Hi everyone, I have a problem running Sonar X3 Studio with my MBox 2 as Audiointerface.
 
I know, there is a subforum for non cakewalk hardware, but as it is not so frequented, I thought I try it here. This is my original post:

 
Hi everybody,

before i buy a new audio interface i wanna ask you, if someone has an idea, what's going wrong. I bought Sonar X3 Studio not to long ago, and want to use it with my Mbox 2.

I had the trial before and tested it with the Mbox and it worked. With the WDM/KS driver. The Asio Driver selection also found the Mbox2 but unfortunately I'm not able to playback or record more than a second before it stops for some reason. I read somewhere that it could be the fact, that the Mbox 2 does not work with multicore cpu (or with programs using multicore cpu). In fact it also doesn't work using single core.

So i could use the WDM/KS driver, but there is a delay in recording MIDI Instruments. First it was 10 ms on lowest buffersize and i thought i could live with it. But for some reason it is now 23 ms and thats not cool anymore. ;-) When i play a virtual instrument it sounds ok for me, but if i record and playback, it sounds like i could not play properly.

So my question is, if anyone works with a Mbox2 and Sonar X3 without any issues. The Mbox 2 works without any problems on the AVID Media Composer but that is not surprising, because its the same company.

 
My Specs are:
 
Intel Xeon CPU E3-1231 v3 @3,40 Ghz
8 GB RAM
Win7 64bit (updated)
MBox2 (stand alone driver 9.0.2.65 (the newest i found))
Sonar X3 Studio (updated)
I have next to the Mbox2 onboard sound for using a headset and HDMI NVidia Output i use for my normal PC sound.
 
 
By the way: If I can't solve the problem in the next days, I'm selling a Mbox2!!! I make special price for you. ;-)
 
 
Thanks for your time!
 
 
 
 

first, this is not the X series forum, either.  this is the legacy series (8.5 and below).  however, I will be glad to try to help here as well.
 
It shouldn't be changing the buffer on you without you changing it.  if it was on 10msec before and you thought it was OK there, but now it's on 23msec and you don't like the latency you get with MIDI, then change it back to 10msec.  you can manually change it.
 
ASIO drivers will probably work better if you set them up correctly.  the buffers for the ASIO drivers are actually located in the mbox not in sonar.  select ASIO in sonar, then open your Mbox software and look for "hardware buffers" or something similar sounding.  increase the buffers there.
 
another suggestion I have is one that I use so that I don't have to worry about low latency for MIDI:  if you're using a keyboard (has audio output) instead of a MIDI controller, then use the keyboard's sounds for feedback instead of using the softsynth.
 
set up sonar to record the midi output from your keyboard, but use the speakers on your keyboard (or output to a speaker/monitor).  record the MIDI to a MIDI track, not an instrument track and not using a softsynth at all at this point.
 
you can hear what you're playing from the keyboard, and record MIDI only in sonar.  then you can add the softsynth to your project after you've recorded the MIDI. 

Hey, thank you for your reply.
 
it seems like I'm a little bit dumb. ;-) Wrong forum, second thread.... It would be nice if anyone can merge both threads and move this to the X Series Forum, I won't open up another thread.
 
Actually, I'm pretty sure I had around 10ms on WDM/KS on lowest buffer size (512). And it went up for some reason, maybe by switching the samplerate? I'm also not really happy with 10 ms. I thought, the Asio driver would do better in this case, as I can go down to 64 samples with 1.3 ms. I won't do this, but the range is simply bigger.
 
The idea with the keyboard is pretty nice. Unfortunately I have just a Midicontroller (Axiom61), but I will keep this in mind, because I always thought about buying an e-piano or something similar.
 
The Asio playback record bug is really strange for me. I tried using it again today, and I switched the sample rate from 64 up to 4096 samples and it simply doesn't matter for playback. Just the delay gets bigger, but this is normal.
 
