Setting up audio interface

If I were you I would start fresh. Goto Preferences  Audio Devices and deselect any devices that are not your MAudio Fastract. Goto Playback and Recording and select a driver type ASIO, WDM WASPI. Then goto Driver Settings and select the playback and record timing master and the bit depth. 

You should be good to go. 

doclightXIX


Firstly, I have already read the tutorial stuff on cakewalk's website and this hasn't fixed my issue: I have tried and failed repeatedly to get Sonar X2 to register input for my audio interface. I am using an M-audio fasttrack pro in Windows 7. I have tried using ASIO4All, ASIO (which I'm thinking my comp doesn't have the ability to use), WDM, and even MME as my driver mode. I have tinkered with settings, inputs, outputs, and have yet to register any input in Sonar X2.I have armed the tracks but have yet to see the input bars do anything. I made sure both masters were the same and that the fasttrack in's and out's were selected. My fastrack shows up when ASIO and WDM are selected but I can't achieve any input let alone monitoring. Very briefly, several months ago I was able to register input; initially it sounded okay with some crackling and then it was registering waaay too high and I couldn't figure out how to bring it down again. I never was able to get input after that and I'm almost certain I've tried the same settings. I have checked the sound drivers and they appear to be functioning properly. Is it possible there is a conflict between the on-board sound card and one I installed later? I admit I am very new to recording and honestly just want to be able to set up my audio interface and be able to monitor the input through my speakers. I am stumped so if somebody has any advice or ideas as to what conflicts may be occurring I'd greatly appreciate any help.

Not to worry!  We will get you going (he says hopefully).


I would recommend uninstalling ASIO4ALL right off the bat.


Secondly, your audio interface has ASIO drivers, and I will attempt to help you to get those drivers and your computer and Sonar and your interface to play nicely together.


So, let's try the following steps:


1.  Uninstall ASIO4ALL.  It is a wrapper program that makes WDM seen to be ASIO, and is usually used on systems where there is no audio interface.  Since you HAVE an audio interface that has native ASIO drivers, there is no need whatsoever for ASIO4ALL to exist on your computer.


2.  OK, now you need to follow the installation instructions for the drivers for your M-audio fasttrack pro, which you will find on their web site, or you may already have some sort of read me doc with those instructions.  Sometimes, when you are installing drivers for audio interfaces, you are supposed to NOT connect the audio interface until after the driver installation is completed.  PLEASE NOTE however, that this varies from manufacturer to manufacturer, so again consult the installation instructions.  SO, install the latest drivers for your particular audio interface.  If you do not have those drivers, they can be downloaded from here: http://www.m-audio.com/index.php?do=support.drivers&f=1127


3.  Now, once your audio interface drivers are installed and your audio interface is connected and happy, it is a good test to see if it works when playing back things like songs through the Windows Media Player, before we even get to trying things in Sonar.  If it does not work outside of Sonar, it will certainly not work within Sonar.  Soooo, if the driver installation process didn't already do it, make your audio interface the default sound driver for Windows.  You can go to Control Panel>Hardware and Sound>Sound>Manage Audio Devices, and set the audio interface as the default device for both Playback and for Recording.


4.  Now, fire up Windows Media Player and play a song, and you should hear output routed through your audio interface to your speakers.  If this is NOT happening, then something is not right with either your cable routing to your speakers, or something with the interface or driver installation may not have been done properly.  (If no sound through WMP then do not continue with these steps, just post back that this didn't work and I will help you trouble shoot this).


5.  OK, so with sound playing through WMP to your audio interface, the basic setup of the interface is working, and it should be a matter of settings for the interface, and settings in Sonar, to finish getting it all working.  Let's finish the tweaks for the audio interface first, then make the needed changes in Sonar.


6.  So, your audio interface most likely has an icon that sits down in your System Tray, which is the icons at the far bottom right of your display screen, where the little speaker and flag and network connection icons are.  You will likely have to click on the little arrow down there to see the rest of the hidden icons, and there should be one for your audio interface.  If you do NOT see an icon for your audio interface, then it means you would make the settings changes to it from within Sonar instead.  So, IF there is an icon, go ahead and open up the UI for the audio interface and get to the settings screen for it.  OK, so the 2 things to check here are Sample Rate and usually something called ASIO Buffer Size, or something like that.  (that parameter name varies, some interfaces use slightly different ways of controlling/naming this parm).  I would suggest you start with a Sample Rate settings of 44.1, and an ASIO Buffer Size of 128.  If they call it something else or it has different settings just post back with that info and I will help you pick one to try as a starting point.

7.  OK, so NOW fire up Sonar, and close the Quick Start dialog box that opens up, as we are going to make some Preferences changes and do not need to be in a project yet.  Once in Sonar, hit the letter 'P' on your keyboard.  It is a shortcut key to the settings in Sonar.  You want to go to Preferences>Audio>Playback and Recording.  Once there, you will see a box for Driver Mode.  Make sure that ASIO is selected.  Click Apply.  (Sonar does some stuff behind the scenes now.  If it does not allow you to change the driver mode to ASIO, you may have to go to Preferences>Audio>Devices and take any checks OFF of any devices that are NOT your audio interface, and then once you take those checks off you should then be able to check the boxes that DO go to your audio interface device.  That would be for both Input and Output devices.  (If it DID let you make the switch to ASIO driver mode, you still then want to go make sure the Preferences>Audio>Devices check boxes are all checked for your audio interface, and you will want to click Apply again).


8.  At this point, you should have Sonar set to use a driver mode of ASIO, and you should have your Fasttrack Pro set for input and output devices.  Now, you need to set the Sample Rate in Sonar to match the setting for Sample Rate for the audio interface (44.1).  To do this, go to Preferences>Audio>Driver Settings, and you will see Sample Rate.  Change the Sample Rate to 44.1 and click Apply.  That should now match your audio interface, and that is important.

9.  You can set the recording Bit-Depth in Preferences as well.  If your system can handle it, I would suggest you record at 24-bit, at least as a starting point.  In Preferences>Driver Settings, you will SEE Audio Driver Bit-Depth, but that is NOT where you change it.  To change the recording bit-depth, go to Preferences>File>Audio Data, and you will see it there as well, but THIS is where you would change it to set it to 24-bit.  Again, click Apply.

10.  Now, you should have a fully configured audio interface, set for Windows, and Sonar's settings should also be ready to go.

11.  Now, you can perform a simple test in Sonar, to make sure the basic settings work between Sonar/Windows/Interface.  Start a new project in Sonar, using the 'Normal' template.  Call it whatever you want - doesn't matter.  This test will simply be to import the same song you played earlier through Windows Media Player.  That tests the audio setup without getting into synths and routings and all of that.

12.  So, in the project, insert an audio track, then click on the number on the left of that track, to select the track.  Now, click on File>Import>Audio, and select any song - MP3 or WMA type.  Sonar will import that song file into the track you selected.

13.  Once the import process has finished, simply hit the space bar to begin playback, and you should hear the song playing back through the speakers connected to your audio interface.  If that is NOT the case, then something earlier went wrong, and we will need to go back and see what happened.

14.  If the song DOES playback, then all is well with your interface and Sonar, and you are ready for recording and playback with everything set to go, with a Sample Rate of 44.1, and a bit-depth of 24, using the ASIO drivers for your interface.

PLEASE post back with any questions on the above, and PLEASE let me know if all works or not, and if not where things differed from the steps I lsited above. 

Bob Bone