These are the issues I am having running Platinum. Since I don't see others posting about these issues, I am assuming it must be something with my computer, not Platinum. (BTW, DPC Latency Monitor says my computer should be able to handle audio recording with no problem)
1. Hit Play - Blue spinning ball thing appears for about 1 second
2. Hit Stop - Again, it takes about 1 second
3. Frequent loss of sync between tacks, requiring toggling the PDC button to line them up again
4. General sluggish behavior of Platinum
None of this is so bad that I cannot use Platinum but, it is so frustrating. Platinum used to be speedy on this computer, not sluggish at all.
So, I am asking myself the following questions....
1. Is my hard drive dying?
2. Do I need more RAM?
3. Could my video card be dying?
4. What else could cause this?
(I don't think my Firewire card would effect this but, hey, I'm questioning everything now)
Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.
Specs - Intel i5, 8 gigs RAM, Win 10, NVidia 620 video card, Focusrite Saffire Pro 40 & Octapre MkII

I'm having heavy trouble with cpu performance in SPlat when i try to work with MIDI. 
 
But i have an i3 2310, 2ghz, 4GB RAM, HD 500GB 5400RPM.
 
That is the problem. SPlat needs a good PC to run smoothly. 
 
But you must try to increase or decrease buffer size to test. 
 
For midi editing, set the buffer to 512 or lower. For audio, 512 or higher. 
 
 

It doesn't sound like you have a hardware problem. Here's what I suggest, based upon a few years of helping people with similar issues:

• Make sure your audio interface's drivers are up to date. And choose just one audio interface and un-install the other while you try to determine where the problem is.

• Are you using ASIO? If so, what's your buffer setting? Does increasing it help?

• What else do you have running on your system? Do you have anti-virus or other software that might be interfering with audio recording or otherwise accessing the hard drive?
• What speed is your hard drive? When's the last time you defragmented it? You shouldn't need to defragment often, but it you do, Defraggler (https://www.piriform.com/defraggler) will do a good job and tell you your hard drive's rotation speed, if your hard drive reports that information.
• When's the last time you ran CHKDSK /R (not /F; you want to look for bad sectors)? Defraggler will do a basic scan, but CHKDSK /R will tell you if your hard drive is failing, unless the failure is in the controller (which is rare).

Again, it seems your problem is more with the audio interface, so I'd start troubleshooting there. You have the same basic system I have, and I don't have any problems in SPlat.
 
Once you let us know the answers to these questions (especially the ASIO driver one and what else is running on your system), we'll be able to isolate the problem.
 
Steve

bielphc
I'm having heavy trouble with cpu performance in SPlat when i try to work with MIDI. 
But i have an i3 2310, 2ghz, 4GB RAM, HD 500GB 5400RPM.
That is the problem. SPlat needs a good PC to run smoothly. 
But you must try to increase or decrease buffer size to test. 
For midi editing, set the buffer to 512 or lower. For audio, 512 or higher.

What do you mean, "when you try to work with MIDI"? Are you talking about VST instruments, or MIDI that's sent to an external synth?
 
In either case, MIDI shouldn't be stressing your system, even with an i3 and a 5400 RPM drive. If you have a dozen Kontakt instruments loaded, then yes, you'll have some problems.  But that's not really "MIDI"; that's a problem with the processor and RAM. And even with that, there are things you can do to work around the issues.
 
Changing the ASIO settings will help with the audio dropouts (and pops and clicks), but not with MIDI. If you're having to increase the buffer settings to keep the audio from dropping out, you might want to either get a faster hard drive or add RAM (or both). A 1-terabyte, 7200 RPM drive is less than $50 (a 2-TB drive is only $68), and the software to clone your system is free. If you decide to get more RAM, make sure the timing and the speed match the RAM you already have, if you want to get the most out of it.
 
You probably already know about "freezing" any synths you're not actively editing in a project, and if you have the latest version of SPlat, check to see which MIDI driver you're using. In the Preferences, under "MIDI/Playback and Recording", you should see a relatively new entry at the top of the window: "Driver Mode: MME". If yours has nothing there, or says something else, you might want to look into that.
 
