Adam

You’ll see in the OP that I have already tried raising the buffer.

No: I’m not stretching the clip. I’m just dragging the groove clip so the loop is repeating across more bars.

yep: I'll give that a try. And yes, I am capturing midi via a drum controller. The thing is, I've been doing this for quite a while; with the new update, I'm suddenly having all the issues I've mentioned. I'm hoping @Noel Borthwick might chime in here.

Yep: I know this trick. I'm talking about extending midi groove clips, not audio.

Nothing difficult in terms of testing. Track some midi, turn it into a grooveclip loop, and, extend it. When I do that I can feel my system start lagging around 2-3 minutes of extending that groove clip loop (I can tell, as, I notice the movement of the drag start stuttering, whereas usually, it just extends no problem. No, I'm not stretching midi or anything like that; just extending grooveclip loops so they're running over a longer time period. Seems to be put huge strain on the system.

some more testing this morning before my next session; if I open up a new session with SD3, no issues. I play a few bars into it, and, no problem. But, if I drop in, say a 7 minute loop into the midi, then, suddenly everything becomes sluggish. As soon as I start dragging out the loop beyond a few minutes I can feel the lag introduced. I just found a temporary solution: I'm dragging the midi into the SD3 midi player, and, removing it from Sonar midi and the issue goes away. It appears there is some new code around midi that is buggy: again, I've been using Sonar the same way (using SD3 to create multiple loops) for years and this is the first time I've had an issue.

just updated the driver (was a year old); went back into a session, attempted to split a single midi track and I'm getting a 'this application is not responding' message.

I was using the Fields of Rock SDX and triggering it via an SPDSX Pro, which inputted midi notes into Sonar itself. It doesn't matter which pack I'm using though; the default pack was just as slow. I usually use SD3 in multitrack mode with each instrument sending to its own track (split mode) in sonar (so I had split 12 stereo tracks all with midi in them). This was causing crashes (doesn't usually). But, even running just one track I was getting very slow performance and super slow saves. It's definitely only happening after the latest update I installed that same morning.

Yes: it is. I'll check that. Thanks.

Since updating to Sonar 2025.09 build 036 x64 I’m getting constant crashes and extreme MIDI sluggishness with Superior Drummer 3 (a new issue; worked fine on previous version). Editing MIDI (cutting/resizing) hangs for 20–30 s; saving takes minutes. Crashes show Unhandled Exception C0000005 in CPumpOutputThread; audio keeps playing but I must force-close Sonar. Happens even in a blank project with one SD3 instance and one MIDI track. Audio-only projects are fine. Tried: fresh RME HDSPe MADI FX driver/firmware, raised “Prepare Using” buffer — no change. Is this a known regression in 2025.09 with MIDI/SD3? Any workaround or should I roll back to 2025.08? I've attached dmp files. regards, Adam P.S. this was a nightmare for me today; I am a professional and my client was left waiting for probably 2 hours total in a full day of tracking; I was setting up drum loops for him to track acoustic guitar live, but, clearly, that was a massive headache with multiple crashes and super slow save times. I worked around it by bouncing out drum takes, but, even that was painfully slow going. Mystic Lady_09272025_135809.dmp Mystic Lady_09272025_135809.txt

I have tried everything in this post and not a single thing has worked. In previous versions, I could just change the filename to match the template file, as many have suggested, but, this does not work in the latest version of Cakewalk Sonar (2025.02). I wonder why they make this so difficult.

Thank you, @SteveC! Great that there is a dedicated menu for this feature now!

Hey all, I’m using Cakewalk Sonar 2025.02 (Build 31.02.0.049) and having an issue with GrooveClip looping. When I convert an audio clip, I get this stuttery, volume-pumping effect on each beat — sounds like some kind of automatic gain shaping per slice. In older versions of Cakewalk you could open up the loop slice view and directly edit or delete slices, adjust timing, and tweak per-slice gain. Now, I can’t seem to find any way to access or edit slice points or their settings. Has this feature been removed, hidden, or replaced with something else? I’ve checked AudioSnap and GrooveClip menus but don’t see any options related to slice editing. Anyone know how to work around this or if there’s a new method for editing GrooveClip slices? Thanks in advance! Adam

Update: the intermittent issue was still present in sessions created in the older Cakewalk by Bandlab software. All new sessions created on the latest version of Sonar don’t have the issue. Very relieved.

