Daylaa
I see all of mine (Record, Render and Import) are currently set to 64. So would you recommend I change mine to what yours are?

 
As others have said the ideal settings are the defaults Record=24, Render=32 and Import=original
Its pretty rare that you need render=64 and you never want to set record > 24 since no converters go higher than 24 except for a few drivers that support streaming float audio. If they have hardware input fx that would be the only time you might want that.
Going higher is taxing the Disk as well as the I/O thread and using excess CPU. If you have large projects with lots of tracks this could certainly add up and lead to spikes esp if your disk is slow.
 
 

Roo Stercogburn
How often does your PC do an anti-virus scan?

Hi Roo - My main machine doesn't have Anti-Virus on it as I brows using the virtual PC 'Rainzone'. So this can't be a problem. I'm told by RAIN that Rainzone cannot effect my main system.
 
OBHave - Although I feel your pain and frustration first hand, it sure is nice to know someone else has the same issue as me and I'm not completely alone with this. Please also let me know if you find a cure.
 
I seem to have found peace with my Pro Channel - but I'm not going to say it's 'fixed' just yet. My setting now are: 256 Samples (on soundcard interface and in 'sync and caching'). And then as Noel has recommended: Record=24, Render=32 and Import=original.
 
If I raise my sample rate higher, Pro Channel becomes glitchy again. This strikes me as strange still, as surely my PC should handle this kind of thing better? There are people on here with less powerful machines enjoying much looser reins with regards to sample rates.
 
I will continue to keep this thread posted - will play around with Pro Channel every day if I can.
 

I can't remember where I originally read it, but bridged PCI devices on PCIe bus, share the same [PCIe] interrupt priority (ala the bridge mechanism).  It's a decent design - but all PCI devices have to wait their turn to be exposed on the PCIe bus thru that single priority. It puts an extra level of intervention in place for things like memory access - not what you'd normally want for a high I/O-count device.
 
Better to go with PCIe today for direct bussed devices, or USB/Firewire as they are usually motherboard devices with direct memory access.
 
 

In PCIe motherboards, PCI slots are treated as legacy devices and the implementation of passing data is flaky and varies from board to board. In audio devices where I/O is paramount this kind of a kludge exposes your system to instabilities.

The lesson basically is that for recent MOBO's get PCIe cards for audio or use USB or even firewire

... also, I wonder if anyone can recreate this issue on their machines? By setting record and render to 64 and upping the samples on sound card? Does pro channel e q become glitchy?

Daylaa
...Is the Pro Channel causing huge drop outs.
 
My experience of X2 was a nightmare because every time I tried to sweep a frequency using the Pro Channel EQ, everything dropped out or buzzed or froze. Constantly.

I haven't seen issues with dropouts. On the other hand, I have seen, across multiple projects and, seemingly, at random occasions, the console emulator and the tape saturator mute all the signal going through them. Restarting Sonar seems to fix the problem.

Gswitz: As requested, here are my LatencyMon results for a span of 52 minutes:
 
Firstly, it's telling me that my system can handle audio without dropouts (in the green text).
I have run LatencyMon in the past and it's given me red text.
 
CONCLUSION
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Your system appears to be suitable for handling real-time audio and other tasks without dropouts.
LatencyMon has been analyzing your system for  0:52:38  (h:mm:ss) on all processors.


_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
SYSTEM INFORMATION
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Computer name:                                        NIMBUS
OS version:                                           Windows 7 Service Pack 1, 6.1, build: 7601 (x64)
Hardware:                                             ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC., P8Z77-V
CPU:                                                  GenuineIntel Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-3770K CPU @ 3.50GHz
Logical processors:                                   8
Processor groups:                                     1
RAM:                                                  32449 MB total


_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU SPEED
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Reported CPU speed:                                   3500.0 MHz
Measured CPU speed:                                   2843.0 MHz (approx.)

Note: reported execution times may be calculated based on a fixed reported CPU speed. Disable variable speed settings like Intel Speed Step and AMD Cool N Quiet in the BIOS setup for more accurate results.


_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
MEASURED INTERRUPT TO USER PROCESS LATENCIES
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
The interrupt to process latency reflects the measured interval that a usermode process needed to respond to a hardware request from the moment the interrupt service routine started execution. This includes the scheduling and execution of a DPC routine, the signaling of an event and the waking up of a usermode thread from an idle wait state in response to that event.

