Optimizing Performance for Hi Resolution / Hi Track Count Recording Sessions

Hi!
 
I'm currently working on a project where we need to simultaneously track 24 channels @ 96 kHz, 24 bit i.e. lot of information to be captured and written to disk.
 
While all is working fine and as expected on the first few takes, I do have troubles once there are 3+ takes for each channel i.e.  we're trying to (remotely via MIDI control or MIDI synced) trigger the start of recording, but very often recording stops immediately with audio engine drop out, but probably due to having too much traffic to/from the HD because I believe Sonar tries to read the 3 takes in the take lanes while writing back the 4th that is currently being recorded (this is my assumption as problems never happen when we start with empty tracks).
 
Increasing "Playback I/O buffer size" and "Record I/O Buffer Size" to really high values (1024 or 2048) helps but just delays the arrival of the issue, while increasing time it takes for Sonar to start recording ...
 
Hence, I was looking for options to sort of automatically archive the previous takes until we later go into comping/editing, but could not find anything like it.
 
Any suggestions??
 
 
BTW, I just found this, but have no experience with it ... whether this could help or have some side effects ... from Preferences/Playback and Recording => Record Pre-allocate File (seconds). When this option is set to a value greater than zero, SONAR will pre allocate the file to be recorded to the size specified (in seconds). This means that the file will not be resized while recording until it reaches the allocated size. The setting has the potential to reduce disk activity while recording and allows for more possible tracks. The valid range is 0–14400 seconds and the default value is 0. A reasonable setting would be 10 minutes (600 seconds) to 30 minutes (1800 seconds).

Don't rewind between takes! Just keep them sequentially....
 
R

Why not put the click and scratch tracks into Sonar? Yes you will get drift unless you have a good master clock source. Syncing machines is not for the faint of heart. 
 
My method will work for what you are doing. Like I said the only hitch is the drummer might love the last take but the bass player said he nailed it the first time.. So as long as the backing track is identical , no problem to drag and drop the best take of the bass player into the best take of the drummer. 
As long as all tracks are starting at zero they will be bang on. 
 
It's a lot of prep work to make the templates. I even add all the effects and bit's and pieces I know I will end up using. I just disable them to keep things tidy. But this helps to allow a quick and dirt playback during the session without it sounding too raw. 
 

 
 

Hmm my picture didn't take ill try again,, You can see at the bottom I opened a bunch of projects and if you float the Sonar window and move it up you can keep them all within one click to maximise. I know what you mean about keeping things moving at a session,, The band is zero interested in your gear,,, they just want to keep going. 
That's why I came up with this system which involves me doing a lot of prep work before hand. I've used this at at least a dozen sessions,, both live and studio and Sonar never let me down.. I even used WDM mode on the one shown below. That way I used my Tascam for the first 14 tracks and the Yamaha mixer usb output for 15/16.  And 17 is midi another brilliant idea I had  ( I thought) the keyboard was a POS anyways so much better to use a good VST later. 
 

Cactus Music
Why not put the click and scratch tracks into Sonar? Yes you will get drift unless you have a good master clock source. Syncing machines is not for the faint of heart. 
 
My method will work for what you are doing. Like I said the only hitch is the drummer might love the last take but the bass player said he nailed it the first time.. So as long as the backing track is identical , no problem to drag and drop the best take of the bass player into the best take of the drummer. 
As long as all tracks are starting at zero they will be bang on. 
 
It's a lot of prep work to make the templates. I even add all the effects and bit's and pieces I know I will end up using. I just disable them to keep things tidy. But this helps to allow a quick and dirt playback during the session without it sounding too raw. "
 
 
 what great advice-much tidier and quicker than using a single template and renaming it each time.
thanks