input channels on Sonar Tracks.
 
Often I will have 3, 4 or 5 voices on as many MIDI channels, so I will select LoopBE MIDI in and channel 1, 2, 3 or whatever on the Sonar track and send the MIDI data to a VST instrument (typically Reaktor or Kontakt, but I don't think it matters).
 
While setting up the tracks, usually I have no problems with one or two such tracks, but when I reach 3 or higher, I may often get a crash (hang/freeze/white screen/SONAR not responding).
 
I've resorted to saving often and progressing in steps. Eventually I can get things set up, and often again, Sonar will freeze during recording, but eventually I can finish. But this is far from ideal and a real step backwards for Sonar.
 
I have nothing more to add. This didn't happen in Sonar X1 or X2 and doesn't happen using Live 8 in a similar fashion (that is, using LoopBe30 and these VSTs with the same MIDI generator). I haven't used X1 or X2 in some time, so perhaps I aught to try them in Windows 8.1 as a verification that it is unique to X3).
 
So, in short, I'd like to be able to submit some sort of error report - how to do so?
 
This post is the closest I can come to an error report.
 
Attached is a picture of a setup I used yesterday while evaluating a new Konatakt instrument called REV. I had about 8 or 9 crashes setting this up. There are 5 Kontakt tracks - no effects, no ProChannel (except for a limiter on the MASTER):
 

 
Here's the final mix:
 
"Tragedy in Tacloban"

http://soundcloud.com/arachnaut/tragedy-in-tacloban
 
 
 
 
 
 

I appreciate it does not happen in X1 or X2 but this appears almost certainly drivers or hardware if it is freezes, in this scenario you need to cover all bases.... a hunch isn't going to do it.
 
Please back up.
Then...
Rescan/reset plugins.
Run windows update.
Run chkdsk on all your hard drives.
Run SFC /scan now from an administrative command prompt
Then update your sound card drivers.
Run this:
http://www.intel.com/p/en_US/support/detect
Run this:
http://forum.cakewalk.com...px?m=2928792&fp=15
In addition as it is freezing:
Check for updates for your motherboard BIOS.
Check for firmware updates for your soundcard and any hardware plugged into your PC (that includes internal cards).
Once you've ruled this out please check in and let us know about your virus scanner setup.


That should cover all bases to move this thing forward.... freezing errors are very hard to pinpoint.
Oh and try disabling 64 bit precision engine and upgrading to X3C.
 
Thanks.

I forgot to update my sig, I am using X3c.
All my drivers are up-to-date and the system is running very well. I don't run virus scanners.
This seems to me to be related to this, reported earlier and still not fixed:
 
http://forum.cakewalk.com/X3-freezing-because-of-MIDI-routing-m2900977.aspx

It would likely be a large file, but, you can force a dump file from a hung app using Task Manager - go to the Processes tab, select SONARPRD.exe, right click and choose Create Dump File.
 

It took me no longer than 5 or 10 minutes to recreate the entire track setup and start recording using X2a. There were no crashes or glitches whatsoever.
 
Using X3c it took all afternoon yesterday because of the crashes.
 

stevec
It would likely be a large file, but, you can force a dump file from a hung app using Task Manager - go to the Processes tab, select SONARPRD.exe, right click and choose Create Dump File.
 

That was what I did to report the previous MIDI freezes from that other posting I made shortly after X3 came out.
 
All I got back was that the data was sent to developers for investigation and X3b and X3c still have similar problems.
 
These files are big and require me to take a lot of time to upload them to an FTP site. The old crash reporter was pretty efficient.
 

Jim is this from a template or are you setting everything up from a blank project?

Bristol_Jonesey
Jim is this from a template or are you setting everything up from a blank project?

Well, I start with a blank template. I made the blank one from the factory blank template, I just added some fields, project info, etc., but no synth or channel or track data. Then I set it up to start with that on every project I make.
 
I guess I could try the original factory empty template if you think that has anything to do with it.
 

Fair enough, only I've read about a few people who seem to be having problems starting with templates not created in X3
 
Carry on... Nothing to see here....

Ahh - this changes things. I used a different startup template - one I never touched - and manage to set things up without a crash.
 
That's progress. Obviously I need to delete that old startup template. It probably came from X3a or maybe I imported the older one from X2 and started fro there.
 
However, when I quite the project, Sonar X3 crashed. However, this time the fault reporter intercepted the crash and I was able to send it off.
 
Thanks for the tip, I'll investigate further and make sure I update the template when a new version comes out.
 
This helps a lot and I probably would not have tried this, since I've been starting that way for so long.