Help- Sonar low-level hum/noise

Hi all- Hopefully someone can help me troubleshoot this:

When I have a project open in Sonar, I hear a low-level (but definitely audible) hum/whine type thing (excuse the piss poor description of the sound) through my monitors. When I do various mouse operations such as resizing a track or moving the navigator around, etc., I can kind of "stop and start" the hum/whine via the mouse clicks/movement, if that makes sense. Oddly, when I opened the Audio Options dialog box, the noise stopped! When I closed it again, there it is. Not loud enough to be noticeable when I have playback running/tracks crankin', but it is there...

- No external devices are generating sounds (no hardware synths, not even soft synths, etc.). Just already-recorded audio/ drum loops.

- No instruments are being recorded/ nothing is plugged into the inputs of the FW 410.

- When I shut down Sonar, it stops. Soundcard is M-Audio FW 410, and when I play MP3s and WAVs via Win Media Player, with Sonar shut down, the noise isn't there.

I'm headed to bed, since I am a 9 to 5-er, but I have thought of some other things I need to check tomorrow nite:

1- Not sure if it is also present in headphones or not.
2- Not sure if I disable all plugins if that changes anything.

Any thoughts/wisdom/horribly obvious oversights in my detective work?

Thanks so much!

LM

Hi Roberto-

Thanks for repsonding!

I don't believe I do (I will double check the specific projects I was checking this out with last night when I get home tonight). I use input monitoring while recording and then usually disable once done, but I'm hearing this noise without anything connected to my soundcard inputs, so that can't be the cause/factor. Also, FYI- for my recordings into Sonar 4, no external preamp has been used-- just the pres built into the M-Audio FW 410. Thoughts?

Hey Jerry-

Thanks for the reply. Update is that I am going to do various tests when I get home tonite, after talking to Ebtech (http://www.ebtechaudio.com/index.html-- check out their hum X and hum eliminator/related documentation) customer service and CWalk tech suppt, including:

1- BRIEFLY try plugging monitors/ PC monitor with ground plug adapters (3 to 2 prong adapters) to see if it will change anything when ground is lifted. If so, likely will get Ebtech Hum X wherever the offending plug in issue is. Don't do this for more than the time it takes to see if the noise is still there, and don't do it during a storm!!!!

2- Start from scratch with connections from soundcard to monitors- see if balanced cables help/ if I can isolate the issue to anything from a hardware connection standpoint

3- See if I can hear it thru the headphones out of soundcard or not

4- try to delete aud.ini file in Sonar and then re-start/re-initialize Sonar (advice from Sonar tech suppt as something to try-- make sure to check your driver settings when it re-initializes to make sure everything is correct).

5- try loading my projects in safe mode without plugins to see if there are any culprits, which I doubt....

6- Check physical tightness of chassis around power supply on CPU.

7- If all else fails, call my DAW builder (Sweetwater) and have them talk me through opening up the box if necessary to see if anything is loose/ not grounded properly.

The (still!) odd thing is that it is seemingly app-specific to Sonar. This even puzzled the Ebtech guy (they are SUPER helpful and nice, by the way). Perhaps because Sonar accesses my second HD, maybe that drive is causing some sort of ground loop. Who knows? Hopefully I can make it go away.

As for 4.03, I am hanging tight with 4.02 for now. Posts have been all over the place pro and con-- too much variance for me to take the chance just yet....

Hi VitalStates!

I will keep you posted! Interesting about the FP monitor, as I just bought one about a week ago- can't say for sure that it started at same time, but may have! I will try that earth lift tonite! FYI-- when I stop the audio engine in Sonar, it goes away-- weird! Maybe something to do with software monitoring settings, according to another forum. I'll post again after more testing/process of elimination is further along.

Thanks!

LM