Hello everyone
So far X3 gave me all what I wanted in a DAW, I especially appreciate the color customization feature (Finally) and the new pro channel eq. I am very pleased with this version and looking forward to experement with the touch features in the coming months.
However, I am not able to use it for one reason: POPS and CRACKLES
I have a pc with an intel i7 quad with 24 Gb Ram with an SSD main hard drive and several HHDs for samples and an RME Fireface USB sound cards using the ASIO drivers. I mainly do midi recording with lots of virtual instruments. I never had any of these pops and crackles with Sonar X2 (even with very high vst count), but when opening the same projects with the same exact settings for the drivers and such in X3, it seems that X3 is having way much harder time to handle the load. Even when starting from scratch by loading 5 - 6 midi tracks with VSL instruments (or any) and just playing back the sound live by the keyboard Sonar X3 is struggling and pops and clicks start to appear continuously and notes start to disappear and comeback as if I am using my old pc 5 years ago (maybe X3 have a ram management or streaming issues?).
I think X3 is a great improvement in many aspects over X2, but what can I do with lots of great features if the engine can't work flawlessly like the good old X2?
I appreciate if anybody can confirm or deny this issue (hopefully deny it, man i love X3).
 

Need more info.  What have you tried already?
 
At the very least, you should have updated to the X3b patch. Reboot, then check your interface driver settings, and reset/rescan all VST plugins.

Thank you for the reply
I am already on X3b after full system reboot. Still the same.

I definitely am not seeing worse performance here... if anything, just a leetle bit better.
 
What is your ASIO buffer (latency) set to?
 

Hello Stevec and thanks for your reply
The buffer is set to 1024, but no matter how low or high it seems not affecting much.
I also noticed that this happens mostly when playing notes for the first time, but when i play a melody several times the pops disappear, but when I introduce new notes to that melody then it comes back. So from the sound of it it should be a buffer problem but again i tried different settings with no luck (and the fact that the same buffer setting is working just fine in X2 makes me suspect that the problem is X3 related).
Thanks.

You may want to try the steps Lance outlines here: http://forum.cakewalk.com/Installed-X3-Now-no-ASIO-drivers-m2908481.aspx#
 
Also, what synth are you using?   What FX are loaded?   How about your CPU and Disk meters?
 

I have the RME Fireface UFX (USB) and I'm not experiencing any performance problems in X3a. Sorry you are having issues, hope you get them sorted out. My settings:
 
24bit/48kHz
128 Samples
Buffer size: Fast
Round Trip: 7.3 msec
 
Regards,

toledoo1
Hello everyone
So far X3 gave me all what I wanted in a DAW, I especially appreciate the color customization feature (Finally) and the new pro channel eq. I am very pleased with this version and looking forward to experement with the touch features in the coming months.
However, I am not able to use it for one reason: POPS and CRACKLES
I have a pc with an intel i7 quad with 24 Gb Ram with an SSD main hard drive and several HHDs for samples and an RME Fireface USB sound cards using the ASIO drivers. I mainly do midi recording with lots of virtual instruments. I never had any of these pops and crackles with Sonar X2 (even with very high vst count), but when opening the same projects with the same exact settings for the drivers and such in X3, it seems that X3 is having way much harder time to handle the load. Even when starting from scratch by loading 5 - 6 midi tracks with VSL instruments (or any) and just playing back the sound live by the keyboard Sonar X3 is struggling and pops and clicks start to appear continuously and notes start to disappear and comeback as if I am using my old pc 5 years ago (maybe X3 have a ram management or streaming issues?).
I think X3 is a great improvement in many aspects over X2, but what can I do with lots of great features if the engine can't work flawlessly like the good old X2?
I appreciate if anybody can confirm or deny this issue (hopefully deny it, man i love X3).
 

Try going to Edit > Preferences > Audio > Sync and Caching and then under File System adjust the Playback I/O Buffer Size to 1024.  Do the same for Record I/O Buffer Size. Let's see if that takes care of the issue.
-DG

Have you downloaded and run DPC Latency Checker and/or LatencyMon?
 
Run these with Sonar NOT running, just to get a feel for your system's base ability to handle streaming audio.  You may find some spikes that could be from one or more of your background services or device drivers.
 
Sometimes, folks experience drops and such from things like antivirus software running while using Sonar, or they have wireless adapters enabled (they seem to wreak havoc on latency at times).
 
What are your reported latency values in Preferences?
 
Do you experience these drops and crackles when there are no effects loaded into a project?  (you could start a new project and import a song file - MP3 or WMA and see if it plays back with no issues).
 
Additionally, you could take one of your problematic projects and try hitting 'E' on your computer keyboard to toggle off/on the Bypass All Effects function in Sonar.  If after bypassing all effects your dropouts and crackles go away, that means that one or more of your plugins are causing the drops/crackles.
 
Here is the link to DPC Latency Checker - it's free and FABULOUS:
 
http://www.thesycon.de/deu/latency_check.shtml
 
And here is the link for LatencyMon:
 
http://www.resplendence.com/latencymon
 
Also, please list your settings for the following:
 
1.  Sample Rate in Sonar
2.  Record Bit-Depth in Sonar
3.  Reported latency values in Sonar
4.  Driver Mode in Sonar
5.  Sample Rate for your audio interface
6.  ASIO Buffer Size for your audio interface (sometimes expressed in number of samples)
 
Please review the above, run the latency detecting programs, and post back, including providing the requested information.
 
I am hoping we can get this sorted out for you, 
 
Bob Bone
 

Thank you all for trying to help me with this problem, really appreciate this forum and its active members and moderators.
After trying all of the advice you provided above, I think I narrowed it down to some of the HHDs that seem to struggle with the amount of streaming of data. I am not sure completely but at least it seems as one of the factors (maybe?).
The other thing I did that eliminate some unexpected crashes and at the same time minimized the pops and clicks was to uninstall the creative internal sound card drivers and software. I usually don't use it (using the RME ASIO) but for some reason Sonar became much more stable after removing these drivers from the system altogether.
 
Here is the info of the system:
1.  Sample Rate in Sonar: 88200
2.  Record Bit-Depth in Sonar: 32
3.  Reported latency values in Sonar: input (12.3 msec) output (12.7 msec) total roundtrip (25.0 msec)
4.  Driver Mode in Sonar: ASIO
5.  Sample Rate for your audio interface: 88200
6.  ASIO Buffer Size for your audio interface: 1024
 
By the way, adjusting the playback and record I/O buffer size did not make any difference.
So now I am starting to think that it is probably not an X3 specific problem, but maybe a hardware one.
I will test for some more and report back..
 
Thanks again.