bvideo: Thanks for the information. I record my band live for what we call scratchtracks. After a session we all sit around and listen to a couple songs. This is when we first noticed it. Anytime I play any of the songs they repeat the same failure of "cd skipping". The white noise is completely random and I wonder if playing with the fx is responsible for this. I have witnessed the failure when adjusting my fx and while just listening, but maybe more so while playing with fx. I only use the fx that came with Sonar...no third party stuff yet.

  Kylotan, thanks for the information. I know that I optimized for this very problem..."background" processes. I have disabled the wireless care, internal sound card etc. for best optimization. Now it is interesting you mention buffer size, as this is the reason why I may have switched to WDM. I can't change buffer size when in ASIO. Any suggestions, as I think ASIO is probably better, but I could not increase buffer size. Thanks.

  daveny5 thanks for the information. I agree with you. I will know for sure when I check it out later, as I am in the office right now. But, I think I switched to WDM so that I could control the buffer size. I will try to find the default settings when in ASIO and go back, hey it is definitely worth a try, thanks.

  didi2ns thanks for the information. Hmmm, this is confusing, as I have never had the full volume white noise without having played a song. I don't have any fx inserted that is attributed to the noise. I would have to kill the power to the monitors and then make some adjustments to the project and then re-energize the monitors to see if it made a difference. It is just that it is so loud that I am concerned about the monitors and my ears, so troubleshooting in this manner is not first on my list, but I see your point. Don't get me wrong as this is not repeatable (as of yet), so understand that the sudden full volume white noise is totally random and NOT located somewhere on a project that I can que up.

  So here is the latest. I am running in ASIO. I rebooted the Motu 8Pre. I realized that I never turn this unit off or power it down. So I powered it down and I did not hear any of the "cd skipping" problem out of the three songs I recorded. I also did not do any real mixing so I did not get any of the "white noise" drop out either, but that only happens when I start mixing levels and adding fx. What did happen that has happened in the past is this...the damn recording drops out when I am actually recording. I arm the tracks and hit record and then without warning Sonar drops out and recording stops. I reach over and click record again to resume and then there is no problem. What is going on?

Dropouts can be cause by a few things here is an article about some things you can do to fix them http://www.cakewalk.com/S...reader.aspx/2007013007

Another thing you can try is increasing the DropoutMsec in AUD.INI to 500 or 750.

Did you install Sonar in the default folder on the c: drive or on the external drive?

 Application is on internal drive or C and the projects are on the external drive...hope that helps, thanks.

  Where do I go in the menu to get to AUD.INI? This sounds like a buffer change or something, which is not available in the menu for Audio, where I select the ASIO etc. settings. In fact in ASIO mode it does not allow me to make changes to the buffer size. There is an advanced mode which I think takes me to a settings change for the Motu interface and in there I can change the settings, but it does not seem clear to me, that is, what is the correct setting. So your suggestion is completely new to me and I am not sure where to look for this change to take place or in other words for me to make the change to the settings, so please explain a little further, thanks.

The motu software would be where you would increase the buffer size (increasing the latency for recording). It has been a while since I messed with your version of SONAR, there may be a way to edit the AUD.INI via the Peferences screens (maybe in Audio > Configuration File). If not, the AUD.INI is located in your home directory. I skipped Vista so hoefully someone can be more specific. On Win7 there would be a directory under your home directory AppData/Roaming/Cakewalk. Then under your version of SONAR there is the AUD.INI.