Hello all.
Just to mention, that I seem to be having less issues now with the firewire to thunderbolt adapter being used,  than ever before. Just using firewire 1394B or A..  over many different systems now, always seemed problematic and issue bound....even before moving to this new home...I have been trying to get prestine recording using firewire....and not getting that state of bliss.
 
One thing I am noting of late...Using my specified system in my profile, and newly acquired parts/refurbished ones through rma..and power supplies, and Power surge protection, ..right down to electrician work done on the main breaker box....to help eliminate noise and anomalies, I have had in past, with the prior build Just past....
 
The new system rocks...is solidly stable...no over clocking, ...The cpu fan sometimes when booting up, is not up to speed, and the motherboard complains it is not sufficient to cool the cpu....I have to set the fan speed in bios to turbo...and save...to solve that, But it does not get saved..So I have to do this periodically...not all the time,...So a new fan for the cpu is next up to fix this issue.???.or a bios update of the MB?...not seeing things right? or monitoring right?
 
Once booted, I turn off internet, and other features this board has, and anti virus protection, if I am going to work in any DAW..I have done some tweaks to power management, and turned off auto updates on a few programs running in the background usually.....but have had internet on while working in Sonar for online help recently....Internet and my mixing desk and sonar...It does work now, when it would not work before, just using Firewire add on card, with proper chipset of manufactures suggestion to use...but claimed that it has issues with internet nics and wi fi....
 
 Sonar so far is doing fine on this thunderbolt system so far, recording and mixing, and applying vst 2s, and the sonar stock plugs.......
 
Except this odd thing when opening Sonar x3d...new projects or already made ones...it states "the selected audio driver is not available" ...clicking ok continues to opens the program.
All is fine after I use the record or play function once, and nothing happens, with any audio or midi. stopping the input or playback seems to reset or find the ASIO 2 audio device...it seems to be fine there after doing this play or record before doing anything else first.
 I just stumbled onto that ...Maybe editing the performance tabs , and selecting the audio device again might work also?...but I have not tried that yet.
 
Not that this is a Sonar issue...could be the thunderbolt connection is just slow to be detected.?...or not coded for properly in Win 7 yet?..and I found my own work around in Sonar...Does not do this with Acid Pro 7.0 or other programs I have installed for music, using the same firewire audio desk..on the thunderbolt port.
 
Still all in all, I am impressed with it working so well over this past month of learning from the manual.....and not having any issues other that that detection, or connection when opening the program with the firewire audio device on the thunderbolt port line....
Infact the audio seems to be awesome in terms of ...no clicks or pops, Lowest latency "64"...but it does drop out here and there...but does not get recorded....So I can live with that...for when we do dubbing and midi work...I guess.
I am using 24bit, and trying  44.1 with the lower buffers 64 in testing......But can go to 96, and suggested 512 buffer.
 
When I record the band mates, with this new system so far...I push it up to 512 buffer on the audio mixer, but keep it 44.1, 24 bit and record all at once...with no monitoring...Just Live tracking...so no need to worry about latency just yet....and the best sounding recordings and performance, can be made without worry of clicks or pops or drop outs...when I set it Like that...for them sessions.
 
I can also monitor from the mixer...so nothing is really going to make me go that low in buffer settings "64" or need to go lower than 128......Just that I can...if need be.
 
So ..in all Sonar x3d is rocking the house...The way I use it...for now.
 
Thanks again!!!
 
To the fine folks here, and else where, who put up with me and my system woes, and tried to help get me sorted, started, restarted, and rebuilt, and the calk walk team, and Allen and Heath...That got me to this almost state of bliss ...
 
Just getting started and fiddling around with the plug ins in Sonar since the new build...and man what nice outcomes so far....in renderings.
 
Of course, One thing lacking in this Producer Product...is the ability to make MP3s of varying degrees of...Bit rates.
 
I know I can buy the MP3 plug...But really it should be tossed in as a free be plug in. ...by now?...so one does everything In Sonar....as a producer would or should these days?
 
So I keep Acid Pro 7...to do the deeds...and touch ups for that process.
 
And it all works....Fantastic!
 
As I settle in, and start using more and more of the Program features and such....I am sure that with my understanding, and stable system coming to be as it is, and another one hopefully on the way and arriving tomorrow to use Pro Tools....I will have something finally come to finalizing and making my Studio complete, and music more enjoyable to do, without too much worrying about tech hats and troubleshooting...for a bit of time...and more mead to enjoy without hair loss.
 
Hope the new updates coming soon from CW solve most of the issues People are having, and to further make this program the best it can be!
 
