I'm in a serious world of pain with Sonar X3 Studio at the moment. Been using it with relatively few problems for the last 2 years or so but currently it's farting out on me and raining dropouts.

My computer is recent and pretty high (or should be high enough) spec - intel i7-4710HQ CPU @ 2.50Ghz, 16 GB RAM, running windows 8. My soundcard is an RME Fireface UC and I have the most recent drivers. My computer is not fragmented at all, I've just done a big disk clearup and removed a lot of old files from the computer, so I've got lots of hard disk space left. Not sure what the problem could be as it didn't affect previous projects. I had to struggle through the drum recording session and I'm wary and reluctant to try to carry on with the recording until I can fix this - it's a major pain losing a good take because the program has a dropout just before the bridge.

I've been experimenting with using 64bits with 44.1KHz and for this project and  it was working fine until a few days ago. On the current recording it's dropouts galore and I can't figure out if it's to do with the sample rate or some other more mysterious problem. I got so fed up that I reset the audio settings to default (which includes recording audio at 44.1KHz/24bit) and that seems to have done the job for now, except for a couple of things:

- When I arm a track or two to record mode, it automatically has a dropout notificaion even though i'm not playing/recording. This is a problem because I need to see the meters so I can set appropriate levels for the recorded signal. So far the only way to solve this is by turning the Red record button on and off on the track.

- When I try to record audio, the track will play one half a second and dropout. It will do this 3-5 times in a row before recording.

- When recording audio is actually successful, the audio file is placed in the session at a starting point later than when the file was recorded. ie If I record some guitars to a track, they will be recorded at a later time than when they were played so that to get them back in time I have to play a game of drag n drop - which I am seeking to solve.

I'm quite desperate to solve these problems as I can't really carry on recording with any confidence in my equipment if it isn't working. I'd also like to find out how to record at 64bit without everything ****ing up, because evverything I recorded at 64bit sounded amazing. Any help greatly appreciated.
 
PS If giving more specific details of settings etc might help diagnose my problems, then ask away and I will provide them.

What is your driver mode?  And what are your buffer settings?  I am thinking that your buffers got set too low when you reset your audio settings.

Dave, thanks a bunch - that worked. Buffers were set too high on the soundcard. I don't understand why that delays the timing of the recorded audio though... Time to do some reading methinks.
 
The Driver mode on Sonar is WDM/KS. It seems that's what it need to be for my Fireface UC to work with it. When recording 44.1/24bit the recommended bit rate is 256, which is what I've set the soundcard and Sonar to. Seems to be working.

Sonar doesn't have any listed recommendations for buffer size at other bit depth levels than 16 and 24 though. Not that I can see.

Go into device manager and see if any other audio drivers are installed. Also, can't you use ASIO with the RME? That alone might solve your issues.

Anderton - The RME manual mentions SONAR specifically as using a WDM system and I've been using my soundcard in WDM mode for almost two years without a problem. I'm pretty sure it's simply to do with buffer size/bit depth settings and that sort of thing.

You'll  definitely want to switch to RME's ASIO driver, instead of the WDM drivers.   

Agreed, try ASIO and see how it works for you, it's an easy test. Also, consider upgrading from Win8.

Definitely try to use the ASIO driver.  It is far superior to either WDM or MME.

And don't forget to uninstall and disable the Realtek chipset audio (if you motherboard uses that chipset Brand, some others uses VIA or Creative chipsets) that thing made me some nasty things and dropouts until i disable all that integrated audio stuff, now my system is rocksolid with my Quad-Capture interface.