Trouble shooting an X2a system is difficult. I just built a new DAW and installed X2 on my new SSD. What a difference in load times. X2 is running quite smooth and I'm not even bothering with the X2a patch because it was not as stable on the old system.

Some things have not changed. Snap to grid is odd at times, clips don't always go where they should and the Plug-In manager is still acting stupid. So I move everything to a brand new system and it runs faster because of the SSD and higher quality hardware. I stuck with WIN 7 and skipped the X2a C++ libraries from WIN 8. 

Sonar is really sensitive to hardware and software environments. I was at a studio running Pro Tools on a PC recently and the engineer said it took weeks to get his DAW running reliably. I think that we are feeling the effect of having too many functions built into the DAW over an extended period of time. It's a ghost in the machine that only appears when your hardware and software environments are just so. I don't think Cakewalk can fix it because there's too much code and too many environmental variables.

Try loading the project in X2 without any plugins and see if it's stable. Then add 1 at a time and play around and see if it causes issues.

tweed guy


Trouble shooting an X2a system is difficult. I just built a new DAW and installed X2 on my new SSD. What a difference in load times. X2 is running quite smooth and I'm not even bothering with the X2a patch because it was not as stable on the old system.

Some things have not changed. Snap to grid is odd at times, clips don't always go where they should and the Plug-In manager is still acting stupid. So I move everything to a brand new system and it runs faster because of the SSD and higher quality hardware. I stuck with WIN 7 and skipped the X2a C++ libraries from WIN 8. 

Sonar is really sensitive to hardware and software environments. I was at a studio running Pro Tools on a PC recently and the engineer said it took weeks to get his DAW running reliably. I think that we are feeling the effect of having too many functions built into the DAW over an extended period of time. It's a ghost in the machine that only appears when your hardware and software environments are just so. I don't think Cakewalk can fix it because there's too much code and too many environmental variables.

I can't help thinking that if the developers of Sonar are rocking a system/hardware setup on which Sonar works perfectly for them, then they could at least let us know what kind of hardware/OS/settings they're using! As hard as they try, they can't possibly make Sonar more stable than it is on the setup it's developed and tested on. So why not release a list of "ideal" conditions under which they have determined Sonar runs best? It might save those of us who have experimented with different gear to no avail a small fortune. 

ok, did the windows update, most of the updates were security related, a couple video drivers etc. Honestly, i didn't see anything that looked like OS update. In fact, it created new services that I had to find and shut of. So that's done! LOL! I found the bios update and will run that tomorrow after I backup the machine...just in case right!  I keep seeing the term "firmware", exactly what is this. If we are talking the firmware in my audio interface, I am, and have been up to date. is there anything else I should update or  check as well? 
 
 
BTW, some mentioned window update etc; My recording machine is dedicated to recording I make it a point to never connect to the internet unless I HAVE to. So I have all of the security, auto update, network services shut off. If I am not sure what specific service does, I leave it alone! There are days Sonar works great and other days it doesn't. I have thought maybe it was specific projects or a plugin that may have gotten corrupted, but I can't seem to identify a pattern. 
 
I read back thru the post and honestly I am a bit nervous about updating the bios.  I will have evrything backed up, but if something goes south, it will be a pain to fix it. So I will know tomorrow if I am still a recording enthusiast or perhaps my new hobby will be computer repair!  LOL>
Thanks all for the help.
 

sharke

I can't help thinking that if the developers of Sonar are rocking a system/hardware setup on which Sonar works perfectly for them, then they could at least let us know what kind of hardware/OS/settings they're using! As hard as they try, they can't possibly make Sonar more stable than it is on the setup it's developed and tested on. So why not release a list of "ideal" conditions under which they have determined Sonar runs best? It might save those of us who have experimented with different gear to no avail a small fortune. 

Hey Sharke ! 


Cakewalk does have recommanded computers .... 


Notice how it's pretty much all Intel chipsets. (not to start another intel vs. AMD war here)


Cheers ! 


V

"

Cakewalk does have recommanded computers .... 


"

Wish I would have seen this about a year ago!!!  Around version 5 or 6, I swear cakewalk recomended AMD. Maybe I'm wrong. However when I purchased my current machine, I specifically got an AMD, cux I thought they recommended them.  Oh well....its only money....

ok, did the windows update, most of the updates were security related, a couple video drivers etc. Honestly, i didn't see anything that looked like OS update. In fact, it created new services that I had to find and shut of. So that's done! LOL! I found the bios update and will run that tomorrow after I backup the machine...just in case right!  I keep seeing the term "firmware", exactly what is this. If we are talking the firmware in my audio interface, I am, and have been up to date. is there anything else I should update or  check as well? 

