Yes, I've read Pyle's sales hype and the Pyle mixer's audio interface only hooks up to the sound chips analog audio input through USB instead of through the little green 1/8th"audio jack. You will get the same exact results and sound quality, and still have your VST problem PERIOD!
 SONAR cannot switch to drivers that you don't have, and the Pyle mixer, not having  A/D (analog to digital) converters doesn't offer any different drivers that you already have
 I believe what Pyle means by being compatible with many DAWs is that it operates quite and musical sounding enough to improve raw flat audio input with EQ, panning and possibly gain control across a couple of channels.
 Now a mixer can be a nice addition, but I believe it isn't going to solve your latency problems, because the PYLE is NOT THE TYPE OF AUDIO INTERFACE YOU NEED TO CORRECT THAT PROBLEM!
 You need a real soundcard, either internal or external, and one that supports ANY drivers that will work for you, but do not expect any type of performance over what you already have just adding a mixer to your existing sound chip.
 
OK, I'm getting bored with this conversation and this will be my last entry and response I'm tired of responding to Glen, whom I originally thought was just simply wrong through inexperience and ignorance. Now I'm thinking he's is nothing more than a stupid arguementive little piss ant, and all I can do is hope he doesn't confuse or steer you down too many dead end streets.
You are on your own Jay, good luck!!
 
  Despite all of Glen's psycho babble, my computer is currently running silky smooth with the first core barely hitting the 40% range and the other 3 cores just barely blipping along on SONAR's CPU meter. Rock solid performance that's not even close to breaking a sweat with tons of head room and power to spare on my first Focusrite 18i20 bench test project with 28 audio tracks all with ProChannel running with boo koo amounts of audio plugins running with 4 frozen synths tracks in the rack and 2 Dimension Pro and 2 Rapture active and jammable and mixable with the Edirol PCR-500 MIDI Keyboard Controller. I'm not experiencing any detectable signs of latency what so ever on my home built and custom configured personally by "ME" computer workstation.
I'm now UN subscribed to this thread.. Bye..

jbl420
Which is also what I was trying to figure out what driver mode is best is asio the best for most devices including my onboard sound card???.

Jay - Drivers are programs that are (generally) written by the device manufacturer to interface their hardware to an operating system.  The driver that your on-board sound card uses was most likely written by a subsidiary of the chip manufacturer (AMD) who provided the chip set (VIA audio) for your computer's mother board.  These tend to be written to the minimum specifications to allow the sound chip to work with the OS (e.g., Windows 8).  They tend to be very general purpose and generic.  So while it is quite possible that your on-board sound card may use the exact same audio chips that the M-Audio external audio interface uses, the driver may not have been written well enough to provide good results.
The driver mode options are a part of this manufacturer provided driver.  I'm willing to bet that AMD or Intel did not take the time to write ASIO mode drivers for your hardware.  Even if you found an ASIO driver, it would not have been written for your sound card (ASIO4ALL is a confusing aspect to this reality). 
 
The Pyle mixer, and a significant number of other low-cost interfaces use the standard windows driver for audio devices.  Because they use the generic Windows driver, the manufacturer avoids the cost and support issues of having to write and distribute drivers for their hardware.  You could possibly use the Pyle with ASIO4ALL (this is not a recommendation) to make sonar think that you were using ASIO drivers and it may perform better, but this is really just using the WDM/KS driver with a wrapper that provides better buffering than the generic audio driver. 
 
A good audio interface will have a driver provided by the device manufacturer that is specific to their hardware and the particular operating system that you are using.  If you go to a manufacturer's web site and they don't have a driver download for the device (or only offer an ASIO4ALL download) you are looking at then you should not expect top-notch results for the device.  Bristol_jonsey's post made some solid suggestions that I think you would benefit from looking into. 
 
So it really is not just switching driver mode, but choosing the correct driver for the device you are using.
 
