Clicks , Crackles and Pops

What interface are you using?
ASIO or WDM?
Try increasing your latency.
Or your Record and Playback Buffers.

Whats your latency set at now?
What Sample Rate and bit rate are you set at?

Mike

Typically your Buffer size will be near 1/10 (x32) and 1/5 (x64) of your Sample rate.
 
On my WinXP x32 system a Sample rate of 44,100 runs best with a Buffer of 4,410.
 
On my Win7 x64 system a Sample rate of 48,000 runs best with a Buffer of 9,504. Any other setting triggers a Rice Krispies elf invasion.
 
Start with 8820 and adjust the Buffer up and down one notch at a time and see what happens.
 
After setting the Buffer size, click Apply and see if your setting remains where you put it. Mine will move one notch down each time I click Apply so I have to set it up one notch and click OK.
 
Steve

I wouldn't exactly call it low but it's more on the "safe" side than "fast".
 
The stats I gave are for my systems/soundcards so yours may vary. Generally latency issues will diminish toward the "safe" end but as I said one notch can change everything so you may have to just go through the settings one notch at a time until you find the "sweet spot" where alls well. If no setting works you may have to use ASIO4ALL.dll. Google it.
 
ASIO4ALL worked but oddly for me so I kept messing with my on board sound card until I found the one setting that worked.
 
Don't forget to run the wave profiler first. I had to do this several times before sonar found all the soundcard's potential. Originally it only found 2 bit rates but after installing both 32 and 64 bit versions it found several more.
 
Steve

...right below the latency buffer slider. Click "P" then Audio - Driver Settings.

OK so now I have tried many settings. Latest is sample rate 48000 ( recommended for Axe II) and buffer size of 512. Even if I just import an mp3 file into Sonar and hit play I get crackles and pops. Only with the AXe Fx II, not the Eleven Rack as audio interface. What are others who use the Axe Fx II as interface experiencing? Any suggestions?

samandlyn


OK so now I have tried many settings. Latest is sample rate 48000 ( recommended for Axe II) and buffer size of 512. Even if I just import an mp3 file into Sonar and hit play I get crackles and pops. Only with the AXe Fx II, not the Eleven Rack as audio interface. What are others who use the Axe Fx II as interface experiencing? Any suggestions?

I'd say 512 is too fast. Check your low-to-hi range and post here so we can see what you're working with.
My x64 Buffer range goes from 48 samples @1 ms to 16,800 samples @350 ms. I have to run 9504 @198.
 
If you haven't tried the 8000 to 9000 sample range yet you might try that too.

It's simple, If your hearing pops and crackles, you have to increase your latency setting. If this is not acceptable then you need another interface that will run that low.

" soens I just looked over the Axe FX manual and it uses ASIO: 1. Under Sonar Pref - Audio - Devices, Set your inputs and outputs for the Axe FX 2. Under Sonar Pref - Audio - Playback and Recording, Choose ASIO 3. Under Sonar Pref - Audio - Driver Settings, Run the Wave Profiler This should handle the buffer settings automatically. then step 4:under driver preferences click on ASIO PANEL you can adjust your latency there. nice post soens,you gave him all the info he needs right here. straight forward easy to understand,nice job :) CHARLIE ROY " Sure guys, appreciate all that , and Soens thanks for the detailed reply. Trouble is, I have been doing all that from the start. It doesn't help. " It's simple, If your hearing pops and crackles, you have to increase your latency setting. If this is not acceptable then you need another interface that will run that low." Johnny, the problem is that means the latency is so high that when I record with teh echo button on so I can monitor through the Axe Fx , the latency is just too high. I gather from all the replies this means you can't use the Axe Fx II as an audio interface with Sonar X1 ???? Surely I'm not the only really disappointed customer out there?

I too was not sure what you were using so I just looked it up. OK it's fairly normal that most interfaces suffer from round trip latency of above 5 ms. We start to hear latency when it's around 8-12ms. It it like a tight digital delay. But the solution for those of us using these unites is to monitor at the interface input. Then you hear it in real time. You then need to blend the output of Sonar with that input via the monitoring features of the interface. Most have a blend knob marked -Computer/Input- Sonar compensates for latency so there is not an issue. If your interface has pour RTL then you cannot use it to listen to vst plug in efx after they come out the outputs. Guitar rig is a good example of something that you cannot use without a interface/ computer system that has low latency. Try this simple test if you dare. http://centrance.com/down...ent_instructions.shtml

Thomas,
Thanks for the suggestion, will try WDM driver and thanks for clearing up about wave profiler.

Johnny,
thanks that is interesting. So you are saying I probably can't monitor with my USB computer connection which is what I was doing, but monitor through the outputs of the audio device. I will try this. You say there should be a "blend knob" on the audio interface to blend the Sonar computer output with the input from my guitar into the audio interface? I need to look for this feature on the Axe Fx. Is that right?

Soens, 
Yep done that. Not much help so far !

thomasabarnes

...Your other option is to try WDM driver mode (using the Preferences settings where you selected ASIO driver mode.)

That's where this whole thing started before finding out his unit uses ASIO. 

...The only thing I would try to clarify is that the Wave Profiler is not for ASIO driver mode, it's for WDM driver mode, but has no affect on ASIO drivers settings.

My mistake. The Wave Profile button actually becomes the ASIO Panel button when switching to ASIO mode so you couldn't run it even if you wanted.

You might also download ASIO4ALL.dll and give it a try.