Hi, new Sonar X2 Producer purchase

Hey all, just wanted to say hi, add one more to the community and one more Sonar user. 
Downloaded the 30 day trial, really liked it, so I went and ordered it today. 

Welcome to the forum redbarchetta.

It's not as cranky as some like to make it out to be.

Feel free to ask any questions you may have. There's tons of helpful people here.

You'll probably be asked for your system specs ... might want to put those in your signature. (Should take my own advice there. )

I'm not sure how the Demo's work to be honest. In other words, the crashes you are seeing now may be fixable by adjusting your system, or have been fixed in patches. You can't patch Demo's as far as I know.

It has differed over the years, but with X1 they put out 4 official patches. So far there is 1 for X2.

The other thing they do is, when they find a problem, they put what they call a Quick Fix. This is just a test patch so to speak that should only be applied if it addresses a specific problem you are seeing. Once an official patch is released, the Quick Fixes are incorporated in to those.

The patch release differs in every version depending on how many problems they have run in to. I'd guess there would be at least 1 more for X2, but I could be wrong.

Sweet, i'm no longer a trial user. The magical brown truck delivered by Sonar shipment today.  I feel like part of the family now.  

@redbarchetta

The quicker you post the details on the followingL

1.  Your computer hardware, 
2.  Operating system version and service level
3.  Audio interface model and specific driver version used
4.  Settings for the audio interface - Sample Rate and ASIO Buffer Size.  You may have to use the 'ASIO Panel' button in Sonar to access and maintain settings for your audio interface.  That button is found at: Edit>Preferences>Audio>Driver Settings .  If that does not work, there is most likely a program running in the background that allows access/maintenance to those settings - that would be found in the System Tray area of your Windows Desktop, down in the lower right corner of your displayed Windows desktop.  This behavior varies from interface vendor to vendor, and it's just the way life works sometimes.  No biggie - use one or the other - whichever one works.
5.  In Sonar the Driver Mode (Edit>Preferences>Audio>Playback and Recording), and this can hopefully be set to ASIO to access the ASIO drivers for your audio interface.  If it is set to something other than ASIO, you want to set this to ASIO, IF you have an audio interface that has current ASIO drivers for your version of Windows.  So, if you change the Audio Driver, you want to immediately click 'Apply'.  This is so it immediately detects settings changes that are automatically done for you when you change Driver Modes.  So, by applying that change, Sonar will change values for Recording and Playback Timing Masters and such - which you want to immediately use while you are already editing in Preferences.
6.  In Sonar, what is the Record Bit-Depth set to?  This is found in Edit>Preferences>File>Audio Data.

Sorry for all the typing - it's just so hard to know how to help when we have no idea what answers all of the above questions I am asking you to detail in response.

Anyways, beyond all of the above - the goal is to find out what your system will support, in terms of audio processing, and then seek out a balance between performance and stability.

In my opinion, approaching configuration for audio processing from a starting point of hopefully safe/viable settings - in order to expand on success, makes sense.  To that end, I suggest using some starting settings of a Sample Rate of 44.1, an ASIO Buffer Size of 128, and a Recording Bit-Depth of 16.

If things sound OK at those settings, try changing the ASIO Buffer Size to 64 (if that size is an option for your interface), and retest after that one change.

If that is successful, then try changing the Record Bit-Depth in Sonar to 24, up from 16-bit.  Then retest after this change.  

If that works, you could try adjusting the Sample Rate for both the audio interface and in Sonar up to 48, and so on.

Give the above a shot - ask as many questions as you want - we will collectively try to assist.

Welcome to the family, we are an eclectic gathering of life, us forum folk.

Bob Bone

If it is USB, make sure the system fully boots up prior to starting the fast track. Then open sonar last. 

Really the best thing is to make sure you have the latest drivers for the FT. 

Robomusic


If it is USB, make sure the system fully boots up prior to starting the fast track. Then open sonar last. 

Really the best thing is to make sure you have the latest drivers for the FT. 

Yes, i have the latest, and i have booted up many times with it turned off.  Just like nightfall, it's inevitable that it will crash my computer.

redbarchetta


Hey Robert, I can post that stuff, but I should have made one thing clear. My issue with my m-audio fast track ultra has NOTHING to do with Sonar.  It did this with Reaper as well.  Heck, I don't even need to have a DAW open... Just have the unit turned on and it WILL eventually crash my computer.

Welcome to the forum. Perhaps you may want to try uninstalling the driver and using a different USB port. Also because we don't know do you have USB 3 ports? If so be sure not to use them for your FT.

redbarchetta


Sweet, i'm no longer a trial user. The magical brown truck delivered by Sonar shipment today.  I feel like part of the family now.  

Rush man...
 
Welcome aboard man !!
 
enjoy yourself buddy.

chuckebaby

Rush man...
 
Welcome aboard man !!
 
enjoy yourself buddy.

Yes, RUSH!  Long time fan. In fact tickets just went on sale for their tour here in Portland Oregon

and beware of 3d part software i test things like IK(rock solid) but waves have given me waves of issues, just me. but i try to keep every thing 64 bit and a big thing here is save save save, thing like bouce a vvocal track after using vvocal are key to keep workflow up ,and ask Q_A  with systmem spec always or the sonar cops will come and drag you out of your studio, kiddin;;

as for maudio i run delta card and have had drop issues but alittle work on buffers and tweeking from the great guys here helped .but the muadio line is far from perfect with sonar.
first off call Tec support when you have a hour or 2 there team will walk you threw your setup using your specs, there are alot of ajustments since we all have differnt setups and calls for that personal touch
and x2 has even more than x1. i think they should give x1 with x2 for folks who have drops since x1 is the workhorse around here, tons of folks migrated back till the next patch, but stick with sonar as much as i cry about it . it my best friend, or more like my wife,she acts up alot too

If you leave your system for a while and then it dies, one of the reasons this can happen (mentioned as well earlier by someone), is that Windows by default is set to allow selective turning off of attached USB devices, to save power, after some passage of time (for some reason 20 minutes comes to mind but that just may be a random thought on my part).

Anyways, you want to adjust the Windows settings in Power Management to have maximum power all the time, and to NOT allow selective turning off of USB devices.

Some interfaces do NOT wake up with a happy face, after being turned off, and some do NOT go to sleep well - so avoid that potential problem by making those power setting adjustments.

Thanks for providing some of the requested information - I recommend that you paste your system specs into your actual forum profile's signature - so that they are ALWAYS instantly readable by anyone attempting to assist you with this or any future issue, simply by looking to the bottom of any post.

When you DO add that to your signature, make sure to check the box at the bottom left of that screen to tell the forum software to always add your signature to any posts - that way the specs will always be there for us to better help you.

Bob Bone

Hey Freddie

I did a quick scan this morning before heading off to work, I did not see any instances of "error id 46 volmgr' in my event logs. Granted I was kind of in a hurry and didn't check in every nook and cranny of the entire Event Log system, but I checked the obvious areas where I would have though that error would have shown up.  Like you mentioned, the windows event log.


Bob
I will check those Windows / USB power management settings when I get home tonight.  

Welcome to the forum redbarchetta, and welcome to Sonar X2. Don't forget to get the update. At times you can get free stuff from sonar to add to your X2 experience. After you register check out the cakewalk store. From time to time there are cool things to download. I don't know what the next offering will be for the content club. You are now eligible for what ever it will be. Every two months or so they give something away.

redbarchetta


Sweet, i'm no longer a trial user. The magical brown truck delivered by Sonar shipment today.  I feel like part of the family now.