That means the signal was clipped going into SONAR.... what your interface sent in. Anything with meters should lock in a clipping event so you know it occurred.

Cactus Music:  That's impossible.  When I have the Volume of the interface so low that I can barely hear it through the monitors or earphones when I record, when the wave of the recorded clip is very small, when the meter goes about half way up, not even coming near the red/clipping, it's not possible that I'm recording too hot.  
I would think that somehow there is something within Sonar or my interface causing it.  
 
Thanks!
Greg

robert_e_bone
but I am mostly a keyboard guy, so I don't understand guitar players - I just tolerate them (kidding).
 
Bob Bone
 

 
Yeah, that's how guitar players feel about drummers.  lol
 
It's not making sense to me, but I believe I'll find the problem sooner or later.
 
Thanks!
Greg
 

Correct... if you have a clipped wave form at low amplitude that is a key indicator of an interface issue. Can be something simple as far as pilot errror.... but... if that interface passed a clipped signal to SONAR without locking in a clip indicator, something is up with it.

Edit-try recording again with the interface control panel open. The top of the meters on that graphical interface should have red dots that lock in and must be manually clicked to reset (so you acknowledge a clip occurred)

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This is what the clips look like.   Some are worse.  But you can see the tops that are cut off.
While the clips were playing, I checked the meter inside Quad-Capture's control panel and saw that the Output meter is almost always in the yellow, and many times just about clipping - even though, as you can see, that the track is not too hot.
 
Greg

He's referring to the top segment of the track meter in Sonar. Green> yellow> red.

Hi Greg,
 
To be honest, that was not the clipping I was expecting to see. Digital clipping looks like the top of the wave form being flat on top (everything over 0dB getting "shaved off" as it were, leaving a flat top). I now understand your frustration since that does not look like clipping, but more like an A/D converter in your interface is acting weird (the wave form should be very symmetrical). Do you get the same type of wave form from the other input on the interface?
 
The only other thing that comes to mind is that "auto sense" feature. From what I could tell, it blinks when doing its evaluation, and is lit up fully when working. When you recorded the wave form above, the auto sense button was just lit (not blinking), correct?
 
As you already ordered a new interface, it may be best to wait till you have a chance to try it out.
 
Best regards,
Michael
 
 

Update:  
 
I contacted Cakewalk, and they suggested I delete the AUD.ini file, which I did.   Did not help.  
 
Another issue I'm having is the audio on the guitar track not being loud enough to hear during playback.   I can turn it up to where it's clipping, and during playback I can barely hear it, even if the Volume on the audio track is at 0.0 or higher during playback.
 
I bought a Presonus AudioBox but, for whatever reason, I could not get it to work on playback. 
So I'll try another interface.   Cakewalk suggested the Focusrite Scarlet series.    We'll see...
 
Greg
 
 

I made it clip because I can barely hear it on playback.   I recorded it as loud as I could to see if that would help.   It didn't.
But I have been recording at low volumes normally.    I downloaded the latest drivers.   Makes no difference.
 
Yeah, that's what has me frustrated.   Clean guitar, no problem.   More gain, then there's a problem.   I don't understand, but that's what it does.
 
Thanks -
Greg

Cactus Music:  I'm not clipping.  And I don't think it's the Auto Sens, because I wasn't using it originally.
I am recording mono.   The photo above is actually 2 mono tracks.
 
Thanks!
Greg

greg54
My audio is distorting in playback when I record guitar - not clean guitar, but OD.   Recording vocals, acoustic guitar or clean guitar is fine.   It's just when I record with a little gain on my guitar.

Now, let's read this carefully (I take the post litterally):
It only distorts when you add gain on your guitar. Guitar settings are not in any connection to the internal life of the DAW/ASIO/CPU or anything.  Twisting the knobs on amp or guitar has no effect on the CPU use, latency or whatever, does it?? Your soundcard and DAW don't know if the signal coming in sounds clean or dirty, it's just a signal which has a level, so how could the CPU/ASIO etc. start acting up with a distorted signal. Isn't it the same as if the sound would suffer  when you change your shoes?
So could it be that adding gain makes the signal clip/distort in Quad Captures input? Or am I totally overlooking something?
 

Greg, try this please.

Plug your guitar directly into the Hi-z input on the interface. Set the volumes on the guitar at full and manually adjust the gain on the interface to get your input level to hit around -6 at it's peak (if recording in 24bit then aim for -6 but don't be worried if it spends more time around -12)
Then record this into sonar. Make sure you do this on a new track and you have not adjusted the trim/gain in sonar.
See what happens when you do this and see how it sounds. If all good, then plug all your effects in after the guitar, pop it into the Hi-z input again and do the same process and see if the results are the same.
The wave file you posted above doesn't look too odd, other than being quite low amplitude.

Another thought, are you sure the distortion is coming from the recorded guitar tracks? are you sure that you are not experiencing issues with your monitors? Check using headphones to see if this is the case.

greg54
Something I forgot to mention.   Someone posted something (I looked for it but couldn't find it) that said to check the recorded clip to see if the top of where it distorts was cut off.
It is cut off.     What would this mean?
 

That means you're clipping the A/D converter of the audio interface.
Need to record a lower level signal...
With 24Bit resolution, you don't need to record super hot.  
Leave some headroom

They should allow you to delete posts.   Since they don't, I'll just say, "Nevermind."   :)
 
Greg

I have adjusted all the knobs on the interface and within the Quad Capture's software, and nothing is even close to clipping.  
Sorry for not answering you previously.   I must have missed it.
 
Greg