Re: Latency again
2014/02/26 23:56:12
(permalink)
I do concur that ASIO4ALL is at best a very weak option, and urge you to consider picking up a dedicated audio interface of some sort. A reasonable audio interface will start at around $150 on up, depending on features and inputs/outputs.
Make sure whichever one you pick up has drivers for the OS version you are using - I suggest making sure Windows 8 drivers are available for it. Please note that even if Windows 8 drivers are available, they might not be for Windows 8.1, so just do your homework on them prior to purchase.
When you do pick one up, I would suggest the following settings:
Audio Interface: Sample Rate either 44.1 k or 48 k, ASIO Buffer Size 128.
Sonar: Driver Mode = ASIO, Sample Rate must match the Sample Rate you have set for the audio interface, Record Bit-Depth = 24 bits.
You want to shoot for getting the Sonar reported Total Roundtrip Latency to at or a little less than 10 milliseconds.
Until you do pick up an audio interface, try to keep your plugins to a minimum during your tracking, and that will help keep the latency down a bit. Once you finish tracking, you can adjust your latency up for mixing, and that will allow you to add the effects you want.
Also, if using ASIO4ALL, you might consider using a sample rate of 44.1 k, and if latency is still too high, perhaps recording in 16 bits would help, as it would make the CPU work a lot less. The downside to that is of course that the audio quality would not be as good as if recorded at 24 bits, but at least you would have a better shot at being able to record and overdub.
If your computer has a WI-Fi adapter, I also strongly encourage you to temporarily disable that while doing Sonar sessions, as these frequently can cause high latency spikes. You can enable it again after completing your Sonar session.
I hope any of the above helps,
Sonar is a very powerful program, and feature-rich, but you really have to consider giving it the horsepower it needs to be able to give you quality results. Using ASIO4ALL makes your CPU responsible for all of the analog/digital conversion, and that is why you are having latency issues. You may get some relief by the techniques I posted above, but at best these would be short-term band aids to the situation.
Picking up and properly configuring a purpose-built dedicated audio interface is really an essential item for getting good results with Sonar.
Bob Bone
Wisdom is a giant accumulation of "DOH!"
Sonar: Platinum (x64), X3 (x64)
Audio Interfaces: AudioBox 1818VSL, Steinberg UR-22
Computers: 1) i7-2600 k, 32 GB RAM, Windows 8.1 Pro x64 & 2) AMD A-10 7850 32 GB RAM Windows 10 Pro x64
Soft Synths: NI Komplete 8 Ultimate, Arturia V Collection, many others
MIDI Controllers: M-Audio Axiom Pro 61, Keystation 88es
Settings: 24-Bit, Sample Rate 48k, ASIO Buffer Size 128, Total Round Trip Latency 9.7 ms