X1 Crashes / Unstable on new computer

  Hello everyone, I have had X1 Producer for a few years now. I recently changed computers and I'm having instability and crashes.

It doesn't make sense because the computer I'm using now has better specifications than the one I used X1 on before...

Before it was an E-Machies Desktop with a single 3.0ghz processor with 3gb of RAM. I use an M-Audio Mobile Pre USB as my AI.

Now I have a Toshiba laptop with an i5 processor and 6 gb of RAM. I should mention Win 7 64 bit.

The program loads quickly but I get in to trouble with simple soft synth things. I might set up my drums in Session Drummer 3 and be working along just fine for 15 minutes in the step sequencer auditioning and tweaking and then all of a sudden "Sonar X1 is not responding" or "fatal error".

Now I don't know if it makes a difference but I will admit that sometimes I'll just my onboard soundcard for doing drums just because I might work on it somewhere else other than my desk where my AI is. So when I do work on it using my sound card I have the driver to the MME setting (no idea what those are... just know that ASIO is what I use with the AI). I don't know if this could be it or not.

All in all it runs perfectly fine for a while but eventually it seems to get overloaded. I haven't yet done a multitrack song on the laptop and I'm worried I won't be able to with say 20 tracks. I also don't know anything about track freezing because I never had an issue in the past.

I would appreciate your suggestions or trouble shooting ideas. And if all else fails do I just give up on X1 and try to buy an old copy of say Sonar 8? I have a bunch of songs that need recording and I really hope this can be resolved. I don't know if I have to go to version 8, but if I do does it still have studio instruments and Session Drummer and True Piano? Thanks for taking the time to read all this. I hope someone can relate and help stabilize things.

Cheers!

Get a better audio interface. Using the built in soundchip is not going to give good results. You should know better than that.

I haven't seen an onboard sound card yet that handles a powerful DAW, especially once a synth comes in to play. I'd definitely recommend doing everything through the M-Audio. I have one, and it does just fine for 20 track songs... mine starts breaking closer to 60... I know this sounds like a question you'd ask a newb, and I know you've been using X1 for quite a while... but um... did you apply the patches? It occurs to me that I was having similar problems when I changed to a different computer and was like "duh, the patches!"

I use 2 different laptops both with onboard sound (when my interface isn't handy) and have no problems at all. Try WDM or the new equivalent instead of MMC or download and try ASIO4ALL which is a generic ASIO driver that allows most onboard soundchips to function in ASIO mode. I'm using Waves ver9 complete and never have any trouble with those either but not on the same operating system as you.

Tkrain


I haven't seen an onboard sound card yet that handles a powerful DAW, especially once a synth comes in to play. I'd definitely recommend doing everything through the M-Audio. I have one, and it does just fine for 20 track songs... mine starts breaking closer to 60... I know this sounds like a question you'd ask a newb, and I know you've been using X1 for quite a while... but um... did you apply the patches? It occurs to me that I was having similar problems when I changed to a different computer and was like "duh, the patches!"

I have no trouble using onboard sound on either of two laptops or two desktops, all 4 systems run solid with Sonar. Including multiple effects, VST's, VSTi's. Latency below 30ms on all machines but one using ASIO4ALL, as low as 12ms when tracking. If the system and drivers buffer the audio correctly it should not be an issue. As far as Sonar is concerned it's just sending stereo audio down the pipe. As far as the soundcard knows it's simply receiving audio. The only issue between onboard sound and an external card should be latency...clearly the latency should be lower on a dedicated card. This should not cause crashing but will result in crackling, stuttering, dropouts etc., very different symptoms than crashing.
 
Onboard soundchips are often used in millions of computers as opposed to hundreds or thousands. The drivers tend to be very solid as they have to service a huge number of users. It's a fallacy to suggest that "cheaper onboard" soundchips have inferior drivers. I'm not suggesting pro devices aren't better suited to DAW's, clearly they are not due to S/N ratio, THD,  flexibilty etc. but there's no reason one can't use the onboard soundchips. Frankly, when it comes to drivers I have had -far- more issues with pro cards as they don't have the budget or experience to stand next to some of the huge companies like Realtek. I've had some major issues with Echo, Ensoniq, Roland and Digidesign (off the top of my head), in some cases bad enough I have sworn off ever using products from certain companies ever again. I think Echo should rename their products to BSOD Computer Killers.

Tkrain


I may have been extreme in saying "no onboard sound cards"... I'll revise it to "none I've had"... My desktop sound card is so bad that Sonar Crashes if I load a single synth. My Notebook sound card can handle a few tracks, but since my DIs perform significantly better, it doesn't make any sense to me not to use them.

I chimed in only to point out that there tends to be a knee-jerk reaction around these parts to "non-pro" cards. The fact is there are many onboard chipsets and I can't confirm all are made equal, I'm sure they are not. For example, Realtek and Soundtech have always worked fine for me. I can't comment on VIA or others as I have no experience with them. But one can't always point the finger to the onboard sound as being the problem, I find mine to be very stable and functional. For example, I used an SB16 with Gigasampler for years, a product known to crush the drivers of many "pro-audio" cards, in realtime alongside Sonar 4 playing multiple tracks with multiple effects.

I'm glad you're progressing.
But it's a little grim having to ditch the Waves plugins, isn't it?? That shouldn't be the case.They are supposed to be good and they sure aren't the cheapest (assuming you haven't used cracked versions, which might be the cause of the glitches). Or maybe there are known incompatibilities with Waves??? I don't know.

You did mention in your opening post that you're using mainly M-Audio Mobile Pre as your audio interface, but most answers stuck on you mentioning the integrated chip, which surely isn't the key to solution in this case (unless you inadvertedly had your integrated chip selected, even when you thought you're using M-Audio ??). Editing and auditioning SD drum loops in the box should be possible even with the integrated chip and MME.

I use ASIO4all with my on board Realtek,on my dell xps L502x,and I must say that this laptop,is nowhere near as stable as my parts picked desktop,which STILL,hasn't done a single weird thing since October,and thats with it Overclocked to 4.6GHz,with stock voltages!

Laptops by definition,just don't seem to be as stable,especially with cpu intensive Daw programs.....ANY Daw!

Don't despair though,as I have eventually got to know my laptop's weaknesses,and strengths,and problems now are pretty rare.

Obvious things are,"High Performance Power PLan",Non invasive anti virus[Microsoft Security Essentials]Experimenting between setting the system for either "Background" or "Programs"under System Properties/Performance Options,for example I was told to always set it to "Programs",but I get more stability with "Background",as all audio,is considered "Background".

Another thing is "i5" cpu's don't have "hyper threading",and Sonar is one Daw,that makes full use of extra threads/cores,so you could be overtaxing your cpu,at times without realising.

Lastly,and this is based on rumour more than fact,but I haven't heard great things about VAIO laptops as Daws,but that's a bit of a "grain of salt" deal IMO.

Also make sure your Hard Drive is 7,200 rpm,and not 5,400,as this effects performance,and lastly or more importantly is DPC latency,which can be checked with this http://www.thesycon.de/deu/latency_check.shtml If its too high,poor performance can result,but there are ways of helping it.


Good Luck
Bob