Best Practices ? using Sonar Xx

I have a few practices learned over time.
 
1. If possible, always connect USB interfaces and controllers directly to the PC and avoid USB hubs. If you have to use a hub be sure it's externally powered.
2. Disable all onboard sound modules. This includes PC and video cards.
3. Be sure to keep all drivers up to date.
4. Whenever Sonar starts to act up (no pun intended) I always look for non-Sonar system changes like windows update.
5. My machine is online at all times, so I do regular malware scans.
 
That's my core best practices. They have nothing directly to do with Sonar but seem to keep my system stable. A stable system is the best thing to make Sonar run well.

Great Idea John
I'm just building a new DAW so all is fresh for me. 
The Computer: 
I like to keep my C drives lean and mean. New build is a 128 SSD drive. 
Drive # 2 ( move from old daw) is 1TB 7200 RPM all things audio on here. 
Drive #3    500 Gig drive used for hourly/ daily  back ups.
Drive # 4 External Drive used at least weekly.
Specs are now not an issue as I would think we all have at least an i5 and lots of RAM.
Windows 8.1 was a better buy, so..goodbye W7.  
I don't need to be on line as I have lots of other computer I can use for that. 
Run the Latency monitor SAP   http://www.resplendence.com/latencymon
I found Craig's tip about the HD audio bang on, it was the worst culprit. Disable it. 
 
I see a lot of posts here with people screwing up where they keep there Sonar files. Please folks, take the time to manage your files, Don't let Sonar do this, it will put everything in one folder. 
My method has worked for years and I have not even come close to disaster or mixing up my files. 
Use Dates on containment folders which should be on a DATA drive or at least a partition drive. 
Example , my new DAW will have all my Sonar files on the DATA drive I cloned and swapped over from the old DAW. 
All I need to do is tell Sonar to open at the root of that drive in the folder preferences. 
When I click -File /Open I'm there. I then browse to the folder I'm working on. Each is Named as an Album, Band or Client and dated. 
Ex  "Bruce Baker-11-05-14"  
Inside is a folder for each song
Inside each song folder is the CWP, The Audio folder, a MIDI copy*  and other miscellaneous stuff like lyrics and any material used for the song like a MP3 file of the original, a rough demo etc. 
When I back up the whole containment folder I will re Date the Back up folder. 
At this point I have about 20 of these "albums" and most have at least 6 dated copies. Still lots of room on my drives. 
 
* Johnny's Tip of the Day- Make sure you perform a "save As" and to "MID type 1"  occasionally. This will make a    Future proof back up of what might be the most important part of each song file. I still work with my Atari files from 1985. That's 20 years gone by and they are still un changed. 
Midi don't care about Sample rates, bit rates, what plug ins , which software and so on. Over time the sounds only improve as we are given better playback devices. 
 
 

BTW this thread isn't just for Johns. LOL

 In addition to the hard drive that stores a work in progress, I have three kinds of backups.
 

• A USB stick plugged into the computer. I save the day's work to that just in case the computer screws up. This is basically "scratchpad backup."
• At a point close to completion or after being completed, projects get backed up to a second hard drive.
• Optical does the archival storage. DVD-ROM for some individual projects, but after accumulating enough material that needs to be backed up, I use Blu-Ray for serious storage.

 
Through some weird law of nature, people who don't back up often need to retrieve files...but they're not there. People who have extensive backups hardly ever really need to retrieve files. It's like protection money to the mob - if you pay it, they leave you alone.

johnnyV
[...] I like to keep my C drives lean and mean. New build is a 128 SSD drive. [...]

Be very diligent about deleting temporary files on that setup and ensuring caching does not go there (things like Melodyne and video editing). Video will eat space the quickest of them all. I had 40 GB of junk video caches when I began using Premiere Pro which I then defaulted to the main F:\ directory (magnetic) - this way I could easily see/find them and either move them to their proper place or delete them. Just "fiddling" with Melodyne had put 6 GB on my C drive before I caught on.
 
An interesting "maintenance" technique is actually in Windows Explorer search functionality (Win7 +), which is first search for "Gigantic" (> 128 MB) files, then "Huge" (16-128 MB) ... if the files that pop-up are data files, it is a good time to check preferences on the programs used which are creating them.

Thats rather depressing Royal.

Another idea is if one can get another display monitor. The X series is built for duel monitors. Yes it works better than 8.5 did on a single monitor but it really shines with two. 
 
 

Thanks for deleting my post....but with respect... you are not me!!
 
I would have thought that any constructive input on the use of the TI chip-set issue with Firewire was a positive angle on best practice - and perhaps help others avoiding a potential pitfall.
 
Or is "best practice" intended only for the realms of the elevated??

I also use a USB hub, originally so 2 computers could share everything as my printer is on it too. Normally it works fine. However, occasionally Windows will not recognize some of my hardware so I end up flipping the hub's power switch ON & OFF to get it working or else connecting direct.
 
2 monitors
 
All hardware that can be is rackmounted with an 8-switch power strip so I can select what I want ON without powering up everything at once.
 
The only thing missing is a surge protector/battery backup. Mine died in the line of duty a few years ago and have failed to replace it. It is top of my list for this month as we are entering the "power outage season".

gswitz
I have a sticker on top of my interface reminding me to check wifi and latency on whatever I plug it into so I don't forget. Proper practice latency is not proper live gig latency (where all monitoring is direct through the interface).
 
I'm also quick on the interface total reset. Sometimes all the routings of the previous gig don't apply.
 
I'm a heavy user of track templates (although for some reason I don't use a lot of project templates).

Thank you for your post. May I ask what you have that would need to be reset? 

soens
Another idea is if a post is going to be deleted or moved, send a note to the OP so he knows what's going on.

A note is sent. 

Let tube devices warm up longer than the boot up time for non-tube gear.

Latency the bugaboo of DAW users. Most users know how to use the drivers that come with their quality audio interface new user may not.
 
Sonar can use WDM and ASIO plus MME.For most ASIO is a good choice. I prefer WDM simply Sonar can adjust the latency via the buffer settings directly. With ASIO you have to go through the ASIO panel.
 
In most cases it wont matter which of the above driver models you chose. However, avoid MME because it is not meant for low latency.  
 
A word about ASIO 4 All do not use this its not for a modern audio interface with proper drivers. 
 
If after you have installed drivers and have adjusted your buffers to a nice mid size and you still get drop outs and the like it could be a DPC latency issue. Use a tool meant to check this.
 
Here is a link that can help explain this  http://www.sysnative.com/forums/windows-7-%7C-windows-vista-tutorials/5721-how-to-diagnose-and-fix-high-dpc-latency-issues-with-wpa-windows-windows-vista-7-8-a.html
 
 For me  because I have the option to use either ASIO or WDM they both work very well on my system I chose WDM this lets me adjust the buffer depending one what I am doing fast. Very low for tracking  medium for mixing. 

Thank you Geoff for being so detailed. Nice and it makes sense to me now.