I have been using Sonar X2 for a couple of years, mainly midi. Recently I have been having a major problem with latency which prevents me from finishing the vocal to songs. In the past it was not really evident or to stop me working. My System. Producer X2, Dell Win 7 ...I have been happily using Edirol UA-25 for a few years without any midi problems. So thinking it was overloaded, I copied just the piano (audio) to a new project and want to a vocals to it...Nope..it is always out of sync. I am currently running ASIO. There is no slider adjustment..it is greyed out. If I switch to WDMKS it says its not compatible and wont play anything ....I have tried to record direct to Edirol, or go thru an external mixer ...both have unusable latency...ANY help would be great?

I am also using Sonar X2 Producer, but I use two different interfaces, a Roland VS100 or a Roland Duo-Capture Ex.
I do use it for audio mainly (guitar), on a W7 x64 system. No latency problems at all.
Edirol is no longer supported by Roland as I noticed which means it is a rather old product. I would suggest only to use ASIO, but if it is greyed out it might suggest a problem with your driver. If you have an old W7 system, it might need some clean up? If a processor is overloaded you can get all kinds op problems.

Hi, thanks for your interest. I am using X2 Producer with Win 7 /64...The Edirol is about 6 years old and seems to work fine in all sense's..Except lately, when I try to record audio (vocal) ...even with a simple piano / vocal production...there is a latency that makes it impossible to sing it in sync.  I do admit I am running my system at almost full capacity. I know Roland is no longer supporting the Edirol UA-25,,,but because its an audio related issue, I think it may be related to running the pc at close to maximum as it uses more power/memory..Midi is all fine..So, what to do? that is the question?  What are my choices? Can't update the drivers? Updating the OS is going create other problems with Sonar X2, Edirol and several my modules I use (when I'm not using soft synths)...Looks like I may have to record the audio vocal elsewhere and then import it in as a wav file....What a headache!

Even though the slider is greyed out (this is normal), you should have a button that says "Asio Panel". If so click that, and lower the asio buffer size from the panel that opens. 512 or below should see you right and get your latency below 10ms.

Using your system at almost max capacity does not help. I do have 16GB RAM and I also use a third part cache.
My system is also used at a pretty high load as I also have my email, text, graphics and video editing programs on it.
I have my programs on an SSD (500GB) and my data spread over different HDs. One is dedicated to music (3TB).
As you are using it for a long period check if the capacity of your C-drive is still enough.
When you open the file manager and click Computer you can see the disks in your system with bars that should all be blue. If one has a red bar and if it is your C-drive you need to consider to clean  it (remove some programs) or buy a larger one and clone the data.
 
Regarding Asio
In my opinion the Asio Panel button in the Drivers Settings Preference screen should not be greyed. and when you click it the slider should not be greyed as well. In my situation it is on 6. My ASIO buffer size is set at 256 samples.

 I don't know the specifics of your audio interface, but some audio interfaces do not respond to the ASIO Panel button in Sonar, and instead have their own launch icon to get to their control panel to change settings.
 
For the 2 audio interfaces I happen to have, whichever one I am using will have an icon sitting in the system tray that will open up the user interface for the settings panel.
 
Additionally, as a test, try to see if the latency goes away when you disable all plugins, by hitting the 'E' key on your computer keyboard.  That is a Sonar toggle for the bypass of all effects.  IF the latency issues go away when you have effects disabled, then one or more of your project's loaded effects are adding a bunch of latency.  Some plugins are not meant to be used during recording and are instead meant for mixing/mastering.
 
If you have used 'E' to toggle on the bypass of all effects, you can hit 'E' again to enable the effects again after you finish that test.
 
Hope that helps, 
 
Bob Bone
 

Thanks for all that helpful information,..apart from my maxed out hard drive (working at 90%) I will look into some of these possibilites. Yes, the ASIO Panel has a button. I press it, it comes up with a buffer, I try to reduce it to the left and get an error message saying device in use by other applications..close down and restart..As far as I know there are no other applications "on"....everything is shut down?  I even removed the checkbox tick for "share drivers with other applications".....usually I use ASIO driver, however, Does anyone know why when I set driver to WDMKS...and apply it plays nothing...zilch?  should'nt the WDMKS drivers be an option?  

Hi Num Tarn, do you have any effects patched into your master channel? If so you will get crazy latency if your trying record a track. Make sure when recording tracks that you never have any effects turned on in your master. It took me a while to figure that one out!! Hopefully that's your problem.

No, I dont have any effects patched into my master channel...Now just to be more annoying... I cannot record ANY audio...nothing..message says...either cannot find audio record device? or the audio dropout box comes up??  the audio button is switched on ...midi is working normal ? ...so I now have three problems? cant record any audio? sometimes says theres no device? and latency? wow sometimes I wish I could go back to my old Zoom 8 track !!
Any advice would be appreciated..

Okay,are all your drivers updated? Have you been updating windows updates? I would make sure you have the newest drivers for all your stuff. Start with your audio interface first, then MAKE SURE your driver for your Wifi or Lan card is up to date! then do windows updates. Make sure you have the latest Update for Sonar, I think Producer's last update was E. I am sure you will figure out the problem. Let me know.