yeah being new to the whole thing i've developed a slight paranoia over the computer thing - one of my good friends (a non recordist, non musician) computer geek, gave me alot of teasing for being inexperienced and buying an "off the shelf" H.P. AMD 3000. but i'm a 24 - 40 track kinda thinker - i only use reason "redrum" and the rest is mostly audio in sonar. i just took a 20 track work in progress and jammed the tracks full of reverb - eq - comp plugs etc ,reduced latency to 5.8 just hammer the cpu. the computer did fine for the ridiculousness of the plugs. i think my machine will do the trick for a while barring unforseen circ. i don't know if anybody else experiences the fact that READING THE SONAR FORUM TOO MUCH LEADS TO SERIOUS COMPUTER/GEAR ENVY SYNDROME.

THANKS MY FRIEND, LUCKY FOR ME THE MUSIC IS WAY AHEAD OF THE TECH. GOT THE VOICE, , MICS, AMPS, GUITARS, MUSIC DEGREE IN THE BAG FOR THE MOST PART. (ALWAYS LOTS OF ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT). UNFORTUNATELY, ENGINEERING AND MIXING (LIKE THE TECH SIDE) ARE LIKE LEARNING TO PLAY A BRAND NEW INSTRUMENT, EH?

Sager Laptop; NP8890 / P4 / 3.4ghz with ht / 1 gb 400ddr ram / 800 mhz fsb / 2 internal 7200 60 gb hds / Echo indigo IO (WDM):

Latency -- w/out HT -- w/HT (meaning w/ multiprocessor checked)
46.4----------25%-------23%
23.2----------28%-------25%
11.6----------33%-------30%
5.8 ----------42%-------40%
2.9 ----------63%-------58%
1.5 ----------XX%-------96% and then craps out

Needless to say, I'm a little disappointed. If anyone has any tuning tips that really help latency, I'm all ears.

I just switched to ASIO drivers, and there's a slight improvement at 2.9 (the indigo won't let you choose 1.5) - - sits around 56%.

ORIGINAL: LettuceCheese

Sager Laptop; NP8890 / P4 / 3.4ghz with ht / 1 gb 400ddr ram / 800 mhz fsb / 2 internal 7200 60 gb hds / Echo indigo IO (WDM):

Latency -- w/out HT -- w/HT (meaning w/ multiprocessor checked)
46.4----------25%-------23%
23.2----------28%-------25%
11.6----------33%-------30%
5.8 ----------42%-------40%
2.9 ----------63%-------58%
1.5 ----------XX%-------96% and then craps out

Needless to say, I'm a little disappointed. If anyone has any tuning tips that really help latency, I'm all ears.

Actually those numbers look right on target for your platform. Damn impressive for a laptop.

Finally got to this on a:

P4 3.0g/800mhz bus/HT disabled in BIOS/XP Home
Intel D865PERL MOBO
512mb Kingston RAM 300mhz
160gb Samsung EIDE hd/7200rpm/8mb/1 partition
ATI Radeon 9200 SE on AGP/8x
MOTU 828MKii using ASIO Ver. 3.0 driver

Results:
46.4ms.......29%
34.8ms.......29%
23.2ms.......30%
17.4ms.......33%
11.6ms.......36%
8.7ms.........40%
5.8ms.........48%
4.4ms.........56%
2.9ms.........75%
2.2ms.........Nope

At first I could not get below 4.4ms UNTIL I implemented Black Viper's Services settings as Internet Gateway. I will try again as Extreme Tweak when I can and update this info. EDIT: This can't happen until I offload Internet duty to another PC and dedicate this one to DAW-Duty.

Mind you, I can live with this performance. For now

Did I forget souncard?

Echo Mia with 6.08 drivers. Both ASIO And WDM produced similar results.

DOH!

Tony

i tried to download the test file and run it.. it says theres no audio data for it.. it's just a cakewalk bundle file (141 k bytes), am I doing something wrong?

2.8 P4 w/HT w/800 FSB, 512 DDR RAM 2700, 120 GB WD 7200 RPM(int), 120 GB WD 7200 RPM firewire ext. drive.. M-Audio Omni Studio w/delta 66, Sonar 3.1.1

LATENCY:------CPU:--------------HT:on/off
1.5-------------warning/dropout--warning/dropout
2.9 -------------56-58%-----------warning/dropout
5.8--------------36-37%-----------39-40%
11.6-------------26%---------------28%
23.2-------------21%---------------23%
46.6-------------20%---------------21%

I find that I have to change the buffer value, click OK, then OK again on the Options window, then go back into Options - Audio to see the change.

I'm a Newbie looking for a few tips. I just installed Sonar onto my new dual Xeon system, and I would like to perform this test before sealing it up. I have a Delta 44 soundcard. When I open Audio Options I can't get the latency down lower than 5.8. The lowest I can get the buffer is 2. Is this where I am supposed to change the latency settings for the test??

