Loud white noise during playback...help.

  So I recorded some work and then play it back to adjust levels and add fx. All of a sudden I get very LOUD white noise. Almost like the project dropped out and then I just get full volume white noise. Any clue what I am doing wrong? Another thing that may be part of the same problem is that for that last two sessions of recording I get a play back that sounds like a cd that is skipping. I know that sounds weird, but that is the only way I can describe it. It sounds like that digital skip or jump/repeat sound that you heard years ago for the first time when your cd player malfunctioned with a cd in it. I am going to use a different external hard drive this weekend to see if it solves the problem. Thanks for your advice.

  This is new. No new settings. Not sure of chipset.

In Sonar 7 there were various updates that had a big impact on ASIO for some sound cards. If you have already updated to 7.0.2, try the 7.0.3 hotfix.

It's probably no help but I have occasionally had this with external sound interfaces, like the M-Audio Fast Track or the Lexicon Lambda. (The latter being much worse than the former.) You might reduce or eliminate the problem by increasing the buffer size, or removing background processes that might interrupt the data flow, etc.

Actually I recall having a similar issue of white noise when running my Delta44 in WDM mode on an older version of Sonar. I recognized the OPs symptoms, but I couldn't remember what caused it. I'm pretty sure it was when I was using WDM mode. He definitely should switch to ASIO mode if he isn't using it already. 

  bvideo: Thanks for the information. I record my band live for what we call scratchtracks. After a session we all sit around and listen to a couple songs. This is when we first noticed it. Anytime I play any of the songs they repeat the same failure of "cd skipping". The white noise is completely random and I wonder if playing with the fx is responsible for this. I have witnessed the failure when adjusting my fx and while just listening, but maybe more so while playing with fx. I only use the fx that came with Sonar...no third party stuff yet.

  daveny5 thanks for the information. I agree with you. I will know for sure when I check it out later, as I am in the office right now. But, I think I switched to WDM so that I could control the buffer size. I will try to find the default settings when in ASIO and go back, hey it is definitely worth a try, thanks.

  So here is the latest. I am running in ASIO. I rebooted the Motu 8Pre. I realized that I never turn this unit off or power it down. So I powered it down and I did not hear any of the "cd skipping" problem out of the three songs I recorded. I also did not do any real mixing so I did not get any of the "white noise" drop out either, but that only happens when I start mixing levels and adding fx. What did happen that has happened in the past is this...the damn recording drops out when I am actually recording. I arm the tracks and hit record and then without warning Sonar drops out and recording stops. I reach over and click record again to resume and then there is no problem. What is going on?

Did you install Sonar in the default folder on the c: drive or on the external drive?

  Where do I go in the menu to get to AUD.INI? This sounds like a buffer change or something, which is not available in the menu for Audio, where I select the ASIO etc. settings. In fact in ASIO mode it does not allow me to make changes to the buffer size. There is an advanced mode which I think takes me to a settings change for the Motu interface and in there I can change the settings, but it does not seem clear to me, that is, what is the correct setting. So your suggestion is completely new to me and I am not sure where to look for this change to take place or in other words for me to make the change to the settings, so please explain a little further, thanks.

  Here is what I found and hope that I am on the right track, you let me know, because I am confused with the different SW or product references, as I don't use pyro or tdk or audio creator. All of this was on Cakewalk's website. See the bottom for the AUD.INI stuff. I'm getting Dropouts or 'stutters' during playback. The information in this article applies to: pyro Audio Creator pyro Audio Creator LE TDK Life on Record Vinyl Recorder Note for Audio Creator users - download the latest version 1.5.2 Audio Creator patch or Audio Creator LE patch. Whenever there are audio dropouts or stuttering issues, you can usually fix that by changing the driver mode from MME to WDM or vice versa. If you have an after market audio card or interface, try ASIO mode. Click here for the Audio Interface Setup Guide. Please click the "Options" button in the main Toolbar. If in MME, a larger buffer will be more stable, the same goes for WDM; however, a multi-core system may like working with a smaller buffer (towards the fast side) in WDM mode. We find 2 buffers to be quite stable, but if you still get dropouts, 4 or 8 are options. In Vista or Win7, go to the Control Panel | Sounds, click on the Recording tab. Highlight the USB Audio Codec and click Properties. On this page, click on the Advanced tab. If Audio Codec defaults to the microphone as a 1-channel device, instead of a 2-channel device, try switching it to 2-channel. For the stuttering playback or monitoring from your LP player, make sure it is not connected to a USB hub, but rather plugged directly into the USB controller. Also, if there are any webcams or other USB devices like that, temporarily unplug them. If switching driver modes doesn't do the trick, the AUD.INI file may be corrupt. To wipe it out, go to Start | RUN and type %appdata%/cakewalk then press OK. Click on Audio Creator and delete the AUD.INI file. The next time the program launches it will rebuild the file with fresh driver information. Relaunch and try recording again. This page last updated: 4/13/2011

  I will play with the interface settings and then move onto the AUD.INI. As far as renaming, do you mean that I should rename the AUD.INI to OLDAUD.INI and then is will still be there should the newly created one (after a reboot) not serve me well. Then I can just delete the new one and change the name back from OLDAUD.INI to AUD.INI with no hassle or damage...right? I will dig into the interface settings first thanks.

  O.K. so help me to understand. I can change the value of the DropoutMsec? What should I expect to see for a default value and what should I change it to and what does increasing or decreasing the value do? Does a higher value mean more buffer or a lower value? Which is the direction I should be going in to solve my problem of dropouts while recording? Thanks scook.

Jonesey is correct about the values. The best explanation of what DropoutMsec does is in the documentation:
Under high system load conditions, the SONAR audio pump mechanism may become starved. When this condition is detected, SONAR drops out. The DropoutMsec variable allows you to configure the tolerance time in milliseconds. This variable applies to all driver modes.
Setting DropoutMsec to a positive value > 0 specifies the actual time in milliseconds to tolerate before dropping out due to starvation. Setting DropoutMsec to a negative value < 0 means we use a multiple of the audio buffer size as the tolerance. i.e. -2 means we use twice the audio buffer size. Note that setting this value too low (e.g. 0) can result in more frequent dropouts in the program. If you notice too many dropouts, try raising it in buffer multiples or by explicitly specifying a millisecond value

You also need to adjust your latency with the motu software. You should be able to find a sweet spot between 128 and 512 buffers that should work for you.

You also could do yourself a favor and review the troubleshooting section of the user manual. It covers a few other things that might be adjusted to smooth out your performance issues. We can go over those if you still have problems after adjusting the motu buffers and the AUD.INI adjustment.

If the problem was not apparent before the system was "optimized" that begs the question, exactly what was done to optimize the system? Can you undo the optimizations? If you need to set the buffers 1024 that is OK. It is possible to set the buffer value too high but you are well below that value.