Hi All,
 
Does anyone have experience using a soft synth called, "Cool Synth?"  i just installed it on my laptop running the 30 day demo of SONAR X3 and I'm having terrible latency.  I've looked at the buffer size and chosen Cool Synth as my output device.  but I still can't kill the latency problem.  i've changed my audio drivers from MM32bit to WDMKS.  Originally, I couldn't get sounds.  Now I get sounds in WDm, but can't still get the latency down.  I may try again in ASIO.
 
Any advice appreciated.  Feel free to aSsume I've missed something basic.
 
Kevin

You will need a quality sound card to lower the latency. 

  I mean, I get no sound using AThe weird thing is, I was able to download a driver called, "ASIO4ALL," and use it to make Sibelius 7.5 play without latency on this same laptop, even using their large sound library.  Why can't I do this in SONAR X3?  I mean, I get no sound in ASIO.  It took time, but I did eventually get sound in WDM.  What am I missing?  If I do, in fact, need a sound card, what portable card could I get.  This is just a Dell off the shelf.  It's not my main rig.

kevjazz
  I mean, I get no sound using AThe weird thing is, I was able to download a driver called, "ASIO4ALL," and use it to make Sibelius 7.5 play without latency on this same laptop, even using their large sound library.  Why can't I do this in SONAR X3?  I mean, I get no sound in ASIO.  It took time, but I did eventually get sound in WDM.  What am I missing?  If I do, in fact, need a sound card, what portable card could I get.  This is just a Dell off the shelf.  It's not my main rig.

It depends on the soft synth, too. They're all different. I don't know what kind if a synth Sibelius uses to produce the sounds, possibly a basic GM synth. For fluent DAW work you need a proper soundcard, a rather basic USB will do.
How low could you lower your latency? You don't give any info whatsoever of the situation.

Cool Synth is an actual product name.  the GM library was called "Timbers of Heaven."  I tried moving my latency buffer down to 128 without success.  Again, using ASIO4ALL with Sibelius 7.5 and their library, my latency was functionally zero.  So, the laptop, with the default sound card, can function.  that suggests that there is a solution without buying a pro sound card.  
 
Thoughts?

Cool Synth is an actual product name.  the GM library was called "Timbers of Heaven."  I tried moving my latency buffer down to 128 without success.  Again, using ASIO4ALL with Sibelius 7.5 and their library, my latency was functionally zero.  So, the laptop, with the default sound card, can function.  that suggests that there is a solution without buying a pro sound card.  
 
Thoughts?

kevjazz
Cool Synth is an actual product name.  the GM library was called "Timbers of Heaven."  I tried moving my latency buffer down to 128 without success.  Again, using ASIO4ALL with Sibelius 7.5 and their library, my latency was functionally zero.  So, the laptop, with the default sound card, can function.  that suggests that there is a solution without buying a pro sound card.  
 
Thoughts?

No. We have been doing this for a very long time and it is the collective wisdom of this forum that you really need a decent sound card with good drivers to do low latency audio. But its more than that you get system stability as well as a better sound. When you do get a good sound card you will kick yourself for putting up the $0.50 sound chip embedded in your motherboard. 
 
Sonar is a very complicated program that does audio in the form of multi track audio as well as MIDI as well as Video with DX and VST plugins. It needs a quality sound card to perform well. 
 
Users that rely on the sound chip in the laptop do so as a stop gap measure because they may not be able to bring along their main rig. 
 

Guys
 
I just bought and installed a Roland Duo Capture EX and I'm still having the same latency problems with X3.  I have no latency in Sibelius 7.5 under ASIO.  But I can't get good real time MIDi out of my Xkey USB keyboard using the Roland either.  I would really appreciate any advice.  I've tried lowering the ASIO buffer without success.  
 
AGain, it works in Sibelius and not in SONAR.  the Soft Synth I'm using is a sound font called Timbers of Heaven.  I'm running it through Cool Soft Virtual MIDi Synth.  If you feel that the soft synth is at fault, please recommend another.  Any help appreciated.  
 
Kevin

Hi - lots of folks using laptops for running Sonar have issues with latency, and lots of times, in addition to driver mode and settings, the presence of a Wi-Fi adapter on the laptop can cause MASSIVE latency spikes, wrecking audio output quality.
 
The easy solution for the Wi-Fi induced latency is to temporarily 'disable' the adapter just prior to launching Sonar, and enable it again after finishing the Sonar session.
 
You can go into Device Manager, find the Wi-Fi adapter, right-click on it, and click either disable or enable, as needed.
 
Please note that the above does NOT address any latency issues caused by driver mode or by things like ASIO Buffer Size and Sample Rate, and only address eliminating the large latency spikes caused by enabled Wi-Fi adapters.
 
I hope that the above helps you.
 
Congrats on picking up an interface, by the way.  Try the following settings while tracking (recording):
 
Audio interface: Sample Rate of either 44.1 k or 48 k, ASIO Buffer Size of 128
 
Sonar: Driver Mode of ASIO, Sample Rate of 44.1 k or 48 k (must match sample rate of interface), Record Bit-Depth of 24 bits.
 
The above should give you a Sonar-reported Total Roundtrip Latency of around or just under 10 milliseconds, which should be a really good balance between low latency without dropouts, and the load placed on the CPU.
 
Bob Bone
 

Bob and all,
two important points need to be reenforced here:
1. I DO have a separate audio interface, the Roland Duo Capture EX.
2. The problems I'm having are not with audio, but MIDI lag between pressing a key and hearing a sound in SONAR X3. I do get the response I want when in Sibelius 7.5.
I haven't tried disabling the network adapter. but I dout that will make a diffrence because ASIO works in sibelius.
Hope this makes things clearer and that someone will have a suggestion.