Hi All
I'm having real trouble with audio dropouts on session drummer 3 used in conjunction with sonar x1. There are no dropouts anywhere else but sd3 will play a loop for a while then just start randomly dropping notes. Every forum ive seen on this has suggested to up the midi playback buffer but this has made no difference to my playback. Out of ideas and desperate. Thanks LB

What audio interface, and how high a buffer have you tried? 500ms should do trick in most cases, but some systems have been known to need 600 or more.
 
Also, are you talking about playing patterns within SD3 or looping a MIDI track? There's an issue with dropped MIDI notes when loop-recording with Input Quantizing enabled, but you did't mention recording so I gather that's not applicable here.

Hi
 
My interface is a roland quad capture. Defualt setting was at 500. I've tried increasing up and up but with no success. Just playing back simple programed loops from sd3 step sequencer.
 
Thanks
 
LB

Is the setting of 500 the setting for the ASIO Buffer Size?  Please clarify.
 
 
*Edited as I just saw it was a playback thing, rather than a recording thing.
 
Do you have any plugins loaded into this project?  If so, please list them.
 
The following may or may not apply to your situation, but can you please supply the following information?
 
From the audio interface: Sample Rate, ASIO Buffer Size
 
From Sonar: Driver Mode, Sample Rate, Total Roundtrip Latency, Record Bit-Depth
 
Thanks, 
 
Bob Bone
 

I only asked about the audio interface to make sure we're not dealing with Realtek-quality environment. It really should not be relevant to this issue otherwise, assuming audio playback and recording are working without issue.
 
If you Bounce to Clips a copy of the SS clip back to regular MIDI, does the issue go away?
 
 
 

Hi Bob
 
There are no plug ins at all loaded into the project at this stage.
Driver mode is ASIO/ Sample rate= 4410 / Round latency 28.9 ms / Bit depth 24
 
I'm not quite sure where to find the info for the audio interface sample rate and buffer size. The midi play back buffer is at 500. Taking it higher has not helped.
 
Many Thanks
 
LB

Tried that no joy unfortunately. I've just programed in new sequence and that's playing fine. drop outs tend to start as soon as you start making any adjustments like adding a cymbal. It will suddenly start droping a snare note or a hi hat note at complete random

Thanks for posting the info.
 
To get the Sample Rate and ASIO Buffer Size information from your audio interface, you should be able to access it in one of two methods that the vendors provide for getting at the interface control panel screen.
 
Some interfaces get at their UI by responding when you go into Sonar>Edit>Preferences>Audio>Driver Settings, and then click on the ASIO Control Panel button.
 
IF that doesn't work, do not despair, as it just means the UI doesn't respond to that button, and you will then use the other method instead.
 
The other method is to look in your Windows System Tray, which is at the bottom right corner of your Windows Deskop - where your volume, internet connection, and system messages icons are all located (and usually your antivirus program, if you are running one).
 
Anyways, in the System Tray, you should see an icon for your audio interface UI.  If it is not showing (hover your mouse over the various icons and each should display what it is), you may have to click on the arrow down there, which will then display any hidden icons.  You sometimes only need click once to open the interface UI, but may need to double-click on it to open it.
 
Once you get into the audio interface UI, using one of the above methods, you should be able to display and change your various interface settings, such as its Sample Rate and ASIO Buffer Size.
 
Please note that some interfaces call it ASIO Buffer Size, and some have sliders with a numbered scale, and some others use the term 'number of samples', and there may be others.  In any case, they all serve the same function - to tell the interface how big of a buffer for processing data.
 
My Presonus Audiobox 1818 VSL uses ASIO Buffer Size, and I have mine set to 128, which then shows up in Sonar as Input Samples and Output Samples - you can see my settings values at the bottom of this post, in my signature.
 
For recording and simple playback prior to beginning the mixing/mastering processing, I try to shoot for a Sonar Total Roundtrip Latency reported value of around 10 milliseconds or just a little less.
 
Once you get into mixing/mastering, and add effects that add lots of latency, you will want to bump up your ASIO Buffer Size to perhaps 1024, or even higher, to be able to handle things like 'look-ahead processing' (Boost 11 is one such effect).
 
I hope that helps explain how to get to those audio interface parameters and values.
 
Bob Bone
 
 
 

I looked at some other threads, and saw a couple that had very similar problems, and one was fixed by bumping up the Midi Playback Buffer Size to 500, but the other one never posted a solution.
 
I will continue to check for other threads where maybe there is something else going on with some solution or work around for you.
 
Bob Bone
 
 

Is there a chance you have ASIO4ALL installed on your computer?
 
Bob Bone