Now, I'm no Windows guru so I offer this tip on an "at your own risk" basis!!.
Actually it's not really anything new so the designation 'tip' I will use just for convenience.
That said, I've been reaping satisfying gains with it since Sonar x1 and have never encountered any issues at all on Windows 7 (HP).
(To the many highly 'tech savvy' forum frequenters, I'm simply offering suggestions about the employment of process cpu priority 'techniques' that promote an increase in Sonar's performance).
So, to the one reader left:-
Pops and clicks etc can occur on any system at any time, and ofttimes it's not just the DAW to blame, although of course sometimes it is. Other issues can include timing problems, sync problems, latency issues and more.
My point is that there is never usually any single magic fix, but I've found that this adjustment (read fiddling!) has worked well for me in promoting smoother glitch free audio, ironing out issues with all sorts of annoying things such as latency, sync and many of the common glitches. It has also produced sometimes substantial noticeable performance gains overall.
Basically it entails pushing the 'cpu priority' of Sonar and Bit bridge higher than anything else on the system, whilst simultaneously throttling back on those low priority processes that you know Sonar's 'system tree' so to speak, doesn't directly rely upon and which you learn to recognize as frequent 'offenders' with unwarranted theft of your precious cpu resources. Equally important is recognizing those processes essential to keeping the pc system,OS and DAW stable and unhindered.
Now, while this in itself is nothing particularly new or inventive (and some may suggest it's not a good idea**) I have been performing these actions on my system regularly now since x1, methodically and gradually modifying it over time and have observed performance gains and stability solid enough for me to decide it worth at least sharing in concept here.
My DAW is based upon the i7 2600k cpu coupled to high performance components that were spared (almost!) no expense from power supply to output jacks. Professionally overclocked and water cooled, it is not particularly at the bottom of the performance pile just yet, but even so, I have seen evident 'DAW horsepower' increases when opposed to leaving everything alone in vanilla guise.
Essentially, the goal of this 'tip' is to use Windows 'Task Manager' to observe and adjust the cpu priority of various processes in order to achieve an overall noticeable performance increase in what is already the world's best DAW.
By opening the Task Manager and selecting the "Processes" tab it is possible to view in real time the processes your computer is currently running. By right clicking on a process a drop down menu offers you the ability to "Set CPU Priority".
Whilst hovering over this option, you are presented with another drop down menu which offers a list of selections:-
Realtime < (it has been suggested by many that this option is NEVER USED to avoid possible problems.)
High
Above Normal
Normal
Below Normal
Low
As you may well have surmised by now, selecting one of the presented options places the chosen level of priority made available to that particular process. In essence the computer dictates to that process how 'important' it is and thus effectively how much time and access it is lent to the processing power of the systems physical cpu'(s)
Thus, by strategically altering the priority of various processes we can manipulate to a degree how much cpu processing the system dedicates to your DAW. Also ,as I said at the beginning, we can just as strategically remove priority from processes which are unimportant to the stable running of system and DAW further increasing available processing power. By adjusting and observing - adjusting and observing, I have over time configured my system to a degree which by result 'forces' the computer to prioritize the smooth running of Sonar by making available to Sonar the maximum cpu 'attention' and priority available at any given time.
However, there used to be a big drawback which reduced ones efforts to little more than adventurous tinkering:-
As standard Windows does not save your chosen priority settings on any given process. After the process stops, when Windows needs to call it up again it's priority setting has reset to the default it had when it last ran, before you changed that setting.
This meant that you were left with no option but to spend a not insubstantial amount of time and effort opening Task Manager and setting each priority of a small 'Hit list' of processes you have learned offer the best performance increase for the time and effort every time you ran your DAW. Once you shut it all down you were faced with repeating the same tedious tasks again every time you ran your DAW.
As you've probably guessed, that is now no longer the case because I eventually came across a tiny free application* for Windows 7 32/64bit that you run once, which then installs a tidy, small number of files to your system which seamlessly add extra functionality to the drop down menus in Windows Task Manager!
With this installed, every process that you modify will from then on remember your chosen level of process priority even after the process has terminated and re-run, and even after system shut downs.
This means that you now have the time to Google and learn at leisure what each individual process you see running does, and how important it is, and then make an educated decision (guess?!) on the cpu priority you decide to permanently give that process - unless of course you wish to adjust it again yourself.
I basically fiddled like this over time and by conducting little experiments and keeping the changes which seem to offer improvement, keeping the changes that don't seem to offer improvement but don't offer negative side effects either, and promptly reversing changes that even hint at no benefit and/or appear to 'feel' they exhibit negative results on system performance.
Of all the processes to tweak, obviously SonarPDR.exe and Bitbridge produce the best instant results in various situations.
