Re:midi dropouts: why
2012/08/14 00:40:28
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I don't think that the problem is that 32 doesn't have a problem and 64 does. I think it's rather that as you said, Win7 and X1 are a 'new install'.
Sonar is very good at detecting the optimal settings for your particular DAW but it's not perfect.
Dropouts, clicks and pops are usually a question of MIDI Latency. I think what you fixed there, are Playback and Recording Buffers(?) - not MIDI Latency.
The higher the latency, the more "comfortable" your CPU will be with handling heavy VST Synths and playing multiple MIDI tracks simultaneously. The downside is that the higher you go, when you come to record your MIDI in realtime, there might be a delay from when you press the key to when you hear the sound coming out from your speakers. Something which is very annoying and uninspiring.
So you need to strike a balance between the two - high latency for your CPU's sake but keeping it low enough for your sanity's sake.
I compose very CPU-heavy orchestrations. My "symphonic" template consists of 80+ tracks to start off with, then I add more tracks depending on particular orchestra sounds I need and my latency is only at 23ms which is barely noticeable. This was only possible with Sonar X1 and a 64bit system which makes better use of system resources.