Cakewalk Sonar disappears from windows 10 task manager after latest update

[GBTBassist]

Hi fellow users

A new anomaly I just experienced that's driving me up the wall.

After the last update (31.08.0.035) cakewalk loads a project I have been working on for a few weeks, appears in windows task manager then disappears as soon as it finishes loading. I could cope with this but the UI runs like a three legged dog that's had its front legs tied to its back leg (very, very slow and janky). CPU showed 99% utilisation after cakewalk finishes loading the project and then its gone. It takes ages for the CPU to drop down to 14% overall with memory running at 44%.

Response between mouse click and action sits around 1 second at best. The UI is not refreshing (this is what I see 10 seconds after closing task manager - yep it's not redrawn the screen). I have installed all the latest windows updates, have tried stopping and restarting audio endpoint drivers and rebooted several times with no variable results - sometimes I get no issues until the next time I open the project or it restarts with exactly the same issues. Anyone come across this before and have a solution?

[David Baay]

First things first: you should change "CbB" in the title (and "cakewalk" in the body) to Sonar.

Edited Sunday at 03:42 PM by David Baay

[David Baay]

Is this happening with different projects? Certainly seems like the kind of thing that would be caused by a problematc plugin.

Try Shift+clicking the .CWP file in Windows Explorer to open it in Safe mode and exclude any recently added plugins.

[GBTBassist]

Hi @David Baay thanks for the swift reply..... 

It's a project I started in CbB and now opened in Sonar.

All the plugins are the same and I had no issues with it previously. 

Also, just noticed that the midi drum track is now showing dotted boundary lines where I have extended a pattern (not sure if that's a new feature or another anomaly?)

I can obviously do the safe start up method but with 13 midi instruments and 26 different plugins loaded its a long winded approach if I can find someone that might have the same issue 😉.

I'll give it a day or so then start the safe start process (between times I'll try the project in CbB to see if the issues are there as well😏).

Cheers

GBT

[David Baay]

3 minutes ago, GBTBassist said:

now showing dotted boundary lines where I have extended a pattern (not sure if that's a new feature or another anomaly?

Yes, new feature for better visibility of looped clip boundaries.

5 minutes ago, GBTBassist said:

I can obviously do the safe start up method but with 13 midi instruments and 26 different plugins loaded its a long winded approach if I can find someone that might have the same issue 😉.

I was thinking to just initially exclude everything and see if that changes anything; if it does, you know the cause is some plugn(s). If not we move on to other possibilties.

I'm wondering also if you temporarily disable all audio I/O drivers in Preferences if the project will open (notwithstanding Sonar's complaining of no audio devices, and Master bus ouput getting set to None - don't re-save it).

[GBTBassist]

6 hours ago, David Baay said:

Yes, new feature for better visibility of looped clip boundaries.

That's actually really useful.

7 hours ago, David Baay said:

I was thinking to just initially exclude everything and see if that changes anything; if it does, you know the cause is some plugn(s). If not we move on to other possibilties.

Doh! 🙄sometimes the obvious hides in plain sight! Thanks David. I'll give that a shot when I'm back at the DAW.

GBT

 

[Promidi]

What audio interface are you using?

[Noel Borthwick]

So after loading completes, Sonar itself disappears? Can you post a video showing this. 

Also please clarify, are you loading your project via the start screen? If so, please try these steps to open your project:

Launch Sonar.
Now close start screen
Reopen Start screen
Now open your project.

[GBTBassist]

Hi @Noel Borthwick

I posted an image of the task master I get immediately after Sonar loads. As  I said it appears in the task manager while its loading the project but then immediately disappears once it loads, the utilisation goes through the roof and screen redraw fails.

I launch the project via the 'browse' menu option in the start screen as I have found the list is not always updated if the project crashes.

I run a focusrite Scarlett 4i4 - latest patch, 48k, 1024 buffer size. I've never managed to consistently get it down to the sub 256 buffer that others seem to manage without impacting the audio quality as I work almost completely in the box (other than when I freeze/bounce tracks for final mix).

I had to do a full reboot as my system was completely unusable and now it is all working again (which is a pain when trying to isolate the cause I know).

I will try all of the suggestions if/when it next goes awol.

Thanks

GBT

 

[Noel Borthwick]

Are you absolutely sure you have the latest Focusrite drivers and are using the ASIO driver? Other users have had severe performance issues caused by an older version of the driver. See this thread.

Also, if the app is disappearing from task manager it means that the process has been shut down by Windows due to a crash. I can't understand how it can be not in task manager and still visible on screen.

Please post a video showing the problem in detail and also post pictures of your audio configuration in preferences. Its not possible to diagnose such issues remotely without extra information.