Angus - it still leaves questions as to what is configured, we cannot see what is plugged in at the time you are either running diagnostic tests or when you are doing your audio processing.

So, for the moment, let's try to tackle one interface at a time.

Please for the moment remove your M-Audio card from your system, and disable your Realtek on-board sound, then set your default audio device to be your Line 6 UX2.

Once that is done, please then detail your results running DPC Latency Checker outside of Sonar, and also running it while Sonar is running.

Additionally, please detail your settings for the Line 6 UX2 interface at the time of the above tests. (We need to know Sample Rate and ASIO Buffer Size)

We also need to know what the Sample Rate is set to in Sonar, and the reported Total Round Trip latency for Sonar being configured for the Line 6 UX2 interface.

Could it also be possible that dropouts are occurring due to some project's use of plugins?  Sometimes certain plugins can cause dropouts and issues - look ahead processing or CPU-intensive plugins meant for mastering are often the cause for tracking issues.

The above should eliminate confusion for us as to what is running on your system, and perhaps we can figure out how to help reduce any latency on your system.

Bob Bone

Thanks for the reply. I disabled the M-Audio and Realtek in Device Manager, checked the UX2 was my default sound device and ran DPC Latency checker. It started off a bit all over the place but after a couple of minutes with the system idle, rumbles along at 21us. I then played an mp3 file using Windows media player (No Sonar involvement) and it was horrible with lots of dropouts, and DPC showed a continuous latency of around 5000us. Then I ran Sonar and played some music I'd produced with it, and its up around the 3000 us mark, sometimes peaking every 3 seconds or so. I have tried various settings but currently the UX2 settings are 512k buffer, 16 bit - bit depth (44100 Hz).

OK - so this is some progress.

The fact that an MP3 file through Windows Media Player produces the dropouts indicates some sort of problem with the system itself.

I am not sure if it is enough to just disable the M-Audio device - I would like to ask you to physically remove that PCI card for testing purposes, then running the Windows Media Player test again, to see if the physical presence of that PCI card is causing any latency problems.

So - please if you don't mind, run the above test and post back with the results.

Don't be too discouraged - you have made some progress, by determining that the issues are external to Sonar, so now it is a matter of finding the actual culprit.

Bob Bone

Darn, I thought you might say that.  :)


I am a bit out of my comfort zone pulling bits out of my pc, and my eyesight doesn't help.... but okay, I will give that a go (and thanks for your continued interest). Will you be on the forum over the weekend, or shall I do this on Monday morning. The earliest I can attempt it is this evening (Friday).


Thanks again.

I will be on through the weekend, checking every 2-3 hours for much of that time.

That article link posted above by Fog is pretty nice, give that a good read too.

Are you plugged into a USB 2 or USB 3 port with the Line 6?

Bob Bone

A few things to consider

First The UX2 is USB 1.0 and that will have an impact on your latency depending on the amount of tracks you are playing back.

Second For this reason you should get a better latency from your m-audio device. As an experiment try to record a few tracks using your m-audio card and use Pod Farm or Gearbox as a plug-in. If your latency problem is still there then it is the system and not the UX2. If your latency issue is gone then the problem is the UX2 itself

Make sure that the M-audio device is selected in sonar and everything else is not selected. Use ASIO drivers only. Those drivers will only allow you to use one device at a time. You will still need to leave your UX2 plugged in to unlock Gearbox or Podfarm so you can use it as a plug-in.


To use Pod Farm or Gearbox as a plug-in copy the dll files from the default line 6 folder into the default cakewalk vst folder

This should address your issues and you will still be able to use Pod Farm or Gearbox on your guitar tracks. If you still want to use your UX2 then the default settings are 512k buffer 16 bit 44.1 sample rate for lower latency. Use Pod farm or Gearbox outside of Sonar and not as a plug-in if you are plugging in through the UX2.

Disabling a device in device manager should turn it off. You should not need to pull the card. go to the control panel and open up your Sound icon (assuming you are using windows 7). If you see your m-audio device in there then it is not disabled. If it is not in there then the M-audio card is disabled. 

  Okaaaaaaaay........... I physically removed the M-Audio card, and right away a significant improvement was evident. You can listen to the music without cringing at the dropouts. On DPC latency checker it rolls along around 100 us with spikes every few seconds sometimes up to 500 or 1000 us. Sometimes you'll get a cycle every 4 or 5 seconds of these spikes, sometimes the interval is different. This broadly describes the performance in Sonar and playing an .mp3 with Windows Media Player, although during my test, the average latency was a bit higher using Windows Media Player - but it is highly variable. It is a big improvement though. Thanks. What are your thoughts? PS Can I also thank Fog, Marcus, Kev et al for their input. Fog, I wasn't too clear on the technical side of the article but I have ordered a pci usb board.

_Angus_

...I have ordered a pci usb board.

If you need a USB expansion card, get PCI-e not PCI, unless it's only to connect less-critical devices like mouse and keyboard.

  Right, well, the pci usb card didn't improve things at all, any further thoughts, chaps?

What was the UX2 connected to before you added the expansion card? It's normally best to connect it to a regular USB2 port on the back of the computer.