I'm trying to import audio WAV files (File --> Import) into tracks in SONAR Producer, and the sound is grossly distorted, as if sampled by a two-bit sampler (pun intended). When I play the audio directly, the sound is fine. This has worked in the past, but I've had to move to a new machine. Any ideas? I'm pretty sure the sample rate (44.1) was the same, though I'll double-check that in the morning. I've been wrestling with this for two hours. Frustrated. Ideas? [Win 10, 64 bit, playback checked via Media Player]

Audio driver buffer set too low?

Problems with PCI bus latency issues?

Turns out the audio is fine when exported from Sonar. So it's a playback problem. It happens on both my 64-bit Win10 machines. The playback audio is broken up and distorted... but when I export either a track or a mix, it's fine. I dug up an old Win7 machine that I'd stopped using, and it worked fine there (same files, transferred as a CWB). I'm using Producer to mix tracks from other sources, so it's not an origination issue, just a playback problem. Ideas?
 

Looped audio?

Cool may be onto something (great ironic handle for a Siberian, btw). Are the imported files straight wav files? Have you tried importing some known straight wave files for comparison (e.g. something you exported from SONAR)?

Neither looped nor stretched. Straight 16-bit 44.1, a dozen instrument tracks plus vocals.
 

What audio interface are you using?
 
Assuming it has ASIO drivers, are you certain the ASIO buffer isn't set so low it's causing problems?
As these are new PCs, have you checked for PCI bus latency problems using latencymon?
 
Finally, what do you mean by "grossly distorted'?

FirstPullUp
Turns out the audio is fine when exported from Sonar. So it's a playback problem. It happens on both my 64-bit Win10 machines. The playback audio is broken up and distorted... but when I export either a track or a mix, it's fine. I dug up an old Win7 machine that I'd stopped using, and it worked fine there (same files, transferred as a CWB). I'm using Producer to mix tracks from other sources, so it's not an origination issue, just a playback problem. Ideas?
 

I'm not trying to be smart arse here but how do you know if the export was ok?
What are you attempting to play your wav back on?
 
Try re-importing it back into Sonar, solo it and route it directly to your hardware outputs, bypassing the master buss.
 
If this sounds fine then the problem is not with SONAR.

I played the export on Media Player and on a Win7 machine with Sonar, both of which sound fine. On the Win10 machines, the sound is broken even when routed directly to the output speakers (headphones). This is a new problem, BTW, since it used to work on one of the machines (the other is a "new" rebuild) about four months ago. By "broken" - it literally sounds like a two-bit rather than 16-bit conversion, full of crackles, no bass, overload distortion, etc. It is plain awful, not audiophile-only-bad. As in worse-than-1960-Cousin-Brucie-transistor-radio bad, like that transistor radio turned up all the way after Link Wray did his thing with the 2" speaker in the radio. No, even worse than that. And as noted, the install on my old Win7 machine is okay.

In response to tlw above, neither Win10 installation is able to find the ASIO drivers, and so they're using (I think) MME - I'm not a driver expert. And I get a funny audio profile saying nothing below 88K (I think) is available.