Sonar Platinum with Tascam US-122mkII - ASIO Driver

Hi,
 
I have been using Sonar right from v5 upto now the Platinum version. After upgrading to the Cambridge release, I seem to be having a problem with Tascam midi/audio interface.
 
Sonar detects my Tascam Device and I am able to work the ASIO drivers that came with it. Initially I used to get intermittent "Audio Engine has unexpectedly dropped out" message. Restarting the audio engine from the toolbar would solve it.
 
Recently (for about a week), Sonar has stopped giving me the Audio Engine drop out message. Now, the sound just stops. What's even more frustrating is that it seems to be dependant on "idle time". I sequence something. sounds great. I open up a vst to tweak some controls (or take a natures break) and when I get back.... no sound. No audio engine drop out error message either. The only way it starts working again is if I disconnect the Tascam device and re-connect it. That again lasts for about 5 min before the sound drops out again.
 
I am wondering if anyone else is facing such issues. Already searched google and this forum. No luck finding relevant threads.
 
The reason I think it is a Sonar problem is because when I set my laptop to use Tascam device for all its sound, it works great.
 
My setup:
Sonar platinum x64
Windows Ultimate x64
8 GB RAM
Tascam UK-122mkII (with its ASIO driver - driver v2.05 and firmware 2.03, both are latest)
Korg Kronos 2 (with Korg drivers v1.14r_14) - I don't use this as an audio device.
ASIO4All - ver2 - But I use Tascam ASIO driver in Sonar.
 
RK

First question is always...  why are you using Asio4All (even if you're not using it in Sonar)  You have the correct asio driver for the product and the only use for Asio4All is for devices that don't have asio drivers.
 
Are you using WiFi?  The interrupts created by WiFi have been known to lockup audio drivers.
 
Is the laptop going into some other state (like an idle mode, or low power mode or starting to run backups) when you leave it for a while?

The easiest way to test it is to simply turn it off and see if Sonar continues to work correctly.  Then turn it on again and see if it drops audio.
 
Once you've determined there is a problem, then you go looking for it.

Thanks again Mekashi. I will have a look at both points this evening and post back on the results.
 
"Wireless net and Battery management are big ones for killing audio on laptops" - really?? I did not know this. I have an Alienware m17x with i7 proc. I would like to believe my laptop is different . But I take your point.
 
Removing all traces of ASIO is another matter. I'll read up to see how I can get rid of it completely (hidden files, registry, etc).
 
RK

RagsinRags
Mekashi - you are GOD !!

Just Karyn will do.
 
Glad you're working again.

Ok.. So I am back. I spent the weekend working on this. The problem still exists. Here is what I did (apologies for formatting coz I am using my iPad to type - wifi disabled on laptop).

1 - after last post, the drop outs still continued. I ensured all unwanted devices were disabled in "device manager" - wireless, on board sound card, etc.
2 - uninstalled Asio v2 so I had only tascam asio drivers. Problem still exists.
3 - Did some research and tried finding Rattv3 for win7. Could not find it. But found LatencyMon. Ran LatencyMon to find the possible problems. Following are the discoveries...
4 - istor.sys: Intel Rapid Storage utility was flagged. Removed it from startup and disabled associated services. Problem still exists.
5 - dxgkrnl.sys: Nvidia graphics driver was flagged. Changed options in Nvidia control panel from "quality" to "performance". Problem exists.
6 - usbport.sys: I ensured my USB driver is latest. Ensured that win7 sp1 USB fix is installed. Things wok fine until suddenly the audio stops. Usbport,sys is usually shown as the culprit. But I get i8042prt.sys also sometimes with high latency readings.

Now I am stuck and not sure how to proceed. Any tips?

*edit* - the laptop seems quite well behaved until I stop Sonar midway during playback. So I start LatencyMon. Everything is fine. Then I start sonar. Everything is fine. Then I open a project. There is a latency problem. I disconnect and connect my tascam. Things are good. No audio glitches. Then I stop somewhere midway to make some edits. Go to start of song... Latency problem again (as per LatencyMon ) and audio stops working.
 
*edit 2* - I used up all my log weekend time to figure out what may the problem. Tascam WDM drivers work. There is some occasional stutter, but the audio recovers. When is ASIO mode, once the audio drops out.. the only way is to unplug the tascam and reconnect it.

OK. Looks like there is no more help out there. To close this discussion, I tried another few days to figure out which of my processes was responsible for the latency to the extent that my system started getting quite unstable.
 
I have now re-formatted and reinstalled the whole of Sonar (a good 2-days worth of work). The WDM drivers for Tascam seem to work. I get fairly good latency of 17 ms. But the ASIO drivers are really really unstable. While I get latency of 5-9 ms, the audio keeps dropping out and the only way to recover is to remove and re-connect Tascam to the system.
 
My conclusion: Either Sonar does not like Tascam in ASIO mode OR Tascam just seem to have crappy drivers.

It has been said before in other threads that past Tascam drivers are of questionable quality.  Craig assures us that they have improved for the new products since they started writing them in house.
 
If WDM works and you can live with the latency, then use WDM.  The point of ASIO is that it's low latency by bypassing most of the Windows subsystems.  But the difference in latency you're seeing between WDM and ASIO is the cause of your problem, ie: something else in the laptop isn't able to keep up....
 
Try setting the audio buffers to a high level (long latency) and then slowly reduce until you start getting dropouts again. 
Try a test project that doesn't use the disk, ie: several tracks of synth (not using samples) like Pentagon. Put lots of FX on the tracks to further load the CPU.  (Doesn't matter what it sounds like, you're just load testing)
Try a test project using large samples.  If you have Kontact use several of the synths with big sample files.  The intention here is to force lots of disk activity, which I think is going to be the problem.
 
Laptops generally have cheap, slow HDDs.

i was going to chime in about the drivers, as i used to use Tascam devices (us-122l & us-144) and their 64 bit drivers were a nightmare on my Windows 7 x64 AMD system.  these devices worked like a charm on 32 bit operating systems for me, but once i switched to 64 bit, it was a much different story.  in retrospect, i can't even begin to fathom how much of my time was wasted rebooting my computer & researching potential fixes for my problems (which seem to be much worse than the ones you are experiencing).  but seeing as this is a discontinued device, i doubt the drivers will ever be updated.  i sold my Tascams on Craigslist a couple years ago & got a Roland Quad-Capture & have been very happy with it (and spend much more of my studio time actually making music)

FWIW, TASCAM's drivers do not play nice if ASIO4ALL or the "HD Audio" driver some graphics boards generate are installed. You probably know this but might be worth checking before giving up.
 
Before switching over to the US-4x4, I used a US-366. I don't know if the drivers are similar to the US-122 Mk II but found that it would be problematic under the conditions listed above. Once I got rid of those drivers it worked fine in a 64-bit Windows 7 system.