I started this hobby using an Alesis mixer that is not too different from the Pyle you posted on. I still have it and often use it as a sub-mixer on projects.  My opinion is that the Pyle would work great if you were doing simple voice-overs or simple singer/songwriter projects but that does not seem to be the direction you are headed.  It may help you in the short term, but I think you will be wanting something better not too far down the road.
 
And as to your VST lag issue - this may not even be your sound card (even though I think you need a better interface).  Check out my recommendations in post #5 above.  This problem may just be the result of the VST/patches or FX that you have chosen for the project.  Check your settings before buying new gear and you will find that you can afford much better gear.
 
Have you tried freezing any of your tracks?
 
Glen

gcolbert

jbl420
Which is also what I was trying to figure out what driver mode is best is asio the best for most devices including my onboard sound card???.

Jay - Drivers are programs that are (generally) written by the device manufacturer to interface their hardware to an operating system.
Or more accurately drivers are small pieces of software written to establish "COMMUNICATION" between hardware devices and software. Without these drivers your OS "might" recognize that something is connected to your computer, but it won't be able to tell the difference if it's a "digital audio interface" or a jar of mayonnaise, and simply ignore it.
 The same goes for "analog audio interfaces", they may as well be a jar of mayo as far as your computer is concerned because they are just as ignored. That means you can turn their dials and move their faders until you are blue in the face, but you will still, and MOST DEFINETLY have latency problems until you get a decent soundcard/interface to select the proper drivers.
 Now there is a chance of course that I could be wrong, but my money says they WILL be ASIO!
 
 
  The driver that your on-board sound card uses was most likely written by a subsidiary of the chip manufacturer (AMD) who provided the chip set (VIA audio) for your computer's mother board.
Doubtful, given you have already stated that you have a basic sound "chip", as opposed to "Card", and a computer resent enough to have a quad core and SATA 2, you "mostly likely" are using "RealTec" audio drivers.
 
These tend to be written to the minimum specifications to allow the sound chip to work with the OS (e.g., Windows 8).  They tend to be very general purpose and generic.
True, as these tiny little sound chips can only perform very general and generic tasks, it makes no sense to write code for tasks they can't even do .
 
So while it is quite possible that your on-board sound card may use the exact same audio chips that the M-Audio external audio interface uses, the driver may not have been written well enough to provide good results.
""!!! ABSOLUTELY FALSE !!!"" NOBODY is going to give you pro grade components for free as add ons. Those tiny little sound chips can ONLY PERFORM very general and generic tasks like listening to music though a generic media player and watching movies on YOUtube or Net Flix.  As nice as they can sound, they are completely ill suited to run even the skinniest, lamest DAW. Running SONAR thru a sound chip is like trying to run a high performance race car with a lawn mower engine
 These built in chips are too small and week to run high speed ASIO drivers.  M-Audio's "M-POWER" ASIO v2 drivers are SPACIFICALLY written in great detail to maximize communications between their own specific product designs and any and all DAW's. Even freak'in PRO TOOLS for God's sake, do you know what THAT means?
While M-Audio sound card interfaces are fully capable of automatically switching between driver modes for propriety application specific purposes, they are definitely NOT SUITABLE for either VIA or RealTec chips . 
The driver mode options are a part of this manufacturer provided driver.  I'm willing to bet that AMD or Intel did not take the time to write ASIO mode drivers for your hardware.  Even if you found an ASIO driver, it would not have been written for your sound card (ASIO4ALL is a confusing aspect to this reality). 
 
The Pyle mixer, and a significant number of other low-cost interfaces use the standard windows driver for audio devices.  Because they use the generic Windows driver, the manufacturer avoids the cost and support issues of having to write and distribute drivers for their hardware.
FALSE! The Pyle mixer is NOT a digital interface so there was no need for the manufacturer to write drivers for it.
  You could possibly use the Pyle with ASIO4ALL (this is not a recommendation) to make sonar think that you were using ASIO drivers and it may perform better, but this is really just using the WDM/KS driver with a wrapper that provides better buffering than the generic audio driver. 
That will only have effect on your existing sound chip.
 
