free vst-pops and dropouts

i am very much getting into vsts because of there great synths and cause of just being cheaper than hardwear so last night i decidede to search for free vst and found a **** load on the net but many problems occuered.now i know that sonar 8 can still operate any vst wether its 32 bit or 64 as long as there in certain program files but when i installed them in there correct places i tested them  out and i was getting drop outs and clicks.i have had this problem before with my sonic syth 2 but i went threw tech support and they told me to lower my buffer and i put it to i think 256 and was alot better for most samples but on some i can still here a few pops but just no drop outs.but on these free ones they wouldnt even some times play any sounds and when they would it would just be a few seconds then the sounds would pop and die.So i really dont know if free vsts are any good but if there is hope to get them functioning and build up a good library that would be nice.

So i really dont know if free vsts are any good

Congratulations, first lesson already learned!

Although there are notable exceptions, the vast majority of free VSTs are worth exactly what you pay for them.

This does not necessarily mean your freebies are causing the problem. Dropouts are (usually) caused by simply giving your CPU more work than it can handle. Every VST/VSTi you throw on is another task for the CPU. Some are more CPU-intensive than others.

You may find that with certain VSTs and most VSTi's you'll need to increase your buffer sizes. That, of course, is a catch-22: the larger buffer means longer latency, which makes it harder to play a soft synth in real time. Just a fact of life, at least until the next generation of massively-parallel desktop supercomputers is available at Wal-Mart for $500.

Like Bit said, some of your VST might be using enough resources that you might need to crank you buffers to a value hight than 256. Just for grins, increase it to 1024 and see if it helps at all.

If it doesn't help, then at least you've ruled out latency issues. But then we might need to look at possible DPC spikes.

if the system was in 64bit and only had 4gb of ram would that effect the preforame of the vsts.wouldnt the 64 system need more ram to back up the 64 processing

not getting latency,the sounds are playing exactly when i hit the keys but it just pops and drops

+1 to RStollen. He is saying that even though you dont hear a delay, you still need to raise your buffers to solve your crackle issue. The crackle's may be cause by your CPU over stressing. Raising your buffers will relieve your CPU and may stop the crackle.

Side note: Yuo use Free VST's at your own risk. Some really suck and some free ones dont. But, i would stick with the ones in sonar, until you solve your issue. This way you can rule out bad (free) VSt's

+2 to RS again
Cj

As stated above, a lot of free VSTis are CPU hogs because they are ineffecient.  That is one of the things pay companies do - refine their code.  There are a lot of good free ones out there, however, and shouldn't be a problem with a newer computer as long as you aren't running a bunch of them real-time.  Try Ugo's (Ugo Audio) for some good electronic synths for free.

And raise your latency for pops/crackles as above.  Also, change WDM for Asio, etc.  Different drivers will work better on your system.

Buffer size depends on what your specific project needs. It's not uncommon to adjust buffers often, lowering them during tracking and raising them during mixing.

256 is about the middle of the range. You only need very small buffers (64 or lower) if you're playing soft synths or using computer-based effects in real time. If that's not an issue, set it to 512 or 1024.

i do plan on running soft syths during real time with at least 3 to 5 soft synths and the rest audio from my keyboard.i think im just gonna forget about the free vsts and just stick to the pre installed ones and the kore player.but my buffer was at 256 and i wasnt gettin hardley no pops on my sonic syth but i was gettin all pops and drop outs in kore player.

Stating that you want to run your synths in real time is OK..... reality might be a bit different, depending on your system. If you are running a couple of CPU heavy VST/synths..... you might just have to bounce to track (convert the synth to audio) and freeze or remove the synth.