I'm getting some crashes with X2 and iZotope Alloy 2. 

When I open the project, it starts to load ok... then almost the last stage of loading both Sonar and Alloy 2 crash, generate dump files and exit.

It happens when I have Alloy 2 on the Fx bin of a Track.
e.g. 4x guitar tracks, each track has 1x instance of Alloy 2... if I close Sonar and re-open the project it crashes and Sonar shuts down.

It does NOT happen if I have Alloy 2 on a Bus.

If I start in Safe Mode and do NOT load Alloy 2 it works, but obviously this should NOT cause Sonar itself to crash.
NB there was an occasion where manually clicking Yes to each plug-in allowed it to open - so it could be a load time related.

I've not emailed Cakewalk support with this (yet), but any diagnostics I can do / identify patterns will save everyone time.

Here's what I'm running:
- Sonar X2a (i.e. recent patch) Producer
- Roland Quad Capture
- i7 875k, Gigabyte P55A UD3 motherboard (without any overclocking)
- 16Gb RAM

This happens on both the 32 and 64bit editions of Sonar Producer.

This happens on both Windows 7 and Windows 8 64bit (i.e. not O/S related). 

Any ideas what I should be looking for / trying out?

~ Tony

Does it also happen on New projects or just the project you describe above? Might want to try using it in a new project created in X2a just to see if the crashes still occur.

Also, did you do the reset and re-scan vst's as described in the readme or install notes?

No guarantees but at least it would be another data point.

Kind regards,
Rick

i was getting crashes with the iZotope stuff Alloy/Ozone when i had a mixture of other 32bit plugs and 64bit plugs under Bitbridge.

It happened on new X2 project admittedly before X2a.
Yes I did reset and re-scan the VST's.

The crashes occur in the 32bit version of Sonar as well - does this still use Bitbridge? 

Off memory when installing Alloy 2 it asked for two VST folders i.e. one for 32bit and one for 64bit Vsts. I can see the Alloy DLL's in both:
- C:\Program Files\Cakewalk\Vstplugins
- C:\Program Files (x86)\Cakewalk\Vstplugins

I could try disabling/enabling the DirectX/Vst versions of Alloy 2.


Any other ideas?

I've sent the dump file to Cakwalk (problem 14241).

tonydude - have you notified iZotope as well?  Do you have another machine or DAW (software) you can test with - just to see if it might be system related?  I assume you are loading Alloy from the vstplugins sub-menu rather than the Directx version via Audio FX -> iZotope -> Alloy 2 - correct?  

I created a simple 1 stereo track project with Alloy 2 (2.01) in the FX bin and I can re-launch and re-open the project without problems.  I cloned the track several times and repeated the process - no issues.

I created the original project in X2 then I upgraded to X2a, opened the project and cloned one of the tracks with Alloy; saved, then re-launched and re-opened again without an issue.  I tried the test with Alloy open (minimized) and that didn't make a difference.  I used some Pro Channel modules on tracks and the Master bus - then I really got dangerous and loaded iZotope Trash 2 in a track FX bin that has Alloy 2 in it, and that too was uneventful.  My last stab at messing things up was to put Guitar Rig 5 in the Master bus, and a 32-bit Voxengo plug on one of the tracks - still no issues.  Sorry, I don't have Ozone on this machine - surely that would have done it.  The project is 44.1/24-bit - if that matters.

I did this test on my laptop; an Intel i3 M 370 based machine with 8GB of RAM, Win 7 64-bit Home Premium, and an Echo Audio Indigio IOx audio interface.  I haven't installed X2 on my main DAW yet - I'm not quite ready to take that leap of faith.

Hey Tony
 
Just as a matter of reference I use Alloy 2 on almost every track in every project. No issues with it at all. None with alloy 1 or Ozone 4 and 5. They are the most stable plugs i have bar none.
My specs are below.

It's being loaded via Audio FX -> iZotope -> Alloy 2 on each track and didn't use Clone Track.

It's the same physical PC albeit I have performed a clean install of Windows 8 (previously was Win7).

There is another PC downstairs, it's the girlfriends Win7 Media Centre box... so will have to wait until Coronation Street isn't on(!)


I've created a 'test crash' project, so far:
- created 4x empty tracks added a fresh instance of Alloy 2 to each
Test Crash Project re-opened OK - puzzling so far!

What about the settings of my Quad Capture? I have Audio Buffer set to 5 and a Buffer Size of 128 samples. Am recording in 44.4 KHz and 24bit.

Haven't raise a support ticket with iZotope yet (I will) - but Alloy 2 has sent them crash information.

Hope I can get some more information together - dump files are a lot of information to trawl through and time consuming for support. 

Alloy 2 gets some amazing results... until I close and re-open the project. :-( I've been creating templates to try and retain my work.

tonydude


It's being loaded via Audio FX -> iZotope -> Alloy 2 on each track and didn't use Clone Track.

It's the same physical PC albeit I have performed a clean install of Windows 8 (previously was Win7).

There is another PC downstairs, it's the girlfriends Win7 Media Centre box... so will have to wait until Coronation Street isn't on(!)


I've created a 'test crash' project, so far:
- created 4x empty tracks added a fresh instance of Alloy 2 to each
Test Crash Project re-opened OK - puzzling so far!

What about the settings of my Quad Capture? I have Audio Buffer set to 5 and a Buffer Size of 128 samples. Am recording in 44.4 KHz and 24bit.

Haven't raise a support ticket with iZotope yet (I will) - but Alloy 2 has sent them crash information.

Hope I can get some more information together - dump files are a lot of information to trawl through and time consuming for support. 

Alloy 2 gets some amazing results... until I close and re-open the project. :-( I've been creating templates to try and retain my work.

Tony
 
Wonder if it's Win 8? AS stable as Alloy and Ozone have been for me for years I would believe they are petty solidly built and win 8 wouldn't be an issue-But you never know I guess..
 
I am going to install Win 8 on my laptop. When I do I'll see how Alloy 2 does with it. I'll follow the thread and once I get it loded I'll report back here. Hopefully I can do it this weekend.
Hope you get it sorted out before that.

Cheers for the help.

It might be hardware... Windows is now failing to boot on that drive.
Doing another re-install of all my music apps, will see how it goes. Thank god for the holiday period(!)