Problem with static on playback after I installed Windows 7

Hello all,
 
I'm new here and hoping someone can lead me in the right direction. I'm running Windows 7 Home edition with Sonar X1 Producer, with the Sonar X1 Expanded edition and all the updates. I was using Windows 98XP with no problems but after installing a new HD and Windows 7, I am getting a static noise on all the music I had recorded with XP. I have two M-Audio Delta 1010 sound cards, total of 16 channels. I have two separate HD's to store the music I record. I just used Windows Easy Transfer and reloaded Sonar X1 Producer with the Expanded edition. When I play back the music it plays, everything seems to be Ok except, after ten seconds I get a "terrible static noise" with the music that was not there when I was using XP. I checked all the settings and all looks ok. I registered Sonar and Guitar Gig again and that's good but still the static noise over the music.
 
Then I hooked up the old XP HD in the same PC (in a DVD slot) with the old original Sonar and rebooted that drive and just like it was before "no static" the music played great. So I figure the sound cards and all wiring is ok. It has to be something with Windows 7.
 
I'm pulling out my hair. I installed Sonar X1 Producer with Expanded edition right from Cakewalks site on the new HD with Windows 7 as the operating system. This static noise is on all the playbacks, I haven't tried recording yet. I uninstalled and reinstalled Sonar, still the static. One thing, on the old XP Sonar I did not have the Expanded edition and the update patch. The music was recorded with Sonar X1 Producer using Windows XP and I installed that same program in W7 but with the Expanded edition, , can't see what that would cause...? Help.
 
Thanks in advance,,
al

Couple of questions for you:
 
1.  Please list the exact model of the new hard drives.  I am wondering if they are 'green' drives, where they spin at variable rates.  These do not seem to play well with Sonar.
 
2.  What driver mode are you using in Sonar?
 
3.  What sample rate, record bit-depth, and total roundtrip latency are in Sonar Preferences?
 
4.  What driver version are you using for your audio interfaces?
 
5.  What firmware levels are your 2 audio interfaces at?
 
6.  With the new hard drives installed, do things play back properly OUTSIDE of Sonar, but still using the audio interfaces as your default Windows audio device?  (I am asking you to try this for testing only - for normal use I actually recommend keeping Windows set to use the on-board sound and letting Sonar or other music apps be the only things that use ASIO and the audio interfaces)
 
Bob Bone
 

I'll keep an eye out for it.  :)
 
Bob Bone
 

Hey Al,
 
Have you got the Delta cards selected as your output driver inside of Sonar in Audio options?  You latency reads like you are using different devices for input and ouput.
 
Brian

I ran that DPC Latency Checker with Sonar off but have no idea what I'm looking at. The DPC Latency Checkers three setting as it runs says:
Test interval    976
Current latency   From 23 to 177 (sometimes higher spikes) High as 1600
Absolute      177 (sometimes higher)
 
In Driver settings looks like both playback and record have the same settings:
Play back timing Master:   1. M-Audio Delta ASIO SPDIF out L Delta 1010  
Record timing Master:      10. M-Audio Delta ASIO SPDIF in L Delta 1010
 
Thanks, al
 
 

Have you updated your drivers to Win7 for your audio interface (post #2 - not sure if I missed that you had, but that is important)? Making the jump from XP to Win7 will needs drivers specific to the version you are running (32-bit/64-bit).

ajkimba
I ran that DPC Latency Checker with Sonar off but have no idea what I'm looking at. The DPC Latency Checkers three setting as it runs says:
Test interval    976
Current latency   From 23 to 177 (sometimes higher spikes) High as 1600
Absolute      177 (sometimes higher)
 
In Driver settings looks like both playback and record have the same settings:
Play back timing Master:   1. M-Audio Delta ASIO SPDIF out L Delta 1010  
Record timing Master:      10. M-Audio Delta ASIO SPDIF in L Delta 1010
 
Thanks, al
 
 

I know there is a lot of new stuff to absorb.  :
 
A spike of 1600 in DPC Latency Checker indicates that you have some sort of intermittent process that is killing your ability to handle audio streaming.  
 
These 1600 ms spikes - they are red?
 
And, in the text down below the graph, did it indicate your computer would have trouble doing audio streaming?
 
Bob Bone
 

robert_e_bone

ajkimba
I ran that DPC Latency Checker with Sonar off but have no idea what I'm looking at. The DPC Latency Checkers three setting as it runs says:
Test interval    976
Current latency   From 23 to 177 (sometimes higher spikes) High as 1600
Absolute      177 (sometimes higher)
 
In Driver settings looks like both playback and record have the same settings:
Play back timing Master:   1. M-Audio Delta ASIO SPDIF out L Delta 1010  
Record timing Master:      10. M-Audio Delta ASIO SPDIF in L Delta 1010
 
Thanks, al
 
 

I know there is a lot of new stuff to absorb.  :
 
A spike of 1600 in DPC Latency Checker indicates that you have some sort of intermittent process that is killing your ability to handle audio streaming.  
 
These 1600 ms spikes - they are red?
 
And, in the text down below the graph, did it indicate your computer would have trouble doing audio streaming?
 
Bob Bone
 

Bob, I just read the interpretation of the DPC test, Thanks. In device manager I do have a USB device that has problems with the driver not working properly, I tried to update but Windows had problem installing the driver it found. I disabled it and still the static noise over the music playback. I'll go to Gateway support for my PC and try to download the correct driver there.  But if it was causing the problem, disabling it would have worked.
 