Using WDM there's 2 places you need to look. First in the M-Audio Delta control panel set your DMA Buffer Size down to 64 samples (in ASIO mode that will automatically set Sonar to 1.5ms).

Then open Sonar and re-profile your card (I'm not sure if that's required but it doesn't hurt).

Then you can slide the latency slider down to 1.5ms and everywhere in-between.

Here is what I got:

Without MP selected
46.4......34
23.2......37
11.6......43
5.8....... 56
2.9........82
1.5........Out


With MP selected
46.4......20
23.2......22
11.6......27
5.8........35
2.9........53
1.5........90/Out

I am using Asus PC-DL mother, dual 2.4 Xeons. 1 gig ram, 2 74gig Raptor Sata drives configured in Raid0. I think I will reconfigure, and eliminate the Raid and compare the numbers. Either way, I assume that with benchmarks, this system will always score about the same as any SINGLE processor 2.4 Gig system with a 533 FSB.

FIC VC19E Mobo
2.6ghz 533FSB P4 Intel Chipset
1 gig 400 DDR RAM
Xp Pro /TerraTec EWS88D ASIO 24 bit
WD 120gig 7200rpm
Raptor 40gig 10000rpm SATA
IBM Deskstar 80 gig 7200

46.4ms 16%
32.9ms 17%
23.2ms 18%
7.6ms 28-32%
4.4ms 35-40%
2.9ms 46-54%
1.5ms Nope!

But I wonder if there was audio if the system would playback with pops/clicks?

SuperMicro X5DAL-G
Dual 2.4Ghz Xeon
2 gig 266 DDR RAM (Crucial)
Radeon 9000
Echo Audio Mona
XP Pro SP1
Seagate 7200rpm (ST340014A)
Seagate Ultra160 SCSI RAID
IBM DPSS-33695N SCSI Wide
WD 200gig 8mb cache (WD2000JB)
Adpatec ASC-39320 RAID Controller


ASIO - w/o MP
46.4 32
23.2 34-35
11.6 36-37
5.8 43-46
2.9 55-57
1.5 79-83

ASIO - with MP
46.4 20
23.2 21-22
11.6 23-24
5.8 28-30
2.9 38-40
1.5 58-61

I would suggest that the Terratec Drivers WireRage's EMS88D are reporting *funny* numbers *PLUS* it appears that WireRage has done his testing at 24 bit.

The test file is 24bit. It should be run with all of Sonar's audio settings configured for that.

As for the odd numbers... it looks like he may not have S3 Producer edition... and thus may be missing some plugins.

-S

Okay, thanks to everyone's help here, I just built a machine whose price and performance so far I'm very happy with.

Athlon64 3200+ ($279)

Chaintech VNF3-250 mobo w/ the new nForce3 250 Chipset ($77) (I would have got the Gigabyte K8NS Pro, but it was not in stock anywhere, and the chaintech one has been getting pretty kickass reviews on the nerd forums for a little more than half the price, but a little less functionality).

1 Gb Corsair ValueSelect RAM, PC3200 DDR400, ($180) (matched kit of two 512 sticks)

Win XP home ($90)

Floppy drive from Staples ($12)

Antec case w/ 350 temperature-controlled power supply and rubber-gasketed drive bays for quiet ($66, including shipping)

Already had a dual-monitor video card and monitors.

Already had two fast ATA hard drives and a DVD R/W.

Already had cables, mouse, keyboard.

Call it yep's 80/20 rule DAW.

So all told, for about $700, I got a system that can handle practically as many plugins as I can think of using (so far) at the lowest possible latency without coming close to the redline on the CPU. Pretty good stuff, and I tip my hat to you fine folk for the help. For another $200-$300, I could've bought disk space, mouse/keyboard, cables, and a dual-monitor video card (CompUSA currently has a pretty good one for $50, after rebates), and come away with a pretty killer DAW for less than a grand.

Here's the funny thing- I tried the sonar test, and I cannot get my CPU meter to go below 18%, nor above 44%, no matter how I adjust the latency/buffer settings. Like, the 18% is with about TEN SECONDS of latency- doesn't matter. In almost the entire useable range I'm averaging about 35%.

This is all very preliminary- I'm not hooked up to my regular soundcard(s)-- so far, this is all with a Tascam US-428 that I have in my room near the interweb, and the tascam is USB 1.0, so the latency slider bottoms out at 5.8 ms. this is not an "audio engine won't engage" thing, it's just that 5.8ms is what the setting is when slid all the way down when this soundcard is hooked up. I will post more when I can check it out with the Delta or aardvark.

Cheers, and thanks again.