Ooops... the 2i2 doesn't have those old school MIDI din connectors. If you need those then take a look at the 8i6 or the M-Audio Fast Track Ultra. 

Beepster


Be careful with those PCI cards. Make sure your motherboard has NATIVE PCI support... not Bridged PCI support. 

Is this configurable for every motherboard or is it fixed by design? I got an Asus P5B-MX. 

Is this configurable for every motherboard or is it fixed by design? I got an Asus P5B-MX. 

Nope. You'd have to contact ASUS to see how your board is set up but it is probably bridged. That said I have an old legacy based PCI interface that was causing problems due to my new MOBO being a bridged connection. After doing some system optimization for audio (what Bill was talking about) it started working better.

  However considering that card is $70 you really should just save up a little more and get an external USB interface. That Audiophile doesn't look very handy as far as connections. Also with a USB interface you can easily move it to another system if you want. 

I used to use a p5b with my system. It will use a pci audio card just fine. I used M-audio delta cards and an Rme Raydat with it no problem.

@Tom... Sure if the system is powerful enough and you aren't trying to do really intensive stuff. But considering it would only be another $70 to get something with pres, is USB connected, has good drivers that are updated frequently (M-Audio is notorious for dinking around as far as drivers go) and is known to be solid with Sonar on most set ups I'd say that's worth it.

This is really where knowing your system specs would be helpful, Funk Loop.

I just mix down wave files with Sonar. 

And Sonar just does an incredible amount of math operations in order to get the gazillions of numbers (samples) in a bunch of data files (audio stream) to "add up" to a final output. The more math you ask it to do (plugins are not devices they are computer programs that do their own math) the more likely you are to take too much real time to process the data. When there is not time to run all the numbers before the data is sent out, then there is a break in the data stream until the computer catches up. 


One mechanism that programmers use to prevent this running dry phenomenon is to use a cache or buffer, that saves data in memory and releases it as needed. Increasing audio buffers in Sonar may help with your problem.

Beepster


@Tom... Sure if the system is powerful enough and you aren't trying to do really intensive stuff. But considering it would only be another $70 to get something with pres, is USB connected, has good drivers that are updated frequently (M-Audio is notorious for dinking around as far as drivers go) and is known to be solid with Sonar on most set ups I'd say that's worth it.

This is really where knowing your system specs would be helpful, Funk Loop.

Again, I have chosen the MME driver setting in Sonar, that is the reasons for poor performance, I am 100% aware of that. 
I want to use the WDM driver setting, but before I buy another soundcard (so I can use the WDM setting) I am considering my current options. 

You have no "current" options. Get a proper audio interface and be done with it.

Sonar deserves it. 

Your choice of using the MME mode in SONAR is your decision. The soundcard you are using supplied drivers for other modes too. SONAR does not write the drivers, it only interacts with the one you select. MME is the worst performing choice you have available.

scook


Your choice of using the MME mode in SONAR is your decision. The soundcard you are using supplied drivers for other modes too. SONAR does not write the drivers, it only interacts with the one you select. MME is the worst performing choice you have available.

I know, WDM is the way to go, if I need a new card than be it. No problem with that, but not without investigating some other options.