RE: SONAR FAQ
2004/10/17 22:52:18
Well, as promised, here are the aud.ini tweaks that have been submitted to the forum in the last few weeks. I was hoping there'd be more, but this is all there is for now, and I didn't want to sit on this forever as there have already been a couple of posts requesting them. Anyway, I don't doubt this section will grow over time... Thanks to all who contributed.
(These tweaks were, for the most part, submitted before the release of version 4, so should work for Sonar 3, though may or may not for Sonar 4).
JD
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TWEAKS FOR AUD.INI FILE
Since the most common suggestion (to solve problems) is to delete aud.ini and re-profile the soundcard, it's probably a good idea to save any custom aud.ini settings in a separate text file so they can be easily incorporated into the new aud.ini file.
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PicCacheMB = XX
Sets the maximum size of the folder that holds the pictures of your waveforms (.wov files). The default is 20 mb, which is too small. This causes Sonar to have to frequently recreate the waveforms which can take a long time when opening a project.
Recommend you set it to 100 - 200 mb assuming you have sufficient hard disk space available.
On a related note, make sure the picture cache folder is on a different drive than your audio (assuming you have a separate drive for audio).
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Meter Frame Size
MeterFrameSizeMS=<10-200> (default=40)*
Meters in SONAR show peak (or RMS) values at a given instant in time. The actual peak value displayed by a meter is the highest peak recorded in an interval of time referred to as a "Meter Frame". The default size for a meter frame is 40 milliseconds, which is an accuracy of 25 FPS. The ‘MeterFrameSizeMS’ AUD.INI variable allows you to change the size of this interval. It goes in the [Wave] section of AUD.INI. For example:
[Wave]
MeterFramSizeMS=40
Setting this value to a lower value will make the meters record peak info for smaller time slices. However this can also increase the metering CPU and memory cost.
* = although SONAR doesn’t enforce a fixed value range, the recommended range should be between 10 and 200 milliseconds.
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Default EQ Position (SONAR 3 Producer Edition Only)
DefaultEqPosition=<0 or 1> (default=0)
The integrated channel EQ can be either pre FX bin or post FX bin. The default position is pre FX bin, but you can change the position of any channel EQ by right-clicking the EQ plot and choosing the desired position from the context menu.
The ‘DefaultEqPosition’ AUD.INI variable lets you specify the default EQ position for all new tracks/buses. This variable lives in the [Aud] section of AUD.INI, and legal values are: 0 (pre FX) or 1 (post FX). For example:
[Aud]
DefaultEqPosition=1
Note: this variable only applies to SONAR 3 Producer Edition, not SONAR 3 Studio Edition.
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ExtraPluginBufs=128 or 256 or 512
It is necessary to incease this extra plugin buffer size if you are using a plugin which requires delay compensation e.g. Linear Phase EQs, convolution verbs, look-ahead limiters etc. The only negative is a trivial increase in memory usage.
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MOTU 828mkII specific tweak:
In your aud.ini file find the flag called KsUseInputEvent and set the value to 1.
You should notice better perceived latency in WDM with the MOTU drivers using this.
Without this tweak, WDM is noticably more latent than ASIO with the same apparent settings. With the tweak, they seem about the same.
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