Oh ...I also noted when placing my mouse in the wave edit window...the counter bar or line bar that moves when play or record is pressed, kind of goes buggy a bit, but does not cause any funny business really...it just seems to be rather stiff in moving...If I move my mouse off that wav window pain....all is fine.
 
Just something I think I have seen posted here over time...that I see happening sort of here.
Might be something CW might look into?...or is it video card specific?
 
Well back to the Manual...I need to know how to select tracks more exactingly for mix down...and using the mouse and selecting the tracks lasso feature is kind of hit a miss when not zoomed in, and when zoomed in to the nth degree, it takes a bit to get to the beginning of the some times long tunes to set the marker....and all kinds of lost, truncated, or unselected tracks  dropped , as the view goes up and down and all over when lassoing...to loose focus...can occur...and have done in some attempts I did with that method.
I feel something more like a permanent select or loop region on the time line, selecting all tracks in that range set unless muted...might help people set the right start and end points easier....?
 
So I will check that out next....in the Manual...if it can be done like that...It would surely be better than the lasso method.
 
Just my observations so far....fiddling around...
 
Cheers!
 
Sir Les
 
 
 
 
 
 

In regards to not available audio driver.

So the usual advice first...Check to see what sound drivers are on your system like internal or graphics card (like Nvidia HDMI). Disable or remove unnecessary sound interface drivers. Upgrade to latest sound drivers and latest interface firmware. Disable on board sound interface in BIOS. Rename AUD.INI, restart and reconfigure Sonar.Remove ASIO4ALL. Also try disabling interface in windows sound.

FYI thunderbolt will not give you any more speed than FireWire until you buy a thunderbolt sound interface. Sounds like the drivers or the interface in general works better than the previous one.

Glad you are up and running. Is this a Mac?

Just read the signature, not Apple, earlier was posting from cellphone so didn't see the signature (which is a right royal PITA!).

I don't have time at the moment to read the entire thread but I can give my own testimonial on Thunderbolt and FW with Sonar. I have the Apple Thunderbolt to Firewire 800 adapter and it works excellently with my system. I use a FW800 to FW400 cable to get to my interface. I run at 96k all the time flawlessly. I cannot recommend the Apple converter enough.
 
Also, there is a BIOS setting about how much bandwidth to give to the TB port, I think I experimented with some settings but returned to whatever the default setting used.
 
If this is nothing relating to your post then please forgive my nonsense. I know when I was setting up my machine it was hard to find info. Good luck.

Thanks Alex...I will try some of that TWEAKING...but I set the Default windows 7 sound device to my Allen and Heath desk.
I also setup Sonar for A & H ASIO..and made the template for new projects with everything sort of setup.
So not sure why Sonar is confused about what is setup in it, and in windows when opening up ...But I am sure it can be solved...I will give the bios a run through, and turn off the onboard sound...
 
All my old projects were setup via firewire in past...But they work with sonar x3d and the thunderbolt connection, just this little work around to do...then all is great....
 
I Got my mac Pro...yesterday!...(yip yip) now I have to go get a monitor mouse and keyboard and one more hard drive for the raid to be complete...and another thunderbolt firewire adapter.
 
The other PC I was building, is now testing Pro Tools 10 and 11...and is doing fine on that so far with a motu pre 4 and the old UAD card...so many tweaks to do...I feel it is only able to now run that DAW correctly...and exclusively.
 
But I think this sort of thunderbolt PC setup with firewire to thunderbolt works better than with PCI or PCI-e 1x firewire add on cards...from my perspective point.
Perhaps it has something to do with pci or pci e having smaller "band width" of the board using those interfaces...as opposed to the thunderbolt's?...and something I think has to do with IRQ sharing...But that is just me being me.
 
I still am not sure what to do in bios for the thunderbolt setup in that regard either...I left it as is also..only changed to legacy mode...and that made the audio interface work....and I am happy with it.
Not too much info on that setup...so Yah best leave it alone...until I know what is what.
 
I am going to boost up the recording resolution slowly back to where I want it to be...96khz at 24 bit....But 44.1 sounds good and things are working well in this state so far..
 
Also the SSD drives surely helps things boot, and load faster...But seeing as I use standard Hard drives for saving  and recording projects, at the moment... Sonar wav drawing is still slow on big projects when opening, and after recording them...
 
Just some observations.... things are coming together nicely using this thunderbolt machine with firewire adapter And Sonar x3d Producer as the main DAW.
 
Not only does this system work with all the bells and whistles turned on in motherboards bios...with no problems under win 7 install...it seems to work way better than any PC I have ever built in past....using Firewire A or B..in pci or pci e 1x.
 
Still I have turned off wi fi, and I still turn off the internet nics, unless I need one on...But even that is working ok with the audio interface...when it would not work correctly before on older builds..
 