Thanks for the note, but just to clarify — the RME HDSPe MADI FX is indeed 24-bit at the hardware level, like most high-end interfaces. The 32-bit showing in the transport isn’t the converter resolution — it’s the recording format, which is 32-bit float. That’s pretty standard for modern DAWs and ASIO drivers, including with RME gear. It gives more headroom and avoids clipping issues in post, especially useful with complex routing or analog inserts. It’s not affecting the fidelity or the core conversion path at all — just a flexible internal format for processing and recording. No need to change it unless you’re working in a strict delivery environment or want smaller file sizes — otherwise, 32-bit float is actually preferred. Cheers, Adam

Hey Pwalpwal, I don't have any live syncing apps. I do use folder clone and opendrive to backup recordings and recording archives, but, it's a manual process. I don't use anything else. I have a virus checker on the computer; I have tried force quitting it and the same problem still occurs.

Hey Max, As mentioned in the OP, no punch points. I do use track layers, but, it doesn't matter if I'm not; the same problem occurs. Only audio tracks are disappearing. Yes: the track is always outputting to a valid hardware output. Not sure what you mean re: 'making empty tracks out of all of them', but, the issue is intermittent. It may have something to do with track lanes. So, when I hit record if the track lane is not opening up, it starts creating the live red wave form within the track as if it's recording, but, when I hit stop, it doesn't consolidate it into a physical clip. There is no way for me to know it is failing until I've stopped the track. But, if I have a track lane open, the live red wave form doesn't show up when recording in the track that is failing, so, at least I can see that the take will be a failure and can nix it before my client gets through a take I don't have. Oh, and, I've tested this with and without plugins, and, the problem occurs without plugins too. I don't use input echo ever. http://forum.cakewalk.com/Recording-Disappears-m3776475.aspx - Here's an older post where a lot of people were having the same problem. Btw, I've moved this topic here: https://discuss.cakewalk.com/topic/84023-intermittent-recording-issue-–-tracks-appear-to-record-but-disappear-after-stopping/

Hey! Thanks, Will! I have an RME MADIfx PCIe interface that sends/receives via 3 x orion32 interfaces. I run a recording studio: we have 96 in and out in here! And yeah, we will sometimes be recording 30+ tracks at a time. Generally, this hasn't been a problem over the last 20 years I've been using Cakewalk products, but, in the last couple of years, it's started to become an issue. I agree: could be some kind of cache issue. According to my virus software, the hard drive I record too is 100% healthy. My computer is a beast built specifically for audio by Vin Curigliano at AAVIMT (https://aavimt.com.au/). It generally runs extremely well.

http://forum.cakewalk.com/Recording-Disappears-m3776475.aspx - Here's an older post where a lot of people were having the same problem. @Noel Borthwick

Thanks, Max. I'm aware that this has been an ongoing issue for a while and I'm not sure if any progress has been made. I certainly haven't found anybody offering a solution as yet.

It's not equipment related: I use multiple DAWs and Cakewalk is the only DAW that behaves like this. I have an RME Madi FX PCIe interface which connects to three individual Orion32 interfaces via MADI.

topic moved here:

Hey Max: unfortunately not. Same problem in Cakewalk by Sonar too.

@Noel Borthwick Hi Noel, I thought I'd move this topic to the correct forum now that I'm using the latest version of Cakewalk Sonar. I've attached a short screen capture where you can see this problem occuring. Trying to record a guitar line and a mic'ed up amp, and, you can see the guitar line just disappears once I hit stop. Anyway, issue pasted below. Hi all, I've been experiencing a frustrating and increasingly frequent issue in Cakewalk Sonar where record-enabled tracks seem to be tracking during recording but disappear once I hit stop. The issue isn't consistent across all tracks—sometimes, I’ll record multiple tracks simultaneously, and while some tracks capture properly, others fail to record at all. A few key details: The issue occurs intermittently but has become more frequent over the last six months. There are no punch-in points set elsewhere in the project that could be interfering. The waveform appears while recording, as if the take is being captured, but as soon as I stop recording, the affected track(s) are empty. There is no record of the track in the recording folder when I checked afterwards. It happens across different projects and isn’t tied to a specific template or setup. I'm working in a professional studio environment, so this is becoming a serious problem for sessions. Has anyone else encountered this? Are there any known fixes or workarounds? I’d appreciate any insights or troubleshooting steps you can recommend. Thanks! Adam 2025-02-17 10-55-22.mkv

@Noel Borthwick I'm using the latest version of Sonar now and the problem is still occurring. Should I start a new topic in the 'Cakewalk Sonar' forum?