How can I make Sonar more "reliable?"

What's your sound card/audio interface?
What operating system are you using?
Have you got the latest drivers for the sound card/audio interface?
Have you applied the latest updates and patches for X2 (if any)?

Thanks very much for the feedback, guys.
 
Greg, sorry I should have mentioned the basics. I'm running Win7 Ultimate 64-bit with SP1 installed on a platform with an AMD Phenom II X4 840 3.2 GHz processor and 8 GB of RAM, and with a couple of terabytes of drive space.
My sound card is an M-Audio Delta 66 with OMNI box and I have the latest drivers installed. I am not using any other audio interfaces at this time. I'm running Sonar X2a, which, last time I checked -- which was a couple weeks ago -- is the latest version.
 
Glen, yes it does sound as if you and I have experienced, if not the same, then at least very similar problems. I also have an Alesis iO2, but all I've done with it on my DAW is just try it out. I bought it so I could bring a guitar signal into my laptop. I have other means I use to do the same with my DAW.
 
You wrote: "I played around with two things that I think made the difference.  Once things started working I quit experimenting so I'm not really sure which was the cure."
 
Man, does that ever sound familiar! I've gotten a little better at taking notes now, so I can figure out what it was exactly I did that made a difference.
 
My setup is a little more complex than yours. I too am using ASIO4ALL drivers. I find that, not only do I get a little but less latency using them, but I also get more headroom with them, and the latter is actually the more important for me at this time.
 
I also have an old Creative Sound Blaster Live! card installed and I'm using the KX drivers (see http://kxproject.com/) for it. However, because I am using the Delta 66's OMNI box for my main mixer for now, I have the KX drivers deactivated in ASIO4ALL. I installed the SB Live! because it has a synth chip and there are a few patches on that chip that I'd like to have access to. But for a reason that may be specific to that card's hardware design, or perhaps limitations of the KX drivers, I can't hear its MIDI output unless I'm using its audio out also, which I don't want to do right now. So, while it is activated in Windows, it is deactivated in Sonar because I've left it unchecked in the ASIO panel. I doubt very seriously that the SB Live! card is contributing to this problems, simply because it existed before I installed the card. And after installation, there was no difference in system performance.
 
The sound chip on the motherboard is actually a pretty sophisticated piece of audio hardware -- it supports up to 24/192, whereas my Delta card only goes up to 24/96. But the Delta is a dead silent card with an audio floor at almost bedrock level, plus it has some of the best DACs and ADCs in the business, so it continues to be my primary sound card. I have the onboard sound chip activated in CMOS, but deactivated in Windows. I have the Delta card defined as the default audio device for both playback and recording.
 
In Sonar, because of the Delta's six INs and OUTs, there is a plethora of audio devices to choose from. But to keep things as simple as possible, I have only the Delta IN 1/2 1 (stereo) and Delta OUT 1/2 1 (stereo) drivers checked (one each). I have left the others active in the ASIO panel, albeit for no good reason. I suppose I could uncheck them as well and see if that might make a difference.
 
I really hope it's not a conflict between Sonar and ASIO, as you suggest. Actually, there are two flavors of ASIO drivers --  those supplied by ASIO4ALL and those supplied by M-Audio. I'm using the ones supplied by ASIO, mostly because it seems the system wants to default to them (the ones by M-Audio are grayed out, and remained grayed out when I played around with settings some to see if I could activate them).
 
I don't recall now if I tried using the WDM/KS drivers, or if it was just the MME drivers. I think it might have been just the MME's -- but I recall having an issue with them (don't recall what it is anymore -- might have been headroom) that caused me to switch back to ASIO. I'll give the WDM/KS setting a try and see what happens.
 
I'll check back in after trying out the WDM/KS drivers with results. It might be a while though. Currently Sonar is behaving and I'm trying to get some work done while it is.
 
 
 
 
 

Hey Greg, I wasn't aware that ASIO4ALL was a wrapper for WDM, but heck, I don't know much about programming. Took a course in BASIC about 25 years ago, does that count? Didn't think so. So I'll take your word for it regarding this "wrapper" business -- a bit of jargon I'm not familiar with.
 
Okay, so I decided to see if I could just deactivate ASIO4ALL without deleting it. So I looked up all the items in my Startup folder, but surprise, ASIO4ALL wasn't in there.  Just as well. A bunch of stuff was in there I didn't want, so I got rid of it. Then I turned my attention to the system tray, only to discover that the only icons I could actually turn off were system icons.  Seems odd, don't it? Why can't I turn off add-in stuff, half of which I didn't ask to be put in there to begin with? So, having run out of options that I knew about, I just uninstalled ASIO4ALL. I noted, when I booted Sonar again, that the M-Audio ASIO drivers were now resident. I had to do a bit of fiddling around before the recording and playback timing drivers showed up, but eventually they did.
 
So here goes. Let's see if this has improved reliability any. I'll check back later.

Oh, I won't need to d/l ASIO4ALL again -- it still exists on the hard drive. Albeit in its uninstalled state.
 
I've run into a snag with the project I'm working on that has nothing to do with the drivers -- I hope. I'm gonna search the forums and see if it's been discussed before -- probably hasn't. In which case, I'll have to start a thread.