I know it is a newer motherboard, and surely there will be updates for this Asus motherboard soon, with tweaked enhancements, and drivers...But right now, I would say this board is a winner for me !
 
Thanks all for the input, and knowledge, and continued support!.
 
 
Cheers!
 
 

But I think this sort of thunderbolt PC setup with firewire to thunderbolt works better than with PCI or PCI-e 1x firewire add on cards...from my perspective point.

I wrote to Focusrite direct about this to ask if there were any performance improvements or reliability performance at all with Thunderbolt and firewire, the answer was no, technically not possible.

Don't forget to backup before you tweak yourself to death , and I'm really really glad it's working out ! :).

Hay Alex...Thanks for all you do.....You helped me in my last build nightmare, although it did not go so well...You saw that when using internet how I had issues with my A & H drivers with that going on, causing crashes, when downloading, after a complete wipe out of win 7 cause things were too buggy...remember?...and with little else installed...crashes started happening once the A & H drivers were installed.
 
Now I am on my  newly rebuilt TB PC, with internet on, and Sonar x3e in the background running, reading online help and such, while I am writing this Post....and no problems at all....So something is being done right with this Asus motherboard....might not be the thunderbolt port?...might be the controller chips?...and win 7 updates?..and newer drivers for those onboard devices working better with MS win 7..bios,,?..who knows...all I can say is, it is working with things I had issues with in prior older builds using firewire alone ...flawlessly to some degree of meaded Bliss!
 
So..Some interfaces have no problems with internet nics....Some do...some have issues with wi fi...some don't.
I have had wi fi on as well, although only to install the drivers ...and It did not seem to effect anything either...from my brief experience having it on...it is turned off now.
 
Another thing...turning off the onboard sound card.. when done, takes away the  MS GM midi ...although at this point I do not use this sound set...when I do get into recording midi, and that will come soon...and want some kind of simple play back....would it help to keep it on or turn it on?...does it help with VST Instrument play back or could it?
 
I know I have a slight issue with some kind of  audio device detection when opening my projects...simple work around is to engage play or record for a second, deal with the pop up, hit ok...and all is well.
 
So I will try turning off the onboard sound in my next testing to see if it helps stop that...
 
I still believe this is the best PC motherboard made for my setup yet, or so far, that I have had working here...with internet...whoop whoop..So something is to be said about that...and we can draw lines to possible variables as to what may be behind this...functionality being as it is....A & H tech told me to turn off nic cards/wi fi  devices cause their drivers have issues with them....So what is going on now, if I am using both audio driver and nic device without issues?...are the techs wrong?...or has something changed to warrant a rewrite in this regard?
 
I have a cloned backup drive...and I used it to clone back my RMA M 500 SSD...made the tweaks for that in win 7...and all is working good...wav redraws still  very slow though.
 
 
Thanks and regards
 
Sir Les
 
 

OK turning off the onboard realtek sound card and HD, in device manager seems to have eliminated the audio device confusion in Sonar x3e.
 
Thanks Alex.
 
Now I have to ask,...When I want to edit midi in Sonar...what do I do , if this MS GS or GM sound set is not there to play back simple piano or such to get sound?...I do not think My A & H desk does  midi / vst conversions to audio...if it does it is limited to a certain amount of tracks.
So I eventually may need to turn this onboard audio on, to help out if needed?.
 
Just want to know...for the future.
 
Thanks all
 
 

Ok...It seems the audio device confusion is still happening when opening Sonar x3e...I thought turning off the onboard sound devices fixed earlier...When I tried it yesterday I had no pop up happening on the first try... and thought it was fixed....it did not show a pop up window and worked right away after turning off those devices...But today it has shown a pop up twice opening different projects.
 
So Not sure what is wrong in that regard...Perhaps Thunderbolt is the cause?, and Sonar needs coding for it to resolve?...still, playing the project (pop up appears saying no sound device detected...hit ok) Play again, or record (no sound), stopping it, and then all is ok...so that work around seems to solve for...but makes me worried when doing paid work in future, it may loose the device when recording...and that would not make me happy!
 
Just an observation, so far though...I am not really into much else with the bells and whistles yet...oh I did have a plug in issue...it sent a report a few times to CW...I cannot open two CW projects with that plug in...Perhaps because I changed the sample rates and buffer in my audio desk win 7 applet.?...But I believe each Project when saved with settings, when opened changes my Audio desk applet to the saved settings...So it should not be corrupted or any issues with me changing my Audio desk's Buffer size or sample rate...as Sonar should change according to project settings...>Right?<
 
Will try reverting back to older sample and buffer sizes today before Opening Sonar...to see if I can get them CW Projects opened and remove the plug in...if it is that causing the issue...resave and such.
 
Just observing , and asking questions....