I have a new DAW system I build that I have been trying to chase down issues with for a couple months now. It's an 8-core AMD Win7 x64 system with 16GB of ram, SSD, and a (legit purchased and registered copy) of X2a producer, along with Reaper. My audio interface is a pair of Focusrite Saffire Pro40s (with Digimax LT hooked up via optical ADAT for an additional 8-channels). One of the reasons I built this system is to multitrack my drums (currently averaging 14 tracks).

Basically my issue is that whenever I try to track (or playback my drums, with or without effects, the audio stutters, skips, and pops. I've gone through the whole deal of compatible firewire cards (I have one on their recommended list), checked drivers, PCI latency, all that jazz. This happens whether or not I am using any VST plugins. I've even gone as far as to just remove the VST directory from Sonar's config so it doesn't even know about any of the plugins.

I try the exact same setup (with and without plugins) in Reaper and have ZERO problems. This leads me to believe that it's Sonar that's causing my issue. I'm using the 32bit version of Sonar (because of some plugins I want to use).

I've done the following:
* Messed with the Recording/Playback timing master (both leaving at default and setting to my first ADAT channel (which is on the Digimax, which is my clock source)
* toggled the 64-bit double precision engine
* toggled between Trigger/Freewheel and Full Chase Lock for the clock settings (on the sync and caching page)
* Enabled read/write disk caching
* messed with the firewire driver latency and ASIO buffer size in the Focusrite mixer (even setting both to their max/slowest setting)

It's quite frustrating now. I'm an old time Cakewalk/Sonar user (started at Pro Audio 9 and the first couple iterations of Sonar), but defected to Reaper and Ableton Live years back. When I started writing again, I remembered how much I enjoyed the Cakewalk workflow and decided to come back. I find it really frustrating that my $60 copy of Reaper is more stable (out of the box) than this $400+ copy of Sonar X2 Producer.

I'll also note that I occasionally have this problem even when using some more cpu intensive soft synths (OPX, Omnisphere, etc..). But I also run into the same issue when using the built-in Cakewalk stuff like Dimension Pro

I am just taking a stab, since I didn't read any mention of it, but are your sample/bit rate settings matching between SONAR and your interfaces? Kind regards, Living Room Rocker

Living Room Rocker


I am just taking a stab, since I didn't read any mention of it, but are your sample/bit rate settings matching between SONAR and your interfaces? Kind regards, Living Room Rocker

Yes - forgot to mention that. Both the interfaces and Sonar are set to 48k.

are you recording while auditioning?  if you are then the cache settings might be your best bet.  in prefs/audio/sync and caching pop your  i/o buffer sizes to 256.  iirc reaper uses higher buffer amounts.  make sure the rec latency adjustment just below those is showing your asio driver.  asio4all is known to hijack this field and not let go so if you have it installed, uninstall it.  under prefs/audio/playback and recording uncheck "always open all devices" and "share drivers with other programs". 


let me know if this works.

swamptooth


are you recording while auditioning?  if you are then the cache settings might be your best bet.  in prefs/audio/sync and caching pop your  i/o buffer sizes to 256.  iirc reaper uses higher buffer amounts.  make sure the rec latency adjustment just below those is showing your asio driver.  asio4all is known to hijack this field and not let go so if you have it installed, uninstall it.  under prefs/audio/playback and recording uncheck "always open all devices" and "share drivers with other programs". 


let me know if this works.

Thanks! I'll try to answer in as much detail as possible

record while auditioning... are you referring to me monitoring my drum tracks as I record? I have that turned off in Sonar (I wouldn't mind it on, but I turned it off at one point trying to make this thing work better).

Regarding the i/o buffer sizes - they are already 256. Just to test, I set the playback (record was grayed out) to 384 and restarted. It was still stuttering. 


I have never installed ASIO4All on this box. The onboard sound card has been disabled in the BIOS since before Windows was installed and no drivers were ever put on the machine. 


The ASIO Reported Latency field shows 698 Samples. I tried messing with the offset and setting it between -2 and -10 and it made no difference. 


Both checkboxes you mentioned were already unchecked.

delete your aud.ini file. make sure speaker and input devices both have the same sample rate/bit depth in windows audio then start sonar. offset can be a huge issue, so if you didn't set it back to the original value it will make a difference over time.

  hmm.. that seems to have improved the situation somewhat, but I just did a simple 16bar recording and it still stuttered a few times. I went back and checked Reaper and the disk buffer was 1200 so I set it to be that in Sonar. I closed/restarted Sonar and my existing tracks still stuttered (albeit in different spots on the track, so I'm pretty sure that the audio files themselves aren't currupted). It's getting a bit late around here for me to keep tracking drums, so I'll probably try and revisit this tomorrow. Thanks again for your help!

I was doing some reading in Cakewalk's support site and was wondering what some of you guys out there recording/playing back larger amounts of tracks were using for your disk buffer settings. They mention this:

"Try increasing your Playback I/O Buffer Size and Record I/O Buffer Size. Typically you will want to increase these settings in double increments. For example, settings such as 128, 256, 512, 1024 and 2048 are recommended."

I am going to try to set it to 2048 tonight, but I'm wondering if I should set it higher (like 8192 or something). Is there a point of diminishing returns? My boot drive is a Samsung 840 SSD, but my audio drive is a large Seagate 7200 RPM Sata 6Gbps drive.

Sonar is the only Daw Iv'e learned[and it took a while,and I really only know 20% maybe],but I have come to the conclusion "it" is finicky about computers,their setup,and to me,it's the price we pay for some of the wide ranging abilities the software has.

Although,I often wonder,why so many magazines,product advertisements,always seem to concentrate,on all the "other Daw software" sometimes? Am I missing something?

The trouble is,it's very easy to become defensive about my Sonar,as it took a chunk of my life to learn,and I feel the need to be protective of it too.

I do want to get around to learning Reaper[I have tried TWICE to get Cubase LE running,and couldn't!]but it doesn't seem like it will happen soon[laugh laugh!]

Think of it,that at least your smart enough to use Reaper!
Bob

P.S. Sometimes larger "playback buffer settings" have made things worse,it's definitely a juggling act,ATM my "sync/caching-file system "playback i/o buffer"is 256,but I have gone to 2048 at times,and then settled on 256,after mainly altering the ASIO buffer,depending on track/plug in amount.