Hi All,

I'm hoping you can help me get this great piece of software running smoothly. I am getting pops, crackling and static after running sonar x1 for more than a few minutes or when I add in audio tracks and record (or when I add in soft synths).

My computer:

Dell Studio XPS 7100
AMD Phenom II X6 1045T Processor 2.7 Gz
8G Ram
Operating System: windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit
Integrated sound card - I believe it is a Realtek ALC887 HD Audio
Using Sonar X1 - 64 bit version
I am using the latest drivers from http://www.asio4all.com/ v2.11 beta

I did a complete factory reset a while back and did not install any games or any software beyond AVG antivirus, Audacity and Sonarx1.  I went through a variety of resources on the web and some posts here on the forums and have done some preliminary work to try to resolve these issues:

1.) updated sonar x1 to the current version x1d
2.) downloaded http://www.thesycon.de/deu/latency_check.shtml and saw some spikes, I disabled my lan card which gets my average latency into the green with no spikes.
3.) ran the windows troubleshooter and removed a large number of unnecessary programs at startup.
4.) adjusted visuals effects for best performance
5.) updated sonar preferences to play tails when stopped
6.) under c:\ properties, unchecked allow files on this drive to have contents indexed.
7.) updated my bios
8.) updated my sound card drivers
9.) update my chipset
10.) changed energy settings to the computer never sleeps and that usb suspend is disabled, updated minimum processor state to 100%
11.) in device manager turned off “allow system to turn off usb”
12.) downloaded and installed a hot fix for cpu spikes related to usb audio devices http://support.microsoft.com/kb/981214
13.) reset my asio4all setting and adjusted the rates from 512 to the highest. Here is what my settings are currently: http://i.imgur.com/0rZT1ct.png
14.) confirmed that system sounds are turned off
15.) adjusted playback and recording i/o buffer size to 2048.
16.) defragged my hard driver

The good news is that Asio drivers and turning off my wlan card resolved midi latency issues I was having.

The bad news is that I still have pops and crackles in my audio and I’m not sure what to do. Any ideas on how I can resolve this? I tried to include all the applicable info here, please let me know if you need any more info.


(edit: edited link to go directly to image)

Integrated sound card - I believe it is a Realtek ALC887 HD Audio

I am using the latest drivers from http://www.asio4all.com/ v2.11 beta

This is the problem. You need to invest in an audio interface and use true ASIO driver mode.

Tell us what kind of budget you have and what you are trying to do with Sonar and we can help you find something that fits.

Welcome to the forum.

I have access to an older Sound Blaster Audigy2 ZS which I believe supports ASIO drivers.


I'm mainly trying to record vocals or guitar, one at a time. I don't see needing more than 2 inputs in the near future. This is all for recording a solo project one track at a time.


I use a ton of soft synths like Z3TA+.


My budget is $200-$300.

+1 Beepster. Sorry on board sound chips and most cheap internal cards are not the way to go (you are generally flogging a dead horse in getting it to work). Also go into the BIOS and disable any CPU power saving features you may have.
 
(Edited for corrections)

You can definately try the soundblaster to see what happens but I don't think you will get very far with that I'm afraid (maybe worth a go). You really need to buy the right gear for music recording. People here will give you some budget suggestions no doubt later on in here. Decide whether you want to go firewire or USB or indeed PCI.

You will probably need to do some research youself here as well for your needs. 

Since you use a lot of Synth's, one thing you can do is try freezing all of your tracks. That will free up a lot of system resources.

The problem with onboard sound cards is they use your CPU, they don't have a dedicated processor like a USB or a PCI audio card does.

To get you by until you get a dedicated sound card, I would try freezing all of my tracks, then try to record ... it may just get you by temporarily.

I used an audigy years ago.  It worked.  creative does put a bunch of crap on your system which may or may not affect performance.  But it sounded fine.  Be sure and check to make sure whether or not it uses the 48 khz emu chips.  If it does, you need to only work at 48 kHz samplerate.  The chip will "recalculate" in real time but w/ various artifacts - none of them good.  I have a bunch of old LPs I recorded w/ it to 44.1 for CD comps, and all the songs have a quiet but definate click in them.

But a rektek card and what not ain't built to handle recording, but playing back in low rez any sound your computer makes - beeps, music, video sound at all different rates.  That will screw up a sound card, so use the right tool to hammer, not your head.

Freezing tracks a la Bub is a good idea.  I had a 386 PC that could stream all kinds of audio at once (from a second hard drive) but anything that took CPU (reverb/synths) caused it sllooowwww down to a crawl.

@

electrofolk


I have access to an older Sound Blaster Audigy2 ZS which I believe supports ASIO drivers.


I'm mainly trying to record vocals or guitar, one at a time. I don't see needing more than 2 inputs in the near future. This is all for recording a solo project one track at a time.


I use a ton of soft synths like Z3TA+.


My budget is $200-$300.

Cool. Although you could try messing around with that other card if you have that $200-300 in your budget to spend then I personally would recommend snagging a nice USB interface. Fortunately you can get decent ones for what you need in that price range.

A few popular ones that many of our users here have working on their system are:

M-Audio Fast Track Pro: Approx $250. Has two multi ins (XLR, line, Instrument) as well as MIDI i/o. Kind of plasticky and the pres aren't as nice as some but M-Audio is a very popular brand and that unit works with Sonar.

Focusrite Scarlett series: Approx $150-$300. There are three models (as far as I remember). The 2i6, the 8i6 and the 18i6. I own the 18i6 and it's in the $300 range. The 2i6 and 8i6 are the same unit but with less inputs but the same mic pres which sound great. These would more than cover your needs. They aren't super low latency but if you optimize your system properly you won't notice.

Presonus: Approx $100 and up. I haven't really looked into these much but they are rather inexpensive and some of the other users here seem to like them so they're worth a look as well.

Other brands to look at are MOTU and Roland (who owns Cakewalk) but they are generally higher end devices and cost more. However if you only need minimal inputs you might be able to pick one of those units up for around $300.

I will however highly recommend the Scarlett units because I personally own one, have dealt with their support and I think it's just great for the price. I'll also point out that if you get the Scarlett 8i6 you get a neat loopback feature that let's you record directly from other programs like a web browser without any extra cables. Mine doesn't have that and I don't think the 2i6 does either.

These are all USB based devices. Obviously there are PCI and Firewire units which with the proper system tend to be better BUT... because they rely on specific components within your system if your system does not have the correct chipset or motherboard layout they can cause you tons of problems.

If you choose a firewire device be sure to research what owning a Texas Instruments firewire chipset means for audio production. If you choose a PCI device make sure you understand the difference between "bridged" and "native" PCI support. These topics pertain to how your motherboard handles the info coming in from your interface and if your motherboard can't handle it... well you want to avoid those devices.

I'd say just look at the USB stuff because it is much simpler to deal with and it's easier to move the interface from system to system. Also there REALLY isn't much chance you are going to need the benefits of those other types of connections with what you want to do.

Hope that helps. Cheers.

Also try disabling the antivirus when you are using Sonar, that's a common piece of optimization advice given for most DAW's. 

Thanks guys for all the tips, from freezing tracks to turning off my antivirus.

Beepster thanks for the tips on the sound cards. I like the idea of an external USB sound card like the scarlett. Funny thing is that a guy was trying to sell me one back when I was buying a new controller and some monitors - I guess I should have listened.

I remember there was a weird problem with the audigy - i had trouble recording audio in so I'd rather just go the route of the new card and hopefully save future headaches.