gwen
I just looked at the M-164UF downloads available and I see no firmware updates. Oh well.
 
Michael
 

gwen,
I just re-read this thread and you have not said much about your PC(s).
Could you describe the windows versions , processor chips, speeds, memory and disks you are using.
Disk access time is particularly important while recording.
In the device manager look at the ATA controller settings and make sure your HDD is using DMA ultra mode-whatever and NOT PIO mode.
 
Here is how to check that
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/turn-direct-memory-access-on-off?woldogcb=0#1TC=windows-7
 
Michael

Sorry for the rapid fire posts.
I am thinking about HDD again. Are you using anti-virus ?
Some AV's actually scan data to/from disk while it is written/read.
This can really degrade access times.
Disable anti-virus if it is running.
 
Michael

gwen,
I forgot you are testing just monitoring latency and not recording latency.
HDDs are probably not the issue. I went off on a tangent when I saw your screenshot.
Grabbing at straws here.
Still , it would be good if you could describe your PC.
 
Michael

I'm not saying I'm an expert, but what you described in post 16 and especially post 29 about the latency gradually ramping up and then dropping off only to start the cycle over, perhaps after a dropout, sounds very much like what I experienced on a previous DAW machine, and when I measured the DPC latency, it showed that exact behavior.
 
I could be wrong, but since you've tried everything else, and still don't have a satisfactory explanation, you've got nothing to lose by checking into the DPC latency possibility. This time, I'll recommend a second utility, DPC Latency Checker from thesycon. This one graphs the DPC latency over time, so it is easy to see whatever pattern may exist. If it shows the cycle of varying DPC latency, use the other utility, LatencyMon, to identify the driver with the highest value. Then disable the corresponding device if it's not necessary, or look for an updated driver for that device that hopefully behaves better.
 
I hope you get your issue resolved soon, one way or another. Good luck!

Its kind of recording AND monitoring.  What I'm simulating is a musician playing back with a backing track, which is ending up noticably out of sync.  I could theoretically just manually adjust every single cut ever done, but gosh it will look unprofessional when I have to do it just to listen back to a track we just recorded.  If it wasnt variable, sonar has a setting for that.  I still don't really understand though, I would think sonar should normally adjust this sort of value by default for people due to an inevitable small bit of lag summed between playback and overdubbing.
 
 
My computer worked flawlessly two-three years ago, and with of all things an Alesis Multimix USB 2.0.  Here should be anything you're possibly curious about :)   There are many USB devices, but I have replicated the issue with only the Tascam, mouse and keyboard.  I'm still suspecting my USB for the moment.  It doesnt explain why my other computer is showing the latency in the CEntrance utility that it is, but I dont know if thats to be expected.  I should be installing sonar on another computer to attempt today or tomorrow morning.
 

 
    
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670.58 Gigabytes Hard Drive Free Space

HP Virtual CD 4507 USB Device [Optical drive]
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HP External HDD USB Device [Hard drive] (499.40 GB) -- drive 3, s/n WXG1A30X0460
WDC WD3200AAJS-00L7A0 [Hard drive] (320.07 GB) -- drive 0, s/n WD-WCAV2C548579, rev 01.03E01, SMART Status: Healthy
WDC WD5001AALS-00L3B2 [Hard drive] (500.11 GB) -- drive 1, s/n WD-WCASY9557327, rev 01.03B01, SMART Status: Healthy
WDC WD5001AALS-00L3B2 [Hard drive] (500.11 GB) -- drive 2, s/n WD-WCASY9646636, rev 01.03B01, SMART Status: Healthy                 8192 Megabytes Usable Installed Memory

Slot 'DIMM0' has 2048 MB
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Slot 'DIMM2' has 2048 MB
Slot 'DIMM3' has 2048 MB
         Local Drive Volumes
         
                
c: (NTFS on drive 0) *     319.97 GB     147.03 GB free         
d: (NTFS on drive 1)     500.11 GB     430.58 GB free         
e: (NTFS on drive 2)     500.11 GB     75.08 GB free         
i: (NTFS on drive 3)     499.40 GB     17.89 GB free         

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Hi gwen,
 
IIRC, you said CEntrance was not showing that much variability. What is the range of round trip times measured by CEntrance in samples?
 
I'm curious what happens if you disable all record latency compensation on the Driver Settings page. I'd also like to see screenshots of both the Sync and Caching and Driver Settings pages. 

Here are my current settings. 
 
imgur.com/MzxeT1M
 
imgur.com/LehhXhi
 
imgur.com/zVOTdtY
 
interestingly, cakewalk's minimum latency is the same (256 samples, 5.8sec) as the 'high' setting in the control panel.
(CEntrance prompts open the control panel, the latency dropdown is selected, then it shows up in CEntrance different latency's for each.  Medium works (4.35ms at 192 samples I think it was?) but low and lowest do not work.  They seem to work fine in fruity loops and all of my other programs though.  I'd be way curious what Tony gets as far as CEntrance and Sonar's detected latency minimums :)

*i've zero'd the latency compensation for the time being, since as long as I can get it CONSISTENT i will be able to operate just fine.  I would definitely prefer for it to work with low monitoring latency for midi stuff though...
 

Okay that's very interesting. It appears you have SONAR set to use WDM driver mode. Otherwise you'd have an ASIO Panel button where you have a Wave Profiler button on the Driver Settings page.
 
So the first thing to do is to go the Playback and Recording page in Preferences > Audio, and change the driver mode to ASIO. Then see what SONAR reports for RTL vs. CEntrance (which only tests the ASIO driver, not WDM), and set the Manual Offset on the Sync and Caching page as the difference between what CEntrance measures and what SONAR reports as suggested previously. Then try your re-record test again.