Hey everyone,

My names Matthew and I'm new to this forum but have been using Sonar X1 for quite a while now. I haven't had much trouble with Sonar until recently.
I've already messaged technical support on this matter but was wondering if anyone else had this problem or knew of a way to solve it.
Here's a copy of the message I sent to technical support:

"
---------------------------
Error - Unhandled Exception
---------------------------
A fatal error has occurred.

Module: C:\Program Files\Cakewalk\Sonar X1 Producer\\SONARPDR.exe

A crash dump file has been created here: C:\Users\Matthew\AppData\Roaming\Cakewalk\SONAR X1 Producer\MiniDumps\lost boys Error Test 2_04022013_134859.dmp

Exception code: c0000005 Address: 0000000140490EFC:00000000003A0043:0000000077C27540

As a result of this error SONAR is about to exit abnormally.

Should SONAR attempt to save a recovery copy of your work?

---------------------------
Yes No
---------------------------


I seem to have this more and more frequently lately. But it only seems to be with this particular song 'Lost Boys' that I am working on.

The first few times I had this problem all I would need to do to fix the problem is put the RME Babyface into a different USB port.
Then the next few times I had this problem all I would need to do to fix the problem was so 'Save as' the project into a new location creating all new versions of the audio files.
But now none of that works and the problem still persists and now my troubleshooting has led me to you.

I'm stuck with what to do and I have clients waiting for this track to release their EP.

Please help me, I'm in need!

"

Since this message I have also tried a few other things like un-ticking the 64-bit rendering box and the fast bounce box which people claim help with this problem.

I have also read endless threads on countless forums about this topic, and the ones I found (via google) had not been solved. So unless you know it will fix my problem do not re-direct me to old posts on this matter.

Also I am running Sonar X1d Producer on Windows 7 64bit with the RME Babyface.

Any help will be appreciated as I am at my wits' end on this problem!

-Matthew

is there a certain plug in your using on this project since its started crashing ? maybe a 32 bit plug in ?
look in to it.

also is there a certain point which you are holding your breath because you know if you do something, its going to crash ?
keep notes on those things.
I might run it in safe mode(hold down shift while opening the project) this opens your project with just the basic essentials, no plug ins,exc.

then slowly add your plug ins back in to your project and wait for the crash.
then you will have found your culprit.
the project could be corrupt but would look at that as my last alternative.

are your drivers up to date on the babyface?
also possible a windows update, but lets wait on that as our last thing.

welcome to the forum matt.

What Charlie said and make sure you submit your dmp file to cakewalk. If you are unable to figure out what is wrong they should be able to with the dmp file.

When I read this, I immediately thought 32bit plugs ... so if you indeed use some 32 bit plugs in that project, try fiddling with the bitbridge settings or even try using jBridge; I'd definitely also look what is different between this project and your other working ones, again I'd start comparing with the VSTs ...

As regards using a different USB ports: this is probably not the best practice, either. Stick to one, although there may be one that works better than others (I had this problem with a laptop when I tried running Sonar on it; one USB worked fine; 2 others didn't).

Anyway, updating yor signature with your specs would make it easier to provide assistance; now we're just guessing in the dark ...

There can be power issues with USB ports - not likely, but possible.  If your interface is a USB 2 device, then you want to avoid using a USB 3.0 port.

It does sound like a plugin is causing the trauma, and while it is a pain, loading in safe mode and adding plugs in 1 at a time is a good way to identify plugs causing problems.  

In any case, you want to try to make a good list of steps you are doing at the point of failure, and post those here, so we can look for anything there.

As a super quick test, load the project and hit 'E' on your keyboard to bypass all plugins, and see if the project becomes stable.  If so, then it confirms that one or more plugins is causing you the grief, and then you can do the safe mode plug isolation as described above.

And I recommend you open a support ticket, with any dump information and a good description of what you are doing when it fails, with Cakewalk Tech Support.  After the ticket is opened and you get a case number, you can contact tech support by phone to discuss the issue, and they can refer to the ticket you opened with the attached dump and description.

Bob Bone

Thanks everyone for your useful comments and thanks everyone for the welcome :)
After all this drama I'll upload the song so you can hear what all the fuss is about!


Anyway, so heres a progress report on todays dramas.

So first off I bypassed all the effects (by pressing the 'e' key) to see if it was a vst error. But the error still persisted.

As robert_e_bone said "There can be power issues with USB ports - not likely, but possible. If your interface is a USB 2 device, then you want to avoid using a USB 3.0 port..."
So the next thing I did was put the Babyface into the USB 2.0 port, instead of the USB 3.0 ports that I had been solely using, but the crashing still happened.

The next thing I did was a sanity check! I opened another project that has not been having this problem and played it back and exported it with no problems.
So I went through the corrupted song and played it back and noticed that the song was cutting out during playback.

I hadn't noticed this before!

So I went through and deleted all the plug-ins and played it back and it was still cutting out.


Note: the audio was cutting out but the audio drop out notification was not coming up and the track continued playing (without any audio).


I also checked task manager and there were no spikes in memory or cpu during playback and export.

When I was using pro tools there was this feature (I can't remember what it was called) where you would delete all the unused audio files and stuff that did not affect the current version of the song? Maybe there is a trail of corrupted audio or past versions that I could delete in Sonar?

Also I still have yet to load the project in safe mode, but will update shortly after this post.

So after deleting all the plug-ins and having the problem still persist I thought WTH is really happening with this project...

So I went through and tried to freeze all the tracks but there were two tracks that kept crashing when I tried to freeze them.

Then...
I remembered....

I had applied effects directly to the audio files on the aforementioned tracks!

I applied a bit of pitch correction using Cakewalks 'Pitch Shifter' Plug-in (terrible vst I don't know why I used it!).

So I deleted the corrupted audio files and re applied the pitch correction using a superior vst and the error is no more!!!!!

Thank you for all your help guys. If it wasn't for your help with troubleshooting I wouldn't have been able to solve this problem.

I'll post the song here in the next few days!

hay there Lovehateharro
Just a thought..have you Gone into the device manager, go to the usb device section at the bottom. select the usb root hub, and select properties by double clicking them one by one, and checking the power management tabs, and see if they are set to turn off...if so deselect that box...on all usb hubs...Just to make sure it is not that.?