Have I damaged my audio engine?

First post here. I have been running Sonar producer 8.5 for about four years or so. Yesterday while tracking I by accident routed the audio signal to run thru the DAW, and what came out of the speakers was at extreme high volume. After I settled down ( it scared the crap out of me) I checked my project and notice that now my song was littered with cracks and pops. playing it back again I noticed there was no pattern to the noise or not in the same places on each play back. I checked other projects that I know where clean before, to now have the same problems. Also the higher the CPU count the noisier the play back. Could this be a result of a damaged audio engine and is it fixable or do I have to purchase a new program.
 
Thanks, MickeyH

Ps. I do not think it is possible to damage the audio engine in SONAR (or any other DAW).
 

I forgot... Welcome

Welcome Mickey.
Either the speakers, amp or interface/audio card would be suspect.  Most likely the speakers, but the amp could have been overdriven without damaging the speakers.
Will wait for more info from you.
 
Clint

MickeyH
Thanks for the quick response. Win 7 64 bit. 6GB. It's an HP I got 5 yrs. ago. I'm going thru an Audient iD 22. just got it. everything was great until yesterday. I get the same noise with headphones and speakers turned off. I have a pair of Prodipe  8 inch speaker they are set at max. If you are familiar with the Audient iD 22 you know they have an on screen systems board from which you route your analogue outputs and digital outputs. I clicked to "DAW MIX" in  analogue by mistake. That's when the volume peeked and now all the noise.

I suppose its possible although extremely unlikely that the internal preamp could have damage. Most likely its a configuration setting with the buffer sizes or some interference from other drivers on your system. Try a DPC latency check and make sure other programs are not accessing the device etc. I assume you have done a shutdown restart sequence...

Check your Deferred Procedure Call (DPC) latency using the free LatencyMon or DPCLAT (Google them). If you've recently enabled Wi-Fi on the machine, that is a notorious source of increased/spiking DPC latency.
 
 

Noel Borthwick [Cakewalk]
Lol did you take the engine to the body shop yet? :)
Fortunately software can't be damaged that easily - it takes a lot of abuse!

Oh, I don't know, Noel - I have certainly done unspeakable things to software through the simple act of letting a condition fall through the cracks.  (sssshhhh - kidding)  :)
 
To the poster - indeed, like Noel indicates, you cannot harm the Sonar audio engine like what you are fearing, as it is software, not itself hardware.  You could damage speakers or ears, however, with that sort of looping - it is AMAZING how fast that gets louder than loud when that happens.  Quite frightening.
 
Bob Bone
 

I can't believe nobody has suggested renaming AUD.INI and restarting Sonar ...

Okay problem solved. To all those saying it was a latency setting.......you were correct. The fine folks at Sweetwater helped me out. Now I'm back in the saddle. Thanks to all those that offered advice. I'm new here, but can tell that you're a great bunch of people. Thanks again.

MickeyH

Larry Jones

MickeyH
Could this be a result of a damaged audio engine and is it fixable or do I have to purchase a new program.
 
Thanks, MickeyH

Welcome to the forum!
As far as damaging the audio engine, keep in mind that Sonar can run pretty hot. Make sure you change the oil at regular intervals, and check your coolant level before a trip, especially on hot days.
 
(Most of the advice you get here will be better than this.)

Larry, this is one FUNNY post - thanks for almost making me inhale a chunk of egg roll down the wrong pipe.  :)
 
Bob Bone