Another option that could free up some RAM for you is to follow BlackViper's tips for optimizing your Windows installation. And of course, there are many other sites that offer tips for optimizing DAW systems. For the most part, they all recommend the same things, but it's good to check those tweaks every so often, to see if a Windows update has "reset" a tweak you'd made years ago.
 
I don't mean to suggest you actually need any of the things I've suggested here, @bielphc, but if you do have any questions, please just let us know. 
 
Steve

Sorry to hear Rod.
Planetearth gave a pretty nice list of things to check. Man this gets frustrating trying to work under these circumstances. I use to have a NVidia GForce 610. I ripped it out and went the onboard route (My MOBO has 2 DVI's). Anyway, The thing that really changed my workflow was switching to an SSD. Not sure if you have one but I noticed a nice little boost. Have you tried pulling your RAM, switching slots ? Sometimes even pulling them and re-seating them can help. but.. sometimes not.
 
It could also be a driver conflict slowing things down. I would check for any/all updates especially for the NVidia 620.
When all else fails as a last option, I opt to take some time and reinstall windows. I do this every 6 months anyway. I like a clean room and these pc's get filled up with junk fast. if something is corrupt somewhere, a reinstall is sure to fix it. Windows 8 and 10 has made it real easy to do this now a day.
 
I also would not rule out a faulty USB cable. Sometimes a bad cable will work but restrict flow of data and slow everything down. Or a bad port. I wore one out on my PC.
 
Could also be a particular plug in giving you a hard time. unless of course you are seeing it in different projects with different plug ins. Ive had plug ins that don't jive with sonar just fail to load, crash sonar or make sonar unstable.

If it happens in a new project with no plugins, it really points to a driver issue. Normally you would try to update to the latest driver first but if you have that, also try rolling back to a previous one!

I always try to keep up with the latest drivers on everything. Have tried many, various ASIO buffer settings. Hard drives are 7200 RPM. I defragment/optimize drives weekly. I have tried turning off my AVG Free and even shutting off internet but, neither made any difference. I have not re installed Win 10.
Something I just noticed last night.... the 1 second lags seem to be visually only. In other words, the GUI is visually showing these lags but, the actual, audio response of Platinum seems pretty much instantaneous. Might this indicate my video card may be starting to go????

rodreb
I always try to keep up with the latest drivers on everything. Have tried many, various ASIO buffer settings. Hard drives are 7200 RPM. I defragment/optimize drives weekly. I have tried turning off my AVG Free and even shutting off internet but, neither made any difference. I have not re installed Win 10.
Something I just noticed last night.... the 1 second lags seem to be visually only. In other words, the GUI is visually showing these lags but, the actual, audio response of Platinum seems pretty much instantaneous. Might this indicate my video card may be starting to go????

It might indicate your video card isn't configured optimally for SONAR (not that SONAR requires much from a video card), but I doubt the card is failing. From what I've seen in my years of computer consulting, video cards don't fail slowly--they just die all at once (usually when the fan gets clogged with dust).

Aside from the good suggestions @chuckebaby and @sanderxpander offered, when's the last time you actually ran CHKDSK /R from a command prompt/PowerShell (Admin) window, and checked the Windows Event Log to see what CHKDSK found? I just got off the phone with a fellow SONAR user whose CHKDSK found some interesting errors on his hard drive (and its clone).
 
A failing video card (or other, video-related problems) wouldn't cause these three issues you mentioned, though:
 
1. Hit Play - Blue spinning ball thing appears for about 1 second
2. Hit Stop - Again, it takes about 1 second
3. Frequent loss of sync between tacks, requiring toggling the PDC button to line them up again (This definitely wouldn't be from a video card issue, unless the audio portion of the driver is screwing up your ASIO driver.)
 
What else do you have running on startup? Are you familiar with having Windows show you a list of running apps and services? It would be interesting to see which of them is grabbing the CPU cycles.
 
Steve

Have never run CHKDSK. Not real sure exactly what it even is. No, I don't know anything about having Windows show me a list of running apps.

Sanderxpander had a good point "If it happens in a new project with no plugins" This will help narrow down weather or not it could be a plug in bogging you down.