Hey CJay, thank you for your reply!
I have not been using Sonar 5 for more than a few weeks. I probably should have made that clear initially. I got a new, unused copy from Ebay, when I was looking for old versions of Sonar. I used Sonar 3 on a friend's PC but moved away and wanted to get something of my own. I don't know what soundcard was in that PC, but it can't have been too fancy at all.
I really couldn't say that the recording process is working at all with either the Realtek chip when I had that enabled, or now with the SoundBlaster Live card and the chip disabled, so what I am getting from the Sonar helpfile text agrees with my experience of the trial versions of other software, that it should work on a basic level at least. The delay, distortion and drop-out is too serious a problem to be covered by "working ok" IMO, and this is what makes me very unsure that a new card would solve the problem :/ even if it would be (much) better quality overall.
Which means I don't know what to invest in, a new card or a new software, and the card later. I can't really go for both at the same time at the moment if a small but functional SoundBlaster isn't even accepted. (And it doesn't even say so anywhere in the specs.)

Sonar isn't one of those fragile software titles that would get messed up by an antivirus suite being open during installation, would it? Hm...

Oh, and thanks for the list! I will check that out just now.

thank you!!! x

I use Sonar 5 and have for about 4 years......it's actually a very solid version. You're main issue is the quality of your sound card. Having 1.8 gig memory will serve just fine for basic work. You will have to " render" or Freeze your soft synths in order to use more than a few at a time..but there's nothing wrong with that. It enhances productivity in a lot of ways.  Your basic computer specs are fine for starting out - with the exception of one issue -  You should really invest in a second hard drive for storage and streaming of Sonar audio files. Get one that is at least 7200 RPM - .  Some people don't recommend running anti virus on an audio centered computer because it tends to enjoy interupting things for a few seconds here and there and that can interfere with smooth audio streaming. I don't know for sure because I don't use my audio computer online.
Sound card / audio interface. I would recommend the EDIROL brand as they are fully tested and supported for  Sonar. There are many others that give excellent performance as well. You will probably be well off to use a USB2  interface..... but if you choose to use a firewire interface, make sure that you are using a TI chipset in your computer firewire for a computer of that age.  Welcome to the forum - There is a lot of useful information here.

Feel free to PM if you have specific Sonar 5 questions. Most of the forum issues deal with the most current versions. Glad to help if I can.

Sonar isn't one of those fragile software titles that would get messed up by an antivirus suite being open during installation, would it? Hm...

 
Not specifically, however if the AV is configured to scan every time a disk read/write occurs then this could cause streaming problems.
 
Big +1 to Rbh comments and observations. 

Hi Rbh!! Thanks so much for the information, explanation and reassurance, I could really use that :)! Great that you've used it for so long and it's been so positive! Again, thanks for breaking it down for me a bit. :) I do plan to invest a bit more in the system in the near future, and the info you posted really helps. ♥

Hi again Wookiee!! :) thanks for replying, yes by the time I posted it I wondered if I was asking myself a rethoric question 8) just to be on the safe side I should prob a) have the antivirus off when installing, and b) not have it on when using the software. Which should be quite alright. It just didn't occur to me before. Just like... ahem... *cough cough* I only remembered to update the audio driver for the realtek chip when I was noting down the info for here :D

Thanks everyone !!! ♥

I use Sonar at work, and due to company policy have antivirus running with on-access scanning enabled. I've noticed no adverse effects due to it. Just throwing that out there. (and it's Sophos antivirus, if anyone wants to know...)

As for soundcard, if you want a cheap solution, the best one is probably the M-Audio Audiophile 2496. It's a PCI card that you'd have to install inside the computer. 

A lot of people say to disable all sound devices except the one Sonar's going to use, but I take the opposite approach. I keep my motherboard's onboard sound chip enabled and set Windows to use that. That way, Sonar can use the "pro" card and Windows can use the onboard sound. That way they don't step on each other. It's worked well for me.

Thanks tarsier! Interesting different advice! :) It actually concurs with my experience with the antivirus now (Bullguard). And thanks for the soundcard suggestion!!

So here is what happened: I couldn't disable all of the antivirus suite without my system becoming rather unstable. Since their tech support had advised me to reinstall it due to an unrelated problem recently anyway, I figured OK and uninstalled it. No change.
Then I uninstalled Sonar and reinstalled. No change, but at setup I noticed it tried to copy settings from the Sonar 7 PE trial I once had on the computer. I thought I had removed all of that... And some programs can't deal with demo leftovers. I dunno if this had something to do with it, but I uninstalled Sonar again, then did a registry cleanup of all things Cakewalk and defragged (there wasn't much need, but why not). Then I did a new installation (no antivirus present) and reinstalled my Antivirus afterwards.
And: It works!
No corruptions on recording new audio or playing existing tracks!!

I want to avoid this happening again though, so I wonder:
Did this happen because Sonar couldn't get through to the soundcard properly? It went through a setup screen with my Creative soundcard, and I don't know if it did that with the Realtek chip last time, or tried the soundcard but didn't quite make it (the card wasn't visible on my system, until we disabled the chip in the BIOS and slotted the soundcard into a different slot on the motherboard).

Or could remainders of a Sonar 7 (or 8!) trial have caused problems?

Or was my antivirus to blame?

Or yes, maybe the slot my soundcard was sitting in was somehow dodgy. Eventhough this is a brand new motherboard and behaving well otherwise o_o

Because if I upgrade to another sound card in the future, etc, etc, will I really need to uninstall and reinstall Sonar to pick up the card change?

:) thanks very much for all the help and advice so far!

♥

I would say that the best way to avoid this problem is to get a soundcard with good ASIO drivers.  You shouldn't have to re-install Sonar when you get a new soundcard, just switch Sonar to ASIO mode and select the card's ASIO drivers in Sonar's audio options.

SoundBlaster cards prefer a sample rate of 48000, not 44100. Also, select bit depth of 16. All of those are in Options-Audio. In Options-Audio-Drivers, deselect all but the SoundBlaster ins and outs.

Thanks again, @tarsier and @daveny5
I'm glad these forum posts stick around. I'll refer to this info again. And I finally worked out the date signatures too so alright, this *is* from 2010, so that makes sense.
Sorry I didn't reply before, that would have only been polite.