Dear God please help me someone.   Im using X2 studio and an M-Audio fastrack interface. Letely i started to get all sorts of really bad latency issues. If i go into the properties page and go to audio, there is a slider there to adjust latency.  if i go all the way to the right (i think its listed as "safe"") the latency really slows down. I play a chord on the guitar and it seems like 10 seconds later the chord plays.   If i slide the slider all the way to the right
the latency improves, but the sound is really distorted and has that extreme whah whah effect.   I also see settings for buffers which is a numerical value. Ive tried raising this and lowering it.   Its not that the adjustments are having no effect, they are changing the latency, but there is still a delay.  It makes doing any kind of punch ins impossible or trying to record a bass line for example is a nightmare. I've just reimaged the laptop and did a clean install of sonar but no joy.  In case it might be an m audio issue i upgraded the drivers but again no joy.
I have 4gb of memory in the laptop and plenty of space on the C drive.  As i say, this only started recently so i dont it the specs of the laptop causing the issue. 
Any of you guys have this nightmare :(  

Hi Agentcalm. You probably know this, but just in case you don't, here's something that's caught me in the past: Do you have any effects on, either in the FX bin or in the Pro Channel? Some effects can cause an awful lot of latency.
Good luck to you in sorting this out. I know how frustrating it can be.
 
LJ

If the Fast/Safe slider works, you are using MME or possibly WDM driver mode.
Ideally, you should probably be using ASIO. Verify that you have appropriate Fast Track drivers for your OS, and change the driver mode to ASIO.
With ASIO, the slider will be inoperative, and you use the ASIO panel to adjust latency. The Wave Profiler button will be replaced with the ASIO button. X2 should accept this change on the fly, but you may need to restart the program.
 
edit: lampshade makes a valid point. Don't use effects with look-ahead when recording. The wah/helicopter effect you are experiencing suggests drivers, though.

I concur with the advice given above.
 
In addition, many times laptops have INSANE latency induced by the Wi-Fi adapters/transceivers.  Many folks temporarily disable their Wi-Fi adapters on their laptops when getting ready to do a session in Sonar, then turn it back on when through with the Sonar session.
 
As far as audio interface settings go, a good place to start would be:
 
Audio Interface: Sample Rate 44.1 k or 48 K, ASIO Buffer Size of 128
 
Sonar: Sample Rate must match setting on audio interface (44.1 or 48, whichever you set it to), Record-Bit-Depth 24 bits, Driver Mode of ASIO.
 
Once you get the above settings set, look in the Sonar Preferences for the reported Total Roundtrip Latency value - you want to get that to be at or just slightly under 10 milliseconds, for reasonable balance between audio quality and CPU demands.
 
If still having problems, then you could also adjust the Record I/O Buffer Size and the Playback I/O Buffer Size values from the default of 250 k (might be 256k) up to 500 k (or 512 k).  That gives it a bigger set of buffers to work with, and that helps some folks too.
 
Bob Bone
 
 
 

Hi Laura, Rob B n Rob E
Some great tips there guys.  Yeah not using any effects. I usually add in effects only when mixing.  I didnt know about the wireless adapter so will definately kill that.
Sadly my M-Audio will not use ASIO so i have to use MME. It wasn't a great buy to be honest.  It has non existant pre amp and even M audio now don't support this model.  Trying to get drivers for it is a joke.  M Audio do very good equipment but the fat track pro is not i'd recommend to anyone. But i will motor on and try the good advice from all of the above.  Thanks guys :)

What model do you have?  I have a FT Ultra 8R and get very good latency with that.  Its adjusted in the MAudio FT Ultra Control Panel (a separate application from Sonar).
 
Sounds like its time for a new interface unit.

All m-audio Fast track models use asio as far as I am aware?
I would check you have the correct drivers installed first of all.

Hi Jack, its a Fastrack pro. Yeah if i had the money id change it.  Apart from latency, the XLR preamp if about as useful as an ashtray on a bike.
 
hi Chris, i'll search again and see if i can get ASIO.  Very hard to get support on this model as even m-Audio themselves have washed their hands of this. 

I have no recollection of seeing a dedicated audio interface that doesn't have ASIO support.
 
This might seem weird, but try going into Sonar Preferences>Audio>Devices, and removing the check boxes for your interface, so that you do not have ANY enabled audio interface.
 
Then, go to Preferences>Playback and Recording, then change your driver mode to ASIO, and click Apply.  This should work, and will set the driver mode to ASIO.
 
Now, go back to Preferences>Devices, and hopefully you will see your audio interface there, able to be selected by checking the boxes for it.  If you do not see your audio interface listed, then it does not seem to support ASIO.  BUT, if you do see it listed, check the boxes to select it as your audio interface, and then click Apply.
 
IF the above works, Sonar should also populate the Record and Playback Timing Master information for you.  Make sure the Sample Rate in Sonar exactly matches the setting in your audio interface, and give it a try.
 
Bob Bone
 
 

The main features of the M-Audio FAST TRACK PRO include:

• 24-bit/96kHz audio interface - using 2-in OR 2-out driver
• Pro Tools 8 M-Powered Compatible
• 2 front panel mic/instrument preamp inputs (Neutrik XLR / 1/4inch jack TRS) with gain controls, phantom power, signal/peak lights, pads for each input (-20dB)
• Insert jack (1/4 inch jack TRS) for outboard processors
• 2 balanced outputs (1/4 inch jack TRS)
• 4 unbalanced outputs (RCA)
• S/PDIF coaxial I/O with 2-channel PCM
• S/PDIF out also supports pass-through of AC-3/DTS surround-encoded content
• 1 x 1 MIDI I/O with activity LEDs
• Headphone output (1/4 inch jack TRS) with level control
• Headphone A/B source switch for DJ-style cueing
• Input/playback mix control for hardware direct monitoring
• Mono switch for input/playback direct monitoring
• Master output level control
• Near zero-latency hardware direct monitoring
• Low-latency ASIO software monitoring
• USB connection to computer
• Powered via USB or optional AC power adapter
• Kensington lock port
• Mac and PC compatible; class compliant with Mac OS X 10.3.9 and higher - 16-bit/48kHz 2 x 4 operation
• WDM, ASIO 2, Core Audio compatible
• Minimum system requirements (PC) are Windows XP SP2 - Home or Professional only (Windows 2000, 98, 98SE, ME & NT not supported), Pentium 3 – 500 MHz (higher speed CPU may be necessary for laptops), 256MB RAM, DirectX 9.0c or higher, USB Port
• Minimum system requirements (MAC) are Macintosh G3 600 / G4 667MHz (higher speed may be necessary for laptops) 256MB RAM, OSX 10.3.9 / 10.4.2 (earlier versions of Mac operating systems are not supported), USB port, Dolby AC-3 and DTS pass-through with Apple DVD player
• Includes Pro Tools SE and GT Player Express software for recording, mixing and jamming