For example, as a test I created a project using a proportionally higher number of 32bit plugins vs 64bit. I loaded them on untill I started to encounter the first signs of audio drops, clicks and crackles. By switching the priority of "Bitbridge.exe*32" to a Higher priority than "SONARPDR.exe" the negative audio artifacts and dropouts disappeared.
So, it seems to me anyway, that there is something beneficial to be had here, albeit nothing like a doubling of power or anything, but maybe enough to offer benefit to certain users for whom cpu resources count right down to the last cycle. Maybe they can manage to hit a little 'sweetspot' on their system with their own tweak endeavors allowing just enough available power to squeeze in that all important closing crash.
As I said initially, I'm no Guru. Maybe some of you with advanced knowledge may be sat shaking your heads thinking I've been damn lucky my OS hasn't bricked, or maybe even considering this basic commonplace system housekeeping, but after all this time and testing, not to mention flawless music production, I'm of the opinion that, for me at least, my results are evident and thus currently negate those unheeded warnings. Almost all reported problems on this subject involve the use of the "Realtime" setting in Task Manager. Keeping away from that initially or all together greatly reduces the chance of running into any problems at all.
I've been using it without incident, however after further reading on the subject I am going to refrain from using it at all in future.
Here are some further recommended undertakings that can greatly enhance the benefits realized from the above 'tuning up':-
Another similar, less 'exotic' (to this rookie) and possibly equally beneficial 'tinkering' I have undertaken is to identify the processes that are almost completely non beneficial to my system as operated by me (certain application update managers, task schedulers, over frequent system monitors and the like among various other types of snoopy rubbish) and set Windows to completely disable them in future unless reinstated by me. By result these will then not even run themselves at all at any time thus preventing unwanted cpu drain before it even starts. This is similar in effect to the results gained from disabling unwanted rubbish from the startup and services menus (another more common performance tweak points).
One further 'tip' involves experimenting with actual (multi) cpu core designation, also available under Task Manager which allows you to modify which physical cpu cores and/or Threads you decide to make available, or not, to desired or undesired processes.
Experimentation has yeilded me varying results, although changes to most applications defaults more often yield performance drops and of the less often discovered gains the effect is less dramatic than the other aforementioned tricks.
Lastly, another option in Task Manager is to set 'I/O priority' of processes. As of now I'm not up to speed on that one totally, and I believe it is automatically tied to process cpu priority leading me to believe there may be little on offer here.
* The Task Manager modification application mentioned is called Prio. A Google search should find it. It's free and you may quickly find you consider it a permanent must have.
**Adjusting priority settings of multiple processes with reckless abandon can in fact cause a system to slow down, reduce in performance and even become unstable due to the intricate nature of various processes relying upon other processes and each other and so on, risking a potential 'house of cards' instability. However as cpu's have rapidly become vastly more powerful, this risk, when approached sensibly and systematically, making sure that changes are done gradually and monitored, documented and reversed at the first hint of a problem is somewhat far less great than it once was.
Also for anyone starting out it is strongly advised that the user DOES NOT use the priority "Realtime" until they acquire their own grounded understanding of this subject.
My recommended starting point is that the 'SONARPDR.exe and Bitbridge.exe*32' processes are set to "Very High" priority and that they are then left as the only 2 processes you allocate that designation to.
Everything else you wish to change should only ever be set from "low" to "Above Normal" with the goal of lowering the priority of any processes as far as possible without adverse effect. This then gives Sonar a higher priority over many many other computer processes lending it effectively an improved 'system headroom' which as a result reduces the probability that Sonar will be momentarily interrupted by other processes which can lead to many of the common problems people encounter.
For me, my problem used to be audio pops,clicks and occasionally drop outs. By reconfiguring the priority of common processes that often run alongside Sonar yet have no part in its execution I managed to completely remove any and all audio problems and artefacts. This was the single biggest result that proved to me this "priority shuffling" really can potentially remedy problems.
Another benefit I received was a tighter integration to my DAW of my Access Virus hardware synthesizer. It would often get 'jogged' out of sync for no obvious reason. My twiddles have pretty much totally rectified that also.
For curious people who fancy a twiddle, I suggest setting the processes " SonarPDR.exe" and "Bitbridge" to the settings I just mentioned and touch nothing else. Go through a session and see how it goes. The improvement at this stage may seem very minor or even un noticeable, but as you get familiar with the process and make more adjustments to other processes you may start to notice improvement in the overall performance and feel you are used to.
Disclaimer - I reserve the modesty to be corrected on any point, and I reserve the right to change all my channel strips red to hide any blushing.
Where is everybody?
Cheers.
P.S - thanks to the contributers in this thread so far who have influenced me to withdraw any suggestion of using the controversial "Realtime" option in Task Manager. I intend to address it again another day but shall approach with greater caution.