In Sonar X3, however this was also happening in X1 and X2, when playing back anything in MME driver mode, there's initial fuzzy distortion on the whole track over the original sound that dissipates away after about a second or two.  I verified that this is not happening in ASIO mode when connected to a external FW interface, so it's not the recorded sound that's generating this, but in MME mode with onboard soundcard (Win7 Pro Ultimate laptop).  I'm only doing this to work on stuff when away from the studio.  Can't user ASIOforAll due to 88.2 recording rate, not compatible with sound card...
 
Any ideas?
 
Thanks!
 
DM

MME driver mode is an awful driver and all major sound card audio interfaces do not write drivers for MME, as it lousy.
Onboard sound cards are really not meant for use with a professional program.  Sometimes they may work and sometimes they may not.
 
CJ

Thank you and understood, however neither ASIO or WDM will work with my onboard sound card on this laptop.  Project is @ 88.2/24.  When I switch to WDM it changes the project to 88.2/16 but I can't get the audio to play.  I see meters and movement, etc. but no sound.  Outputs are renamed WaveRT or "1/2", "3/4", etc. and I'm not entirely sure how to get those to work...

Onboard sound card do not use ASIO or WDM driver modes. There are no drivers written for them from their manufacturer. so trying to use a driver mode that doesn't exist, will yeild faulty playback.
 
You can only use MME driver mode for onaboard sound card. ASIO4all is a WDM wrapper, so your card would need WDM drivers for you to use ASIO4all.
 
Have you tried wasapi(did i spell that right?)? If that doesn't work, your stuck with MME.
 
CJ

CJaysMusic
Onboard sound card do not use ASIO or WDM driver modes. There are no drivers written for them from their manufacturer. so trying to use a driver mode that doesn't exist, will yeild faulty playback.
 
You can only use MME driver mode for onaboard sound card. ASIO4all is a WDM wrapper, so your card would need WDM drivers for you to use ASIO4all.
 
Have you tried wasapi(did i spell that right?)? If that doesn't work, your stuck with MME.
 
CJ

I did try WASAPI but I get track + noise the entire time it's playing back...  This is why I've been using MME, but would like to get rid of my original problem :)

The only way to solve this is to replace your onboard sound chip with another sound chip and see if the new sound chip works. do some research and see what onboard sound chips work in programs like Sonar,. then see if it will fit in your laptop. If it does, purchase it and install it.
 
The other way to fix it is to get another laptop with a sound chip that is known to work well with programs like Sonar. 
 
Allot of laptops do not have sound chips that will perform well with professional programs as because they have not have good drivers written for them. 
 
Onboard sound chips are made for ordinary sound playback, not for DAW's
 
Do some research and see what laptops have the sound chips that will work. 
 
CJ