Highest measured interrupt to process latency (µs):   373.022214
Average measured interrupt to process latency (µs):   1.163005

Highest measured interrupt to DPC latency (µs):       371.559382
Average measured interrupt to DPC latency (µs):       0.366711


_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
MEASURED SMI, IPI AND CPU STALLS
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
The SMI, IPI and CPU stalls value represents the highest measured interval that a CPU did not respond while having its maskable interrupts disabled.

Highest measured SMI or CPU stall (µs)                0.585133


_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
 REPORTED ISRs
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Interrupt service routines are routines installed by the OS and device drivers that execute in response to a hardware interrupt signal.

Highest ISR routine execution time (µs):              165.327429
Driver with highest ISR routine execution time:       ndis.sys - NDIS 6.20 driver, Microsoft Corporation

Highest reported total ISR routine time (%):          0.009008
Driver with highest ISR total time:                   ndis.sys - NDIS 6.20 driver, Microsoft Corporation

Total time spent in ISRs (%)                          0.015761

ISR count (execution time <250 µs):                   4179407
ISR count (execution time 250-500 µs):                0
ISR count (execution time 500-999 µs):                0
ISR count (execution time 1000-1999 µs):              0
ISR count (execution time 2000-3999 µs):              0
ISR count (execution time >=4000 µs):                 0


_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
REPORTED DPCs
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
DPC routines are part of the interrupt servicing dispatch mechanism and disable the possibility for a process to utilize the CPU while it is interrupted until the DPC has finished execution.

Highest DPC routine execution time (µs):              997.624286
Driver with highest DPC routine execution time:       vmm.sys - Virtual Machine Monitor, Microsoft Corporation

Highest reported total DPC routine time (%):          0.015639
Driver with highest DPC total execution time:         rspLLL64.sys - Resplendence Latency Monitoring and Auxiliary Kernel Library, Resplendence Software Projects Sp.

Total time spent in DPCs (%)                          0.050713

DPC count (execution time <250 µs):                   25069845
DPC count (execution time 250-500 µs):                0
DPC count (execution time 500-999 µs):                21
DPC count (execution time 1000-1999 µs):              0
DPC count (execution time 2000-3999 µs):              0
DPC count (execution time >=4000 µs):                 0


_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
 REPORTED HARD PAGEFAULTS
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Hard pagefaults are events that get triggered by making use of virtual memory that is not resident in RAM but backed by a memory mapped file on disk. The process of resolving the hard pagefault requires reading in the memory from disk while the process is interrupted and blocked from execution.

NOTE: some processes were hit by hard pagefaults. If these were programs producing audio, they are likely to interrupt the audio stream resulting in dropouts, clicks and pops. Check the Processes tab to see which programs were hit.

Process with highest pagefault count:                 iastordatamgrsvc.exe

Total number of hard pagefaults                       34535
Hard pagefault count of hardest hit process:          23124
Highest hard pagefault resolution time (µs):          1000090.110857
Total time spent in hard pagefaults (%):              0.169578
Number of processes hit:                              23


