Just had a big X2 crash in the middle of a mix... bummer. Thank goodness there's autosave. But the bigger question remains: why? If I assume the Sonar code is flawless, then what is the cause? I've sent the crash info to Cakewalk numerous times, but they never respond. I don't have a debugging tool or the skills to use them. Is it a conflict with another program? Is it the soundcard drivers? Is it the computer memory? I can't fix something if I don't have a clue as to the cause of the problem. I'm willing to do what I can to fix it, but I need some guidance. I'm getting gun shy to use Sonar because almost every time I do a File-Export, if it has to Process the audio, its almost certain to crash. Maybe that's a clue. 

HELP!

I was told that my single processor and XP OS are to blame for all crashes, but I see you experience the same problem as well. My only suggestion is to increase buffer size and do one thing at a time on it. Or- buy Mac. No experience with Mac here, but I heard, it does not crash.  

No experience with Mac here, but I heard, it does not crash.  

Honest or former Mac owners will tell you that's bullsh*t.



Besides, this is not Windows crashing. This is Sonar crashing. Windows runs fine even after the crash. The SONARPDR.EXE process runs for 5-10 minutes or so and then it goes away and I can re-run Sonar. 

I suspect the problem may have to do with bitbridge, but I don't know how to prove it. I've done a huge clean up of my VSTs to where I'm down to mainly Cakewalk or Cakewalk-provided plug-ins. 

I'm going to continue to try to resolve this and will report back here anything I find that might help someone else because I think a lot of people are having this problems and it needs attention. 

To be honest, there are thousands of variables that may cause a program like SONAR to crash.  The most obvious of these variables are 3rd party plug-ins that we haven't had the opportunity to test with during our release cycle, hardware drivers, etc.  SONAR needs to communicate with these things, and if they give us something we're not expecting, we don't know how to handle it and things go wonky.

That said, we have a bunch of settings that may help.  If your project crashes on export, you could open the project in "Safe Mode," which will strip all of the plug-ins - this is done by holding SHIFT while opening your project.  If you can export successfully like that, start manually eliminating each 3rd party plug until you find a culprit.  You could also try using a different driver mode (The Delta listed in your sig works well with both WDM and ASIO).  Finally, you can export in real time by unchecking "Fast Bounce" in the export dialog, which would very possibly avoid the problem (though it would take longer, obviously).

Lastly, it's important that you get all the latest everything: Update to X1d, newest audio driver, graphics driver, etc.

Hope this helps!

Thanks, Bill. 

BTW: I have X2 Producer.  Have to update my profile!


I have not been plagued with crashes much in the past with Sonar so that's why this is so frustrating, but I was having this problem with X1 too so its not an X2 issue. 


Lastest update: I ran a CHKDSK and it found some reparse errors on the C: drive and so I had it fix those. Then I loaded up X2 and did a remix and exported the audio with no crashes. The only thing was the project did not do any "Processing Audio" prior to the mixdown and that's usually where the problem occurs. I plan on remixing some more projects and I'll report back. 


Tips for resolving crashing issues. 
Tip #1: Run a CHKDSK /F from a command prompt to make sure your C: drive doesn't have issues. The /F says to fix any errors found. Then you have to reboot for it to run since the C: drive is always locked. In addition, get MEMTEST and run it overnight to throroughly check your memory chips. Sonar uses more memory than most programs and if you have a bad chip, it could cause a crash (although I suspect that would be a Windows, not Sonar, crash.
Tip #2: Open the project in "safe mode" (hold shift key during File-Open) and use process of elimination to find the culprit. Suspect 3rd party plug-ins first.