So this is kinda weird. Maybe someone can help?

So the good news is that I have a previous version saved so it's really not a huge deal, but I'd love to not have to redo all the work I did in the last 20 minutes or so since the new save. But here's my issue:

I'm on Sonar 8.5. I have a project I've been working on for a while (started months ago but put on hold and just started with again this morning). It's got a big mix of synths, audio tracks, the works. It's a fairly large project, over a dozen tracks (not super large, but it's a full song in the making).

Here's what happened. I did a few edits. Saved my new version of the file. Did a few more edits (changing some notes around on the staff, erasing some notes) and added some effects to one of the tracks. Hit play. While listening I decided "you know what, I should delete those piano notes in the opening build up" and so I hit stop, selected those notes and hit delete on my keyboard like I always do to delete notes. Then I hit play again. Absolutely NO sound. None of the tracks have sound. Zero output on the levels, neither the midi nor audio tracks. None of my global settings on audio/midi drivers were changed. Nothing is muted/soloed (at least i don't think so). All I did from hearing sound on this big full song, to hearing absolutely nothing, is select some notes in staff view with my mouse and then hit delete on my keyboard.

I just rebooted, still no sound. Loaded up the old version, it works fine, as does all other audio on my PC. It's just this project from deleting those few notes, sound is GONE.

Any ideas? Weird right?

Anyway I gotta go to work now, so if anyone has any thoughts, I'll give them a try when I get home tonight, and if not I'll just have to start back from the last save. Very strange though.

Thanks

As you say, very strange.

The only thing I can think of is a solo'ed track somewhere with no data in it.

Are there any hidden tracks?

What about busses - anything in solo mode there with nothing going to it?

Also check your Audio Preferences - make sure your interface drivers are still being recognised

I'm assuming you were deleting notes in a MIDI track, right?  you said piano, which most of the time is going to be MIDI, but not always.

also, are there other tracks in the project or just this one?  and what is your output for MIDI?  what softsynth or hardware synth are you using? 

yea there's like 13 tracks i think. about 3 audio and 10 midi, the piano was midi. i believe it was a nexus2 softsynth piano, although i'm using a number of different softsynths in the project. no busses. and i certainly didn't make any hidden tracks on purpose.

i ended up last night redoing the song starting from the old save, so it's all good now, but still, very strange that this happened haha. one of those weird flukes i guess...

I certainly would have used "UNDO" before saving. 

Often delete will delete more than you bargained for., not that I could see it deleting everything without you noticing. 

See, I'd be like a dog with a bone if that happened to me.

I'd carry on with a new project, but I'd go into major analytical mode and hunt down the root of the problem, even if it meant firing it off to Cake for them to have a look at.

Cactus Music


I certainly would have used "UNDO" before saving. 

Often delete will delete more than you bargained for., not that I could see it deleting everything without you noticing. 

oh trust me i was kicking myself while I typed the original post haha. i was thinking "wait a minute... why the hell didn't i just undo?" haha.


and to bristol, not a bad idea to send it to cakewalk themselves. i've been using sonar (and cakewalk before it) for over 10 years and never went through their official support system. could be a good chance to try that out.

I don't know how many times I have deleted one track and then find out it deleted a couple while it was at it. It's the quirky highlighting issue. Anything highlighted gets zapped! Sometimes those tracks are not even on the screen so it's easy to miss this. 
So I have a safe system now:

So I no longer need a  track. ( Audio or MIDI) 
Save song
Drag the track to bottom of track view so it becomes the highest number ( example track18) 
Note the track number. 
From Edit "select none"
Highlight and delete track
Note that the last track is now 17, If it is 15,, then UNDO and scratch head and repeat after me " WTF"?. 

Cactus Music


I don't know how many times I have deleted one track and then find out it deleted a couple while it was at it. It's the quirky highlighting issue. Anything highlighted gets zapped! Sometimes those tracks are not even on the screen so it's easy to miss this. 
So I have a safe system now:

So I no longer need a  track. ( Audio or MIDI) 
Save song
Drag the track to bottom of track view so it becomes the highest number ( example track18) 
Note the track number. 
From Edit "select none"
Highlight and delete track
Note that the last track is now 17, If it is 15,, then UNDO and scratch head and repeat after me " WTF"?. 

hahaha

I will ALWAYS do a ctrl + shift + a (select nothing) before deleting anything.