Posted this originally in wrong forum.
 
I'm running X3 Producer with a tascam us 1641 interface, Windows 8, recordings going to an SSD but have HDD installed as well (don't have full specs memorized and not by the computer but can update later).
Here is my frustration. I was able to record 9 tracks, full effects, while playing 3 prerecorded tracks, with little latency and no dropouts for at least a year. I haven't used the software to record in a few months and as soon as I did, I get dropouts after 10 seconds. There were no changes in setup, and I was only recording 3 tracks. I have tried Latencymon and found that defender was causing hard page faults, so I took that out of the equation. Now Sonar is the page fault culprint. Latencymon says that the computer is suitable for real time audio and, other than page faults, everything is low green. I tried messing with buffer size (although just found out it has to be 64 increments so i have to retry that. it was at 256 before it broke), turning effects on and off, removing usb devices leaving only interface, updated bios and graphics drivers, raised latency, disabled wifi, all with little improvement. I did realize that I have not installed any patches and need to do that but it was working fine without them.
 
The fact that it was working great and all of a sudden broke, is what is really frustrating me. Any help will be greatly appreciated. Also, if this belongs in a different thread, mods please move.
 
Thank you

I have the us1641. 
Make sure that you are in ASIO mode and the Tascam is your timing master. 
That all inputs and outputs are selected in Audio preferences. 
 
First to adjust your buffers you use the ASIO panel button under audio preferences, or access the GUI directly using the Tascam icon ( found on the apps list or control panel) 
For me it works fine for most situation when set to "normal" There are no numbers. 
Setting it to "Low"  settings will cause the audio engine to stop on all computers I've tried. 
 
The us1641 drivers are stable but very pour performance with Round Trip Latency, expect 25 ms or higher, so it is not an interface you want to engage Input Echo while recording audio with. 
 
You really need to update X3 to the "e" patch before trouble shooting so this will rule out other factors.
 
 
 

Perhaps a VST is the problem. Have you tried to do a VST-scan? I am just guessing here.

johnnyV
I have the us1641. 
Make sure that you are in ASIO mode and the Tascam is your timing master. 
That all inputs and outputs are selected in Audio preferences. 
 
First to adjust your buffers you use the ASIO panel button under audio preferences, or access the GUI directly using the Tascam icon ( found on the apps list or control panel) 
For me it works fine for most situation when set to "normal" There are no numbers. 
Setting it to "Low"  settings will cause the audio engine to stop on all computers I've tried. 
 
The us1641 drivers are stable but very pour performance with Round Trip Latency, expect 25 ms or higher, so it is not an interface you want to engage Input Echo while recording audio with. 
 
You really need to update X3 to the "e" patch before trouble shooting so this will rule out other factors.
 
 
 

Thank you for the response. I am in ASIO mode, and all ins/outs selected. Under the Tascam settings, should it be Automatic or Internal for the timing master? And In Sonar, right now, it is set to mic 1, which I'm starting to think is wrong. I'll set the latency to normal as well.
Hopefully the updates will help.
 
Do you see why it would just stop working without any changes? Windows update maybe?
What do you have as your buffer settings?
 

kakku
Perhaps a VST is the problem. Have you tried to do a VST-scan? I am just guessing here.

Scan was clean, and I tried recording with no plugins. But I'll look further into that as well

"Mike 1"   I believe is the correct timing master.
 
The only setting I ever change is the MIDI buffer from the default way up to 800 or more. 
The "Normal" setting in the Tascam GUI was default and I leave the other 2 setting at the default 256 and I never get drop outs when working with audio. I can record the full 16 track input without issues. I'm set at 44.1/24 by the way. 
 
Only time I had issues was when I would add a lot of soft synths and it would crap out. And this was the same on any computer for me right up to an i7 with 16 gigs of RAM. So I bought the Scarlett 6i6 for this reasons and the problems has never returned. I use the Tascam for multi input recording of drums and stuff. It is excellent at doing that.  As I said, Tascam ASIO drivers are not great. 
 

Ok, it has been a while, mainly because I have tried everything under the sun and it still doesn't work. I'm beginning to suspect that my HDD might be the issue. I have updated every driver, optimized windows 8 for audio, tried all suggestions listed above, and reinstalled multiple times. I have an SSD for system files and a Western Digital WD5000AAKS HDD (came with PC) for recording. Within seconds, the HDD usage jumps to 100% and within 40 seconds (more often less) I get a drop out. Even when moving the recording data to the SSD, the HDD peaks. Nothing else peaks other than the HDD. I'm not as good with this as I would like to be so I might be doing something stupid. I used to get a disk error before the upgrade to Windows 8 and X3 but I don't anymore. What settings or changes can I make to the HDD to get it to work? How can I prove that the HDD is failing? What else should I try?
I can't even get through a 3 track with no effects playback without crashing.

