Hi folks,
 
When I open up a project and hit 'play', whenever a new track begins playing, the whole project 'stutters' or 'buzzes' for a moment and then continues. I believe this usually happens with MIDI tracks.
 
I am also experiencing regular Drop Outs in my general movements around a project - particularly when zooming in on Audio very closely when the track is playing. But these drop outs tend to happen at just about any moment when playing back. 
 
Sonar freezes for a few seconds when I open a new synth.
 
When I stop playback, often the project will 'stutter' or 'buzz'.
 
Moving between screen sets often 'hangs' and I get a glimpse of a strange loading window which appears but disappears very quickly.
 
Pro Channel EQ buzzes and freezes BUT NOT ALWAYS ARRRGH! This is intermittent. I will have 1 glorious week where it's smooth and then the next week it will buzz and freeze everytime I sweep a frequency or hit the 'gloss' of filter buttons.
 
Everything just seems unpredictable and unstable.
 
What I've Done:

• I feel like I've tried everything. I've experimented with buffers on my sound card and in Sonar preferences. I've tried many combinations - Whether the two match or not doesn't seem to make any difference. Believe me, I've tried and tried. 
• I've disabled 64 Bit Precision Engine as I read a few threads that it can cause issues.
• I've experimented with different Drivers - ASIO etc... No change.
• I have spent 1 whole week of my life trying to single out any hardware/software issue on my machine that may be causing problems and found that MAYBE it was my network adaptors causing a few spikes now and again. However, with them completely disabled - no improvement.
• My projects have about 6 synths in the rack - including True Pianos, Rapture, maybe Predator or Z3TA.
• Dimension Pro just crashes EVERYTIME. Completely unusable.
• No major processing on any tracks - no look ahead plug ins etc.

Sonar just generally feels unstable. I can't trust it. I have a very powerful Audio-friendly machine with hardly ANYTHING installed on it other than Sonar. My machine should be able to EAT the projects i'm working on. Could Sonar be causing this general unstable feeling in all of my projects??
 
If someone could give me a lead - something else to eliminate - that would be much appreciated. I am determined to make Sonar X2 workable, but since purchasing it and my new machine, I have completed absolutely nothing.
 
Many thanks.
Dave
 

Try to adjust your audio interface to its maximum audio buffer size. I experience that especially when i have 5+ midi tracks with audio buffer size at its minimum. When tracking i only use 2-3 midi tracks i freeze the others thats not important and set buffers to its minimum to have the least latency then switch to max i want to listen or finish tracking.

Check the file sizes that are being written under Preferences > Files. If the files are 32 bit consider reducing it to 24 bit. Also consider turning of virus scanning. If you have a tool that is inserting itself between you and your files, that might cause some stuttering. Most virus scanning programs have the ability to bypass certain directories.

The 64 bit audio engine should probably be left on once you solve your problems you've posted here.
 
Have you used a DPC Latency checker tool to ensure you don't have spikes? Try turning off windows updates and the Windows Defender.
 
What is the CPU load on your system when sweeping frequencies causes crackle? This sounds like CPU load is causing the problem, but you say you have a beast of a machine, so... :-) idk.
 
You might also get crackle sweeping EQ Bands if you were causing clipping. So... put a track at unity so that the peaks are close to 0 then boost a freq in the EQ and you should be able to clip certain frequencies... This would be a different sound than struggling with an overloaded CPU.
 
Also, in my experience, an overloaded CPU usually drops out.

Yup... run the buffers up to give it more time to think.... also ASIO is the driver you should be using... (preferred choice)
 
Even though you think the computer should be able to "eat huge projects" you may wish to experiment with some reducing..... bounce or freeze the synths. Some of them may be using enormous amounts of processing power to keep everything running.... convert them all to audio and freeze or archive (turn off) the synths. 
 
I also noticed in your list of gear that you mentioned Melodyne. This is another one you definitely want to bounce to audio and remove. I work on it.... one instance at a time, one track at a time and when I have that track correct I simply use the APPLY FX function to print ME to the track it was in. ME is a big power hog.  Generally I work on audio vocal tracks with ME. Since I don't want the out of tune vocals (that's why I'm using ME in the first place) I do use the destructive editing of "apply FX" without fear. If I'm scared to loose the original track I will clone the track before I work on it with ME..... then I have a backup in the event something goes wrong. I mark it Original Vox track and proceed with editing the clone.
 
By converting all the synths and the big FX like ME to audio, it should be a breeze to handle the projects in audio.
 
Just my 2 cents

 
Windows 7 Pro can recognize up to 192 GB of memory, so no problem there.
 
There is a possibility that your motherboard may not actually support 32 GB.  (This one is unlikely, if you have 4 memory slots, but you can look it up quickly enough to rule it out).
 
What precise driver version do you have installed for your interface?
 
Also, what Sample Rate is specified for your audio interface, as well as what ASIO Buffer Size (or number of samples if that is how they do it)?
 
And, what Sample Rate is specified in Sonar, as long as record bit-depth?
 
Do you have anti-virus software and/or malware detection software running?
 
What does DPC Latency Checker report, for latency times?
 
If you hit 'E' on your keyboard to bypass all effects (hitting it again will turn them back on), do you still have the latency issues?
 
Bob Bone
 
 
 

posting your specs might yield better results to pin point certain issues.

THis is from the original post:
 
Sonar X2 Producer 
Rain Computer's Nimbus Z2 I7 Processor 
32GB RAM 
Windows 7 Pro 
Solid State HD
M Audio Audiophile 192 
M Audio Studiophile BX5a Deluxe's 
Edirol PCR 500 
Melodyne 
3 External HDrvs 
 
Bob Bone

(the bold was from the original poster, not I) :)
 
Bob Bone
 
 

Go into your aud.ini file and adjust your dropoutsec setting or its called something like that. Try raising it.
 
Cj