Pops, Crackling and Static in Sonar X1d Studio

Integrated sound card - I believe it is a Realtek ALC887 HD Audio

I am using the latest drivers from http://www.asio4all.com/ v2.11 beta

This is the problem. You need to invest in an audio interface and use true ASIO driver mode.

Tell us what kind of budget you have and what you are trying to do with Sonar and we can help you find something that fits.

Welcome to the forum.

+1 Beepster. Sorry on board sound chips and most cheap internal cards are not the way to go (you are generally flogging a dead horse in getting it to work). Also go into the BIOS and disable any CPU power saving features you may have.
 
(Edited for corrections)

Since you use a lot of Synth's, one thing you can do is try freezing all of your tracks. That will free up a lot of system resources.

The problem with onboard sound cards is they use your CPU, they don't have a dedicated processor like a USB or a PCI audio card does.

To get you by until you get a dedicated sound card, I would try freezing all of my tracks, then try to record ... it may just get you by temporarily.

electrofolk


I have access to an older Sound Blaster Audigy2 ZS which I believe supports ASIO drivers.


I'm mainly trying to record vocals or guitar, one at a time. I don't see needing more than 2 inputs in the near future. This is all for recording a solo project one track at a time.


I use a ton of soft synths like Z3TA+.


My budget is $200-$300.

Cool. Although you could try messing around with that other card if you have that $200-300 in your budget to spend then I personally would recommend snagging a nice USB interface. Fortunately you can get decent ones for what you need in that price range.

A few popular ones that many of our users here have working on their system are:

M-Audio Fast Track Pro: Approx $250. Has two multi ins (XLR, line, Instrument) as well as MIDI i/o. Kind of plasticky and the pres aren't as nice as some but M-Audio is a very popular brand and that unit works with Sonar.

Focusrite Scarlett series: Approx $150-$300. There are three models (as far as I remember). The 2i6, the 8i6 and the 18i6. I own the 18i6 and it's in the $300 range. The 2i6 and 8i6 are the same unit but with less inputs but the same mic pres which sound great. These would more than cover your needs. They aren't super low latency but if you optimize your system properly you won't notice.

Presonus: Approx $100 and up. I haven't really looked into these much but they are rather inexpensive and some of the other users here seem to like them so they're worth a look as well.

Other brands to look at are MOTU and Roland (who owns Cakewalk) but they are generally higher end devices and cost more. However if you only need minimal inputs you might be able to pick one of those units up for around $300.

I will however highly recommend the Scarlett units because I personally own one, have dealt with their support and I think it's just great for the price. I'll also point out that if you get the Scarlett 8i6 you get a neat loopback feature that let's you record directly from other programs like a web browser without any extra cables. Mine doesn't have that and I don't think the 2i6 does either.

These are all USB based devices. Obviously there are PCI and Firewire units which with the proper system tend to be better BUT... because they rely on specific components within your system if your system does not have the correct chipset or motherboard layout they can cause you tons of problems.

If you choose a firewire device be sure to research what owning a Texas Instruments firewire chipset means for audio production. If you choose a PCI device make sure you understand the difference between "bridged" and "native" PCI support. These topics pertain to how your motherboard handles the info coming in from your interface and if your motherboard can't handle it... well you want to avoid those devices.

I'd say just look at the USB stuff because it is much simpler to deal with and it's easier to move the interface from system to system. Also there REALLY isn't much chance you are going to need the benefits of those other types of connections with what you want to do.

Hope that helps. Cheers.

Thanks guys for all the tips, from freezing tracks to turning off my antivirus.

Beepster thanks for the tips on the sound cards. I like the idea of an external USB sound card like the scarlett. Funny thing is that a guy was trying to sell me one back when I was buying a new controller and some monitors - I guess I should have listened.

I remember there was a weird problem with the audigy - i had trouble recording audio in so I'd rather just go the route of the new card and hopefully save future headaches.

Don't be too quick to assume that your pops, clicks, and static sounds are being caused by your RealTek soundcard.  I used mine for a couple of years and was able to get acceptable performance from it by going through most of the items that you have listed.  I found that I had to really back off on what effects were in the chain while I was tracking to get low latency, but for mixing I could bump the buffers way up and make things work well while mixing.
 
In the process, I found that a lot of the noises that I was dealing with were the result of
1) having tracks with different bit depth and sampling rates
2) not having the "Playback Timing Master" properly set
3) most common problem that I encountered (particularly with soft synths) was over-driving the signal, but not noticing it because of compressors or limiters down stream from the overly loud signal.
 
I also found that on some projects the performance was better using WDM/KS than ASIO.
 
I do have several USB interfaces now and have not had to fall back on the internal sound card.  I bought a real inexpensive Behringer UCG102 for my laptop as the last replacement for using the internal card.  It cost me all of $30.00 on Amazon and easily fits in my laptop bag.  Using purpose-built audio interfaces ("instead of sound cards") has let me stop putzing with buffer sized and interface settings.  Life is a lot easier without having to go through these contortions.  YMMV, but look at what other issues may be causing you problems.
 
Glen

> Also try disabling the antivirus when you are using Sonar
 
Nope do not disable antivirus, exclude cakewalk project folders etc and folders Microsoft recommend to exclude from realtime scan:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/822158/en-us   (this can go for all versions of Windows, not just enterprise environments stated here).
 
Cheers...