• SONAR
  • Ten hours of work on X2: impressions and issues (p.5)
2012/09/24 11:45:05
jimusic
...I've had this since x1. pC unusable. Quit sonar... Gee, I' don't recall having problems at all with X1'd' after that final update, but I'm sure leery of installing X2 since reading all these troubles & things. I will do as advised to others about a system disk image first, and I really should give the X2 install a go, as I may not have any problems, especially because I did build myself a really strong, fast rig earlier this year. It's just - gee whiz - I hate reading about all these troubles and have no particular interest nor am I in a hurry to inherit more hassles, troubles and grief!
2012/09/24 12:33:09
rickpaul
Noel Borthwick [Cakewalk
]

Yes I was able to reproduce the blank module issue today when doing some mixing. The last PC module on my buses stopped drawing. It appears to be just a GUI layout redraw bug of some sorts. The module is not really missing but the UI stops painting properly. Closing and reopening the project fixed it for me.
Its not a serious issue but definitely annoying. We'll fix it for sure once we nail a recipe for whats causing it - don't worry.

Noel, I'm pretty sure I also saw the blank module thing, or perhaps it was just the header (or a partial header) of a module that wasn't actually in collapsed state, as the first module in Pro Channel at least once.  This happened in the context of playing around with the Console Emulator on a project, and doing a lot of switching between tracks and buses to add it in, tweak it, and change its position in the signal chain.  I might note that I never saw this issue in X1 Producer Expanded. (Note, though, that I may have only seen this issue in X2 with the Console Emulator, so, if it turned out to be specific to that, it, of course, could not have happened in X1 Producer Expanded.)
 
Some additional "fuzzy observations" ("fuzzy" on account of I have not yet been able to come up with reproduction recipes, and thus some of the observations may not be quite accurate):
 
    It seems to frequently be the case that Pro Channel doesn't scroll as expected.  When this happens, clicking on the header for a Pro Channel module doesn't restore the scroll function.  The only surefire way to restore scrolling is to click on somewhere in the body of the module (e.g. between knobs or touching a knob), after which scrolling functionality is restored.  My expectation here is that even just having the mouse over a Pro Channel module, without even clicking anywhere, should allow scrolling.
 
    Another frequent occurrence has been that changing the focus between different tracks and/or buses sometimes results in the Pro Channel's staying on the previous track or bus that had the focus.  It seems that the key is to click on the track or bus a second time to get the focus to change.  However, it may also be that clicking on the track or bus header, as opposed to somewhere in the body of the track or bus strip, also may not change the Pro Channel module visible in the Inspector.
 
    I've also had at least three (probably more) crashes in the context of playing with the Console Emulator and doing the above-described shifting around between different tracks and buses to turn modules on and off and shift their position around.  Unfortunately, none of the crashes I experienced were the type that SONAR trapped in order to be able to send the information to Cakewalk.  Trying to create a simple project to recreate the crashes (since they were frequent -- at least 3 in the space of a half an hour at one point yesterday) has thus far not reproduced the problem, either.  The one thing I noted when looking at the Event Editor's listing for the three crashes I checked was that one of them mentioned a problem in NTDLL.DLL, and the other two said "unknown" for the area of the crash.  To put this in context, the only crashes in recent memory that I've had with X1 were related to having multiple instances of KONTAKT active in a project (there was no KONTAKT at all in the project that was crashing on me yesterday -- I've had a longstanding problem through multiple versions of SONAR and KONTAKT, where using multiple concurrent instances of KONTAKT in a project will frequently crash SONAR, especially when recording to one of those instances, though I think it may also have happened during playback at times; the workaround is to freeze all but one instance to avoid crashes and try to use the multi-timbral capabilities to minimize the inconvenience of having to keep freezing and unfreezing instances while refining an arrangement).  The same was true for SONAR 8.5 (and probably SONAR 8 as well, at least once I moved to x64 -- I used to get more frequent crashes under x86 due to bumping up against the 2 GB application memory space limitations thanks to large softsynths).
 
    One other thing I've seen in the same context is bus (and I think probably also track) controls becoming unresponsive (I'm talking about in the bus controls in Track View rather than in the Inspector), where, for example, you try click-dragging on the output fader or clicking on a Solo button and nothing happens. 
 
The net from my observations is to suspect some issue in the area of sychronizing focus changes with redraws, but perhaps also some even more insidious focus-related issues that may cause the loss of context (i.e. as in the case of not being able to manipulate controls) and which could ultimately lead to the non-trappable crashes.
Needless to say, if I find any recipes, and/or get any usable crash dumps, I will provide them as soon as possible.
 
Rick
2012/09/24 17:07:12
CoteRotie
Danny Danzi


piangio


It seems that there is some module but it's not visible and/or able to be modifyed. 
Did you see this by chance?
 

 
Close up view: https://dl.dropbox.com/u/4909348/WhatTheHeck.jpg
 
The space I circled...actually has a Concrete Limiter in it that you can't see yet is enabled in the project. If you look close you can even see the little button to the left that enables and disables it. Pressing it does nothing. This has happened twice to me so far and I can't find a recipe to repeat it. Opening and closing the project brings the limiter back. Saving with it in this state doesn't affect it either. When you open the project again, all is well. Is this the sort of thing you are seeing?
 
-Danny


I see this a lot, sometimes with multiple modules. 
2012/09/24 17:54:36
MaxStout
Hi all - I'm new to the forum and looking forward to learning from you all.

My crashes came repeatedly when I tried to add an external device. After 4 or 5 crashes I managed to get the project open long enough to delete the external insert. That project has been stable since.
2012/09/24 18:29:24
CoteRotie
MaxStout


Hi all - I'm new to the forum and looking forward to learning from you all.

My crashes came repeatedly when I tried to add an external device. After 4 or 5 crashes I managed to get the project open long enough to delete the external insert. That project has been stable since.

Haven't tried external inserts yet.  I'll try it later today and report back if I see crashes.
 
John
2012/09/24 23:20:03
Splat
Bill Jackson [Cakewalk
]

JM


What's going on with the X2 that is not suitable to work properly? The same was the case with X1. Cakewalk has released for sale a totally unfinished version. This is getting ridiculous. When will the patch fix?!!!

Hi JM, 

X2 is FAR from a beta version.  It is fully tested and perfectly suitable for use in professional settings.  I will say that whenever a new software product is released by any company and the number of users increases dramatically, and a few issues are bound to crop up.  But there's nothing that should really stop you in your tracks.  But if something does, it merits a call to our tech support team, as you're likely experiencing something that others aren't.  Also, worth noting: a lot of "issues" may just require a bit more experience with the new changes.

We're currently investigating the missing ProChannel issue.  In fact, I'll merge these two threads to keep better track of the discussion on it.  

Sorry you may have filled your test case criteria, but nothing is ever fully tested until you use it !!!!!! :) Not even a plane.
Think you meant to say extensively tested :)
You have the same issue that all software companies have, the final testers are the users.
So far I'm impressed.
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