_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
 PER CPU DATA
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 0 Interrupt cycle time (s):                       23.828245
CPU 0 ISR highest execution time (µs):                165.327429
CPU 0 ISR total execution time (s):                   3.982716
CPU 0 ISR count:                                      4179407
CPU 0 DPC highest execution time (µs):                992.271714
CPU 0 DPC total execution time (s):                   12.165129
CPU 0 DPC count:                                      24467505
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 1 Interrupt cycle time (s):                       6.327839
CPU 1 ISR highest execution time (µs):                0.0
CPU 1 ISR total execution time (s):                   0.0
CPU 1 ISR count:                                      0
CPU 1 DPC highest execution time (µs):                997.624286
CPU 1 DPC total execution time (s):                   0.020520
CPU 1 DPC count:                                      16056
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 2 Interrupt cycle time (s):                       7.0020
CPU 2 ISR highest execution time (µs):                0.0
CPU 2 ISR total execution time (s):                   0.0
CPU 2 ISR count:                                      0
CPU 2 DPC highest execution time (µs):                997.409143
CPU 2 DPC total execution time (s):                   0.161566
CPU 2 DPC count:                                      164856
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 3 Interrupt cycle time (s):                       6.400245
CPU 3 ISR highest execution time (µs):                0.0
CPU 3 ISR total execution time (s):                   0.0
CPU 3 ISR count:                                      0
CPU 3 DPC highest execution time (µs):                997.584286
CPU 3 DPC total execution time (s):                   0.017324
CPU 3 DPC count:                                      16167
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 4 Interrupt cycle time (s):                       6.532806
CPU 4 ISR highest execution time (µs):                0.0
CPU 4 ISR total execution time (s):                   0.0
CPU 4 ISR count:                                      0
CPU 4 DPC highest execution time (µs):                997.043429
CPU 4 DPC total execution time (s):                   0.190471
CPU 4 DPC count:                                      174680
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 5 Interrupt cycle time (s):                       6.121361
CPU 5 ISR highest execution time (µs):                0.0
CPU 5 ISR total execution time (s):                   0.0
CPU 5 ISR count:                                      0
CPU 5 DPC highest execution time (µs):                997.542286
CPU 5 DPC total execution time (s):                   0.017375
CPU 5 DPC count:                                      18212
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 6 Interrupt cycle time (s):                       6.715235
CPU 6 ISR highest execution time (µs):                0.0
CPU 6 ISR total execution time (s):                   0.0
CPU 6 ISR count:                                      0
CPU 6 DPC highest execution time (µs):                997.086571
CPU 6 DPC total execution time (s):                   0.221611
CPU 6 DPC count:                                      190317
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 7 Interrupt cycle time (s):                       6.198162
CPU 7 ISR highest execution time (µs):                0.0
CPU 7 ISR total execution time (s):                   0.0
CPU 7 ISR count:                                      0
CPU 7 DPC highest execution time (µs):                997.114286
CPU 7 DPC total execution time (s):                   0.020942
CPU 7 DPC count:                                      22073

Daylaa, Those numbers look pretty solid to me. There's nothing on the Drivers tab with a highest execution over 0.5 ms is there? I'm guessing not given the other numbers you're reporting.
 
Your computer looks good to me. Thanks for taking the time to confirm.
 
Since you down shifted to recording 24 bit files, how have things been going?

Can I just ask - Is it usually a bad idea to change the sample rate on my M Audio card from 44100hz? Or is there room to experiment with this?

Daylaa
Can I just ask - Is it usually a bad idea to change the sample rate on my M Audio card from 44100hz? Or is there room to experiment with this?

Keep your samplerate consistent with the project samplerate. 44.1 is CD quality but most people record above that and mix down (with dithering) to 44.1 for their final product. This is a big and rather important topic. If you are unsure about samplerates you should probably do a bit of research. Bit depth too.
 
You will however notice if your samplerate is out of sync with your project. It will usually sound faster or slower.
You don't need to know everything about samplerate/bit depth but some knowledge as far as what settings you should use at what points in your project is pretty imperative. I'd personally suggest you should record and mix at at least 48khz/24 bit and leave it there until you are ready to do your final mixdown for CD burning.

Beepster
Keep your samplerate consistent with the project samplerate. 44.1 is CD quality but most people record above that and mix down (with dithering) to 44.1 for their final product. 

Beeeps. I'm sure you know this but you mis-typed/spoke on the dithering. Dithering is for bit rates (32/24/16/). You dither when you step down from 32/24 to 16.
 
IOW if you record at 16/48 but output at 16/44.1 you would not need to dither.

I've always heard changing bit depth mid project is a double plus ungood thing to do.
 
YMMV.
 

Thanks for the words of warning.  What I missed was that record bit depth will physically write 64 bit samples to disc.  I was definitely at fault for not understanding what these internal settings really did.  I just always assumed my tracks were 24 bit in, 24 bit on the disc, and 24 bit out until I dithered down to 16 for Redbook, and all the 64 bit processing was internal to the engine only.  Hell, I never used dither going from 64 to 24 when I printed because of that assumption (although it sounded fine regardless because there probably wasn't significant data in the upper bits anyway... I'm curious if I'll notice a difference when I can test tonight...).  I would like to know more about the function of rendering and how it applies, especially if the engine is always working in 64 bit mode.  Does it even matter what render is set to at that point?  Is this in the documentation somewhere (I'm at work and should probably be working so I will have to check later)? 

By the way 64 bit does nothing for you unless you have more than 4gb of RAM.