TraceyStudios

Hi Tracey, 


Sorry to arrive a bit late in the thread.. 


I know you said X1 was running fine but .. I can't help to be suspicious about your sound card ..

not saying it's the source of all your X2 problems but:

If you have audio dropouts, and audio driver "unlocking" from Sonar, BSOD on shutdown, I would try another soundcard, 
Tascam are not the most pro-active on making drivers... and Firewire audio on Windows7 to me feels like a "compromise"
I assume you use correct ASIO driver with 256-512samples of latency... ?


re: waveform dissapearing, maybe there is something wrong with your picture cache ?
When I have waveform dissapearing, I re-process them, like applying Gain+1 it forces Sonar to redraw waves. you might want to try that unless someone has a better solution. 

as for the BSOD, you might want to focus on a MEMTEST (RAM memory test) before flashing your BIOS? 
(though BIOS upgrade usually involves better memory compatibility). Check out for a CD image of MEMTEST86
You could also check out in your Windows Event Log: see the BSOD errors, to what file they link to. 

I hope that helps ! Do not hesitate to ask if you need more help!

Cheers ! 

V

TraceyStudios,

You say you're having problems ever since going to X2 and you say that your problems occur in both old projects and new.

If you create a very basic new project, do you immediately have problems ?

Your first post was really in two parts, the first related to crashes and the second to odd behaviours while working. I'd worry about the first part only for the moment. Can you get the crashes to happen consistently for a same operation ? It would be good to try and narrow things down a bit.

Oh, and are you updated to X2a ?

1. Dont update BIOS unless you know you have something to gain by it, Updating BIOS can have unexpected results. 
  
I once updated BIOS without good reason, it was easy to do alright, and i promptly lost the ability to disable my onboard network adapter in BIOS, i then had to disable it in Windows Device Manager, not a big deal but i would prefer Windows not see the device at all, so much for the 'update'
 
2. Let Windows manage Virtual Memory, were not in Win9x-land anymore. There is an advantage to moving your swap file to a 2nd HD, but besides that Windows does an excellent job of managing memory on its own.
 
as already stated...
- get all your critical OS updates
- update all your device drivers
- check Event Viewer logs
 
you can also try...
- from a command prompt run "sfc /scannow" (without qoutes), this checks the integrity of your system files
- Right-click on Hard Drive > Properties > Tools > 'Check drive for errors', this checks the integrity of the drives file system
- testing RAM by downloading and using this... http://www.memtest.org/
 
Imaging a healthy system is VITAL to getting back to business quickly
 
I avoid problems by imaging my system regularly, When i first built it i installed the OS, critical updates, and my audio hardware devices, that was my ALPHA image, and from that point forward, before any changes to the system are made, i do what i can to verify all is healthy and create another image before i make the change(s) to the system, i also keep a text file called SLB.txt (Since Last Backup) in MyDocs that outlines every change i make to this system and i copy this info into the comments field for the image so i have a record, i use Aconis TrueImage
 
I rarely have had system issues and when i did it was easy enough to revert back to a previous image, and the culprit will usually be found the changes outlined in SLB.txt
 
Good Luck

vlab: Tascam doesn't makethe FW1884 any longer, however Frontier did update thier drivers for windows 7. I do have the latest versions of this. Funny thing is my tascam seems to work better with windows 7 and sonar x1 & x2 then it did with wind xp, sonar 5. In xp the drivers would crash and seem to dissappear from the list, on my rig now, this has never happened.  And yes, am using ASIO, 256-512 K, firewire.  

However I get drop outs on only some channels, after inserting a plug in etc. rarely does the sound just drop out without and error message. I do get crashes, where sonar just stops, click play and nothing happens, no error message in those cases, a simple restart of sonar doesn't seem to work, this requires a reboot of the machine.

Paul: The only pattern I seem to see, is the more intense/larger a project is, the more odd beahaviors I experience. However crashes and odd behavior still happen randomly in any project, Brand new (just created today), old project from same version of sonar (2 weeks ago) or x1 (6 months ago) or even 5 (4 years ago).  as far as getting a crash to happen, I have not identified the pattern of when they happen or associate them any particular thing that I did.


Some one else asked about plugins, the only plug I use which did not come with sonar are: ARC2, amplitube, ampeg svx, markbass, Ozone 5 (which i rarely use) and BFD2

Tweak: I have printed out your suggestions and will go thru them here in a bit. I have created restore points, however I am now thinking of adopting your method, tracking changes and creating images.


Thansk guys!