To make this more clear: If i start recording a soft synth, i can hear the soft synth as i play it. I even can hear the metronome ticking. But the playhead stops after a second, and the timer stops. After stop recording the Midifile is pretty short and mostly contains only the first note.
 
I don't know. I think about buying a new Interface. But I'm a little bit afraid, that the interface isn't the problem.
 
Is Sonar having any certified hardware guide with PC Specs, like other software DAWs or Editing applications?
 
 
 

Hey, thank you for your reply.
 
it seems like I'm a little bit dumb. ;-) Wrong forum, second thread.... It would be nice if anyone can merge both threads and move this to the X Series Forum, I won't open up another thread.
 
Actually, I'm pretty sure I had around 10ms on WDM/KS on lowest buffer size (512). And it went up for some reason, maybe by switching the samplerate? I'm also not really happy with 10 ms. I thought, the Asio driver would do better in this case, as I can go down to 64 samples with 1.3 ms. I won't do this, but the range is simply bigger.
 
The idea with the keyboard is pretty nice. Unfortunately I have just a Midicontroller (Axiom61), but I will keep this in mind, because I always thought about buying an e-piano or something similar.
 
The Asio playback record bug is really strange for me. I tried using it again today, and I switched the sample rate from 64 up to 4096 samples and it simply doesn't matter for playback. Just the delay gets bigger, but this is normal.
 
To make this more clear: If i start recording a soft synth, i can hear the soft synth as i play it. I even can hear the metronome ticking. But the playhead stops after a second, and the timer stops. After stop recording the Midifile is pretty short and mostly contains only the first note.
 
I don't know. I think about buying a new Interface. But I'm a little bit afraid, that the interface isn't the problem.
 
Is Sonar having any certified hardware guide with PC Specs, like other software DAWs or Editing applications?
 
 
 

yes, if you change the sample rate, the latency will change as well.  I used to remember the exact numbers it would change, but I haven't done it in a while and I'm getting old...
 
when you say you switched the sample rate from 64 to 4096, that sounds like buffers, not sample rate.  sample rate is a different thing and if you meant buffers earlier when you said sample rate, then my answer above is a little different too.  if you are changing the buffers then YES they DIRECTLY affect the latency times.
 
but as far as playback, the number of buffers you have will not cause latency on playback, only on recording.  if your buffers are too low during playback OR recording, then you can get popping, skipping, and even dropout depending on how good your computer is.
 

To make this more clear: If i start recording a soft synth, i can hear the soft synth as i play it. I even can hear the metronome ticking. But the playhead stops after a second, and the timer stops. After stop recording the Midifile is pretty short and mostly contains only the first note

this sounds like you're experiencing dropout.  increase the buffers to the maximum and it won't drop out.  however, your delay between when you press a key on the keyboard and when you hear the softsynth play the note will be horrible and unusable.
 
try that just to be sure that you are experiencing dropout and that would solve that issue (even tho causing another)
 
then you have to find the happy medium between the lowest setting of buffers which causes you dropout and the highest setting of buffers which causes you too much latency.
 
if you can't find a setting that is acceptable, then we should look at your computer specs.

I meant buffer-size of course. I should not write in forums at night. ;-) But increasing the buffer size did not help so far. Is it necessary to restart the application when i change the buffer size? 
 
My momentary plan is to get a different audio interface from a company i work with. If another Interface solves the problem, I know that it has something to do with the MBox 2. I will tell you what happened. Thank you for your help so far.

Have you been to Intel auto update and updated the chipset drivers?
Also I suggest running windows update several times Inc optional updates.
Another thing in the rename AUD.INI (google for details), I assume you are on X3E.
Maybe even a fresh windows install.
 
Maybe this old thread will help as well:
http://forum.cakewalk.com/MBOX2-Problems-With-Sonar-X1-m2205865.aspx
 
Cheers...
 

I have the exact same problem as the original poster. I have the Mbox 2 and this happened when I originally tried out Sonar 8 as well. Luckily my latency using WDM is fairly good.