I have recently started experiencing audio dropouts where the audio engine stops unexpectedly.  This had not been a problem until about 2 weeks ago when two things happened.  1. I upgraded from X3a to X3e in one fell swoop.  2.  I added the Isotope Nectar plug-in that was offered as a promotion. It does not happen on all projects but it has now happened on three projects.  On each of these it has occurred at the same place in the project on playback. The first one I was using the Nectar plug-in, so I removed it, but it didn't solve the problem.  I increased the buffer size and that seemed to resolve the issue.  The second one I was not using Nectar.  Increasing the latency again did not resolve it.  Finally, following the advice of the help menu that suggested that the project may be fragmented, I saved it as a bundle and then reopened it and it was resolved.  This most recent time, neither of those two efforts have resolved the issue and the hard disc itself shows that it is 0% fragmented. Closing and re-opening Sonar does not resolve the issue.  The dropout always occurs at the same place during playback of the project which has 16 tracks of audio and one EZ Drummer MIDI track.
 
My setup: Gateway DX4860, Core i7 2600, Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit V. 6.1.7601 Service Pack 1, 6GB RAM, 1 TB HD, AKAI EIE Pro USB audio/MIDI interface.
 
As I say, this has not been a problem before.  Thanks in advance for any ideas.

Also, the AKAI EIE interface uses ASIO drivers and is set at 512 samples latency.

Hi - I am a bit unclear on a couple of things:
 
1.  Are you having these problems during recording, or are you doing mixing/mastering?
 
2.  Can you please list all the plugins present in one of these projects where this is occurring?
 
3.  Please post back the Sample Rate for the audio interface, as well as from Sonar its Sample Rate, Driver Mode, Record Bit-Depth, and Total Roundtrip Latency.
 
Thanks, 
 
Bob Bone
 

Also, I found this from the Izotope Nectar web site, features section:
 
"Operate Nectar in Tracking mode for low latency performance that's perfect for live recording, or switch over to Mixing mode for higher-quality processing and look-ahead calculations to optimize your results."
 
IF look-ahead processing is being used in your project, then it will generate a GIANT bunch of latency, which could well cause dropouts if the ASIO Buffer is too small.
 
ANY such plugin, like Boost 11 or Perfect Space, and Nectar, that uses look-ahead processing will NOT work well for tracking (recording), and is really meant for mixing and mastering.
 
So IF you are trying to record and one of these types of plugins is loaded into the project, you will almost certainly need to temporarily swap it out for something less latency-inducing.
 
If on the other hand, you are mixing and master, then the use of these kinds of plugins is absolutely a fine and good thing to do, but you will have to adjust your ASIO Buffer Size upward until the dropouts go away.  For some folks, this can be as large as a setting of 1024, or even higher.
 
Needless to say, you can't properly record with that kind of latency, but this is not an issue if you are mixing/mastering and have such a large ASIO Buffer Size.
 
I hope the above helps your situation.
 
Bob Bone
 
 

Sorry I wasn't clear.  This problem is occurring during mixing.  These are older projects that were initially recorded in X2 now being mixed in X3.  There are plug-ins, a couple of reverbs (Breverb) and a couple of delays (Sonitus) which are on busses that are fed by sends from the tracks.  Other than the Pro-Channel modules, which are used on each track, there are only two additional EQ plug-ins on individual tracks, in both cases it is the LP-64 EQ.  The Nectar is not in use on this particular project.  Sample rate is 44.1, bit depth 24, Driver mode ASIO.  I'm not sure where to find the roundtrip latency.  I have boosted the ASIO buffer to 1024, I will try higher.  Thanks. 

Total Roundtrip Latency is displayed in Preferences>Audio>Driver Settings.
 
I am curious as to whether or not you can find a high enough value to get it to work during mixing/mastering.
 
I am even more curious as to what plugins you have for this project - all of them.
 
Bob Bone

I dug this up for you:
 
Look-ahead and Latency
 
The LP-64 Multiband Compressor uses look-ahead peak detection to reduce the gain just before a peak. "Look-ahead" means the limiter analyzes the audio input ahead of time by delaying the output. Like many mastering linear-phase plug-ins, the LP-64 Multiband Compressor requires a fairly large look-ahead--on the order of 20 milliseconds. This typically does not present a problem as mastering tools are most often utilized in post-production work.
 
Sure enough, this plugin will need a really high ASIO Buffer Size to work properly, and is meant for mixing and mastering, not for tracking.
 
Soooo, bump that puppy up and see what happens.  :)
 
Bob Bone
 
 

The highest I can set the latency is 1024 samples, results in a 71.2 ms roundtrip delay.  However, the problem still occurs at the same spot, which is about 90% of the way through the project.
Because I was getting frustrated with this issue, I returned to X2 Producer to work on this project (which is where it originated).  As I was only doing some minor EQ and level tweaks there was nothing that could be done in X3 that couldn't be done in X2.  There is no problem with audio dropout in X2 for this project.  I don't know if that means anything important in regards to figuring out the issue, but at least I was able to complete the task.

Your PC and sound card drivers are at their limit, most likely. You may need to start freezing tracks.

I concur.
 
Bob Bone