OK, I ran the latency checker, Sonar closed. It stayed in the Green for the most, no Red and when I first turned it on jumped up into the Yellow but never high enough to give the reading in the text about problems in the device manager. Once it did in the beginning but just for a second when first started it. As I said above I checked out the device manager and notice that a USB port's drivers were not working, etc. Disabling didn't help but no red warnings for problems.
 
Were do I go from here?  
 
 

dan le
Hi:
I was using 3 Delta 1010s up to about 2 weeks ago.  Now I am using something else.
For Win 7, I had to disable Firewire, USB 3 in BIOS, as well as Turbo, and 2 timing factors in BIOS as well.
This was recommended by M-Audio itself, before they got sold out, on their Delta forum.
What I find strange is that why the OP did not go the 64 bit version of Win 7 and Sonar 64 bit as well. Or did you?
Also I always had better luck using WDM instead of Asio.
dan

At first after I loaded W7 and installed Sonar Producer I had no sound, it was on WDM. I couldn't get it to play on WDM. What other settings did you make after you selected WDM?
al

I forgot to ask - I believe the Easy Transfer process kept you at Windows 7 in 32-bit mode.  Is that correct?  Are you running Windows 7 in 32-bit mode?  
 
If so, why?
 
A curious Bob Bone
 
 

To Bob Bone and Ajkimba, I was running 3 1010s and I did not have to sync them at all by Spdif.
Running 3 cards independently.
Just to let you know.
dan
 

Al, I too have 2 Delta 1010lt cards in my Win 7 64 bit (Home version) computer. When I was running one Delta 1010lt with XP, I had no problems. If you search, M Audio's website they will tell you that the Win 7 drivers, and two card linking is not compatible.
One time while using Win XP, I synched my Delta 1010 with my mother board and had 16 outputs, using a SPDIF connector to the MB. It wasn't perfect and worked pretty good most of the time, but the MB audio had slow latency. Back to Win 7 and the Delta 1010's using multiple cards; some people reported no problems using Win7 with the Delta drivers, I thought I was one of them. But after a while I started to hear random clicks and pops in my Audio tracks, also sometimes affecting my midi tracks that have audio sound modules in my Sonar project. It's been driving crazy me for three years. I changed hard drives, though it might be my mixer at one time. I've changed just about every setting Cakewalk let me, I used the one processor mode instead of the 8 core, and thought about getting a faster processor (like 3.6 Mhz @ 8 cores is slow for audio, it's even great for video processing), I've thought, maybe it's the video card (HD7850), or the memory? I have a Asus M5A88-v evo MB, 16 GB of ram, AMD FX8150 - 8 core 3.6 Mhz processor. I use a separate Hard drive for my Sonar projects and Audio, and have a external backup for that drive. About three weeks ago, another computer of mine blew out. Don't know who caused what, but the Power supply went, then the MB wouldn't boot with a new one, so I bought a new motherboard and processor. I only bought 8GB of ddr3 ram, the old one had 16GB of ddr2 ram. Using the same Video card, some gaming programs would not work. Now do I buy another 8GB of memory, or a new video card or both. Before I made the decision, I stole 8GB from my Sonar computer, and put it in to make 16GB. Had the same problem, to make a story short, I bought a new R9 series video card, and 8GB of MB memory was enough. When I put the 8GB memory back in my Sonar computer, I start hearing high pitched floor noise I've never noticed before that wasn't showing on my meters. Now what did I do? I just borrowed 2 sticks of 8GB of 16GB of total memory, I then swapped those 2 memory sticks around, and got same results. I think my mixer gain was up? The floor noise (that sound like clocking) could have been there before, I probably just didn't notice it? I still got the random pops, clicks I've gotten for years now and then. So thinking about the clocking noise, I decided to let the Delta 1010lt card number 2, be the master clock (internal), swap the spdif connectors around and let card number 1, get its' clock external through the spdif connection. The floor noise is still there, but you still can't see it on my digital VU meters, (I think now, it was always there), but I have no more audio ticks, pops, clicks, dropouts. Both cards are set to (using the M delta control panel) 48000 Hz, and 4096 samples. I record all my tracks @ 48K and 16 bits. A simple swap of who's master and who's slave, has made me a happy camper. Who would have thought that? I did use a regular short RCA cable to connect the spdif connectors on the Delta cards together at first, but when I started getting the clicks and pops, I bought the right connector on the internet, which didn't fix the problem. Now that my audio problem has stopped, I lowered my audio Sonar settings, sync and cache both to 512, and the midi playback to 512 ms also. Playback is perfect, waited a while before posting, because this isn't the first time I thought I found a solution. I also mixdown to another computer with one Delta 1010lt card, and Win 7. 
Today I found I still have a problem with Sonar 3, if I use the count-in to record, using the Audio drivers, my pre-recorded Midi drum tracks are thrown off timing. So I have to use no count in or use the metronome through the Midi output. But I'm happy I got rid of those annoying clicks, and pops. The audio output is flawless now. I hope this helps someone else with Delta card problems. Remember M-audio has stated on their website that they do not recommend having more than one Delta 1010lt cards, with Win 7. I hope you get lucky also, I was ready to take these cards out, and try another product. The swapping of the spdif signal can be switched quickly using M-Audio panel, clicking on the hardware tab, to see if they are synched. If your two cards are not synched together via a spdif cable, you will have all kinds of problems. One has to be the master, and the other has to be synched to the other one. There is no way around this.   Rich.