A good audio interface will have a driver provided by the device manufacturer that is specific to their hardware and the particular operating system that you are using.  If you go to a manufacturer's web site and they don't have a driver download for the device (or only offer an ASIO4ALL download) you are looking at then you should not expect top-notch results for the device.  Bristol_jonsey's post made some solid suggestions that I think you would benefit from looking into. 
Babble, babble, babble.
 
So it really is not just switching driver mode, but choosing the correct driver for the device you are using.
Equally important to use the "Correct DEVICE" to more efficiently perform the right job properly, I would think.
 
I started this hobby using an Alesis mixer that is not too different from the Pyle you posted on. I still have it and often use it as a sub-mixer on projects.  My opinion is that the Pyle would work great if you were doing simple voice-overs or simple singer/songwriter projects but that does not seem to be the direction you are headed.  It may help you in the short term, but I think you will be wanting something better not too far down the road.
Hmm, I wonder who said that before in the thread?
 
And as to your VST lag issue - this may not even be your sound card (even though I think you need a better interface).  Check out my recommendations in post #5 above.  This problem may just be the result of the VST/patches or FX that you have chosen for the project.  Check your settings before buying new gear and you will find that you can afford much better gear.
YES! DEFINETLY CHECK OUT MY RECOMMENDATIONS IN POST #5! HAHAHAHAHAHHAHAA!
 
Have you tried freezing any of your tracks?
Glen dear boyo, Have you ever tried freezing your brains instead of frying them all the time?
 
Glen

<edit>

Jay
I would get a message saying viahd audio1 .... the outputs in preferences that it  ... viahd1/2

Looks like VIA HD audio on the motherboard to me.  I don't see any RealTec anything here.
</edit>
 

gcolbert
So while it is quite possible that your on-board sound card may use the exact same audio chips that the M-Audio external audio interface uses, the driver may not have been written well enough to provide good results.

Steev
""!!! ABSOLUTELY FALSE !!!"" NOBODY is going to give you pro grade components for free as add ons. Those tiny little sound chips can ONLY PERFORM very general and generic tasks like listening to music though a generic media player and watching movies on YOUtube or Net Flix. ...
 These built in chips are too small and week to run high speed ASIO drivers.  M-Audio's "M-POWER"

M-AUDIO is a VIA Technologies partner.  They use the same (actually a lower grade) audio chips that are in Jay's computer.  M-Audio does not do the chip development for these components, they buy them off the shelf like everyone else.
VIA Partners.  You may want to get the schematics for your M-Audio devices.
 
Glen

You could try using WDM mode with the onboard soundchip. Might help. Ultimately you need to get a beeter audio interface though. 

Hey I already knew that the older M-Audio products used Via Envy 24 audio controllers + a whole LOT of other components that they make their magic with. Maybe they still do and could benefit Jay enormously if he purchases one, and do even better plugging his Pyle mixer into it. They are very good, and that's why I recommended M-Audio in post #5 for an inexpensive solution ($99 everyday shelf price) for his latency problem.
What I don't know is, but suspect is that Jay's computer has a RealTec audio controller.
Again that's a moot point Mr. Congressman because what ever is there is just like Congress and isn't doing any good.
 Can you spell Ad Hominem?
 
Anyway, that's not even why I came here, Sweetwater is running a sweet deal offering a fairly decent one, on the cheap; The Lexicon Alpha for $59.95 http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/Alpha?utm_source=Google&utm_medium=PPC&utm_campaign=none&device=c&network=g&matchtype=&gclid=CKPny42Z5bsCFclQOgodHX0AAg
There's no Phantom power or standard 5 pin MIDI jacks, but hey, Lexicon is world famous for Pro Grade and this is a Pro Grade interface for $60. Also comes bundled with Lexicon Pantheon VST reverb plug-in which you may already have that came bundled with SONAR.