BillZby
Ok, it has been a while, mainly because I have tried everything under the sun and it still doesn't work. I'm beginning to suspect that my HDD might be the issue. I have updated every driver, optimized windows 8 for audio, tried all suggestions listed above, and reinstalled multiple times. I have an SSD for system files and a Western Digital WD5000AAKS HDD (came with PC) for recording. Within seconds, the HDD usage jumps to 100% and within 40 seconds (more often less) I get a drop out. Even when moving the recording data to the SSD, the HDD peaks. Nothing else peaks other than the HDD. I'm not as good with this as I would like to be so I might be doing something stupid. I used to get a disk error before the upgrade to Windows 8 and X3 but I don't anymore. What settings or changes can I make to the HDD to get it to work? How can I prove that the HDD is failing? What else should I try?
I can't even get through a 3 track with no effects playback without crashing.

Hi same here
Every thing was working great till 3 days ago. i have 240GB SSD for OS and 1TB for my projects. All of a sudden 3 days ago my computer started to dropout all the projects that never has issue with them. I diagnosed both hard drive with the PC CHECK program and whole my pc, all passed and both hard drive were healthy. I had a spare internal hard drive and connected to my pc as a new drive and copied one of the projects on the new spare hard drive, it worked fine with no dropout. I backed up my stuff and did low format the project hard drive and run a program to fix if there is any bad sector but all was fine and program couldn't fine any issue. So i am so frustrated too because i was in the middle of a mixing an album and had to stop it. :(
 

REZA
 

Hi same here
Every thing was working great till 3 days ago. i have 240GB SSD for OS and 1TB for my projects. All of a sudden 3 days ago my computer started to dropout all the projects that never has issue with them. I diagnosed both hard drive with the PC CHECK program and whole my pc, all passed and both hard drive were healthy. I had a spare internal hard drive and connected to my pc as a new drive and copied one of the projects on the new spare hard drive, it worked fine with no dropout. I backed up my stuff and did low format the project hard drive and run a program to fix if there is any bad sector but all was fine and program couldn't fine any issue. So i am so frustrated too because i was in the middle of a mixing an album and had to stop it. :(
 




Are things still working well? I hope I can just get a new HDD to fix the problem. Is there a shelf life on a HDD being used as a recording device? My HDD is about 5 years old and pretty much has been used exclusively for recording and 3D modeling so I wonder if it just not fast enough anymore for whatever reason.

BillZby

REZA
 

Hi same here
Every thing was working great till 3 days ago. i have 240GB SSD for OS and 1TB for my projects. All of a sudden 3 days ago my computer started to dropout all the projects that never has issue with them. I diagnosed both hard drive with the PC CHECK program and whole my pc, all passed and both hard drive were healthy. I had a spare internal hard drive and connected to my pc as a new drive and copied one of the projects on the new spare hard drive, it worked fine with no dropout. I backed up my stuff and did low format the project hard drive and run a program to fix if there is any bad sector but all was fine and program couldn't fine any issue. So i am so frustrated too because i was in the middle of a mixing an album and had to stop it. :(
 

Are things still working well? I hope I can just get a new HDD to fix the problem. Is there a shelf life on a HDD being used as a recording device? My HDD is about 5 years old and pretty much has been used exclusively for recording and 3D modeling so I wonder if it just not fast enough anymore for whatever reason.




when i load the project from the original hard drive i used to working with i get lots of dropout but as i said it shouldn't be the hard drive because i checked it's health with several different program and non of them didn't show any issue. I wanna uninstall and reinstall the sonar to see if problem solve.
Also there are some free program out that you can download to see how many hours your hard drives are working. I get back up of all my projects some where safe just in case if i lost my hard drive. 

REZA

BillZby

REZA
 

Hi same here
Every thing was working great till 3 days ago. i have 240GB SSD for OS and 1TB for my projects. All of a sudden 3 days ago my computer started to dropout all the projects that never has issue with them. I diagnosed both hard drive with the PC CHECK program and whole my pc, all passed and both hard drive were healthy. I had a spare internal hard drive and connected to my pc as a new drive and copied one of the projects on the new spare hard drive, it worked fine with no dropout. I backed up my stuff and did low format the project hard drive and run a program to fix if there is any bad sector but all was fine and program couldn't fine any issue. So i am so frustrated too because i was in the middle of a mixing an album and had to stop it. :(
 

Are things still working well? I hope I can just get a new HDD to fix the problem. Is there a shelf life on a HDD being used as a recording device? My HDD is about 5 years old and pretty much has been used exclusively for recording and 3D modeling so I wonder if it just not fast enough anymore for whatever reason.

when i load the project from the original hard drive i used to working with i get lots of dropout but as i said it shouldn't be the hard drive because i checked it's health with several different program and non of them didn't show any issue. I wanna uninstall and reinstall the sonar to see if problem solve.
Also there are some free program out that you can download to see how many hours your hard drives are working. I get back up of all my projects some where safe just in case if i lost my hard drive. 


I did multiple Sonar reinstalls with no luck. I think I might to completely remove Sonar and start over. Maybe I am setting it up all wrong with the two drive setup. I may also just get a new HDD anyway since this one is already a few years old. I would love to know what you find out with your setup since it seems to be similar to my issues. Please keep me posted on what you tried and and what works.