godparticle


Guys, i really appreciate the feedback, especially the separate partition suggestion. But as concerns the external thirdparty soundcard which you all seem adamant about, my own experience says otherwise; the DAW i am currently using and 'without' a thirdparty soundcard currently allows me to achieve no latency whatsoever when playing back 26 tracks of audio and pre-recorded loops and additionally still play and record softsynths in realtime simultaneously with negligible latency (near-zero). I use the WaveRT option in my soundcard preferences inside my DAW and this seems to give superlative performance; does that mean the WaveRT driver is responsible for this good performance, and will that be available to me inside Sonar, or is it my DAW that is giving me this top-notch low-latency performance, meaning, if i can get this sort of performance on my current laptop setup without a separate soundcard then why wouldn't i get the same low-latency performance inside Sonar without the need for a thirdparty soundcard.

My current Laptop specs are a second-generation i7 2.0ghz with 8 gig ram, Windows7, and inbuilt Laptop soundcard. I mix my tracks down internally so there is no need for me to worry about the cheap inbuilt soundcard converter performance. This current setup gives me next to no latency as I already mentioned.
My next Laptop which i will buy in one weeks time will be even more powerful than my current one and will have the 3rd generation (Ivy-Bridge) core i7 running at higher speed 2.2 ghz and does outperform my current one by 1500 points in the PC 3D floating-point Benchmarks, and Windows 8 is meant to be even more efficient than Windows 7 by Cakewalk's own accounts, so unless there is something wrong with Sonar's internal processing i would think that i should be fine.

Mainly i was wanting to know about optimizing an off-the-shelf laptop with Sonar, will it need any specific configuration and optimization to the Windows 8 settings, or assuming that my laptop specs are up to the task, will Sonar in most cases work fine without me needing to configure Windows.

No disrespect meant-but what is the soundcard (chip) in your current setup that lets you do things no one else can (with a motherboard sound chip)-26 audio tracks while recording softsynths and Neglible latency?
 
Frankly, because it's definitely one of a kind.
Please do not misunderstand-I would like to know what it is-.
 
The folks on here are very knowledgable. I have a powerful new laptop and the built in garbage sounds like garbage.
 
A 3rd gen i73880(number may be inaccurate, but close) Intel solid state hard drive for OS-, 3 GB nvidea graphics card, 1920 x1080 Hi def, multiple ext USB 3.0 hard drives etc, etc, etc
 
First thing I did was buy an ext audio interface because I already knew.
 
Yes you can make noise but 26 audio tracks and recording softsynths at the same time-Not gonna happen with a laptop sound chip on the motherboard. That's reality.
 
But many have tried to tell you. Of course you have to tweak the system.
 
I am not trying to be argumentative-I am just being factual
 
So I wish you luck

I agree with stratman. Not to be argumentative, but if such a laptop exists I would sure love to have one. Playback is the keyword here. If you are just loading in loops and audio that was already recorded, you can playback 100 tracks with the right latency setting. The problem comes into play when you are running 16 tracks of audio and trying to record 8 more tracks of audio while using plugins or PC modules on every channel along with Kontakt, Toontrack, 32 Waves plugins, etc. You will never get a laptop on todays market with a factory chipset that will do it. If we had access to laptop technology like that, we wouldn't be warning you about the problems to come. I strongly suggest you look farther into this before you make this purchase. I would venture to say that you will find yourself buying a great third-party interface no matter what desktop or laptop you end up buying. Again, I believe we all are saying we want the best for you. This interface issue is something you need to look at closer before you purchase anything. I wish you luck and hope that you understand we all are only trying to help.

I am heeding your warnings about this soundcard guys and thankyou, but from where i'm standing currently, it seems that swapping my DAW and buying Sonar will be akin to me being in a lovely backyard pool in Jamaica then jumping into a river full of Alligators, in terms of the scenario change from what im using now and the apparent blissful performance.

The DAW i'm using now is the first one i have ever used for making music after leaving behind Hardware synths 12 months ago, so it seems i struck it lucky. Damn, thanks for the warnings guys.

My current song is playing back 18 tracks of pre-recorded audio and loops, plus 17 tracks of midi softsynths (in realtime, on the fly) i have not rendered them to audio yet, i just leave them being played from my midi input live as i played them and everything plays back without a glitch or crackle or pop in sight, and get this, this is all with 139 effects total playing back in realtime in the effects slots. I AM NOT LYING OR GIVING MISINFORMATION< THIS IS THE TRUTH. 

Does that mean that Sonar is bit of a pig in this area, or do DAW's like Studio One and Pro-Tools and Cubase have the same problem, or maybe it is the WaveRT driver that my Audio-preferences allow me to use and the inbuilt laptop soundchip simply gets on well with it, maybe the WaveRT driver is what is responsible for this good performance and i should count myself lucky that it performs as good as anything third-party out there. 

I am currently using Mixcraft 6 Pro Studio (DAW) on a Samsung laptop (RC530) with 8 gig ram.

So the big question is...Will i have WaveRT drivers available to me inside SonarX2?? If anyone knows please kindly inform me, since it seems that WaveRT is responsible for such blissful performance. Cheers.

And this is with the internal sound card in the samsung laptop?
 
Do you really believe we are that stupid?
 
Give me a break. I am trying real hard to not be nasty.
 
But your BS is just ridiculous.
 
Hope you had fun wasting our time
 
Bye

cubase also has bugs... or else I wouldn't have also downloaded updates for it either...

get a decent interface.. regardless try running uhe-diva on an on board card.. it'll laugh at it , even with a powerful pc it does batter the cpu / soundcard. 

I never get this false economy with machines.. spend a fortune on that + software.. and skimp on the soundcard.. and the soundcard is in my case the cheapest bit , don't just assume the soundcard has to be good only  for input.    

Why don't you believe Stratman? What reason have i got to tell lies. I am a beginner matey. My main reason for starting this thread was to find-out if Windows needed special configuration for optimal performance with Sonar. I did not come in here to spout what performance i'm currently getting; that info has been in response to all you guys telling me something about Sonar that apparently i have not known and am foreign to such bad performance. 

I did not realize that Sonar was so inadequate when it comes to such things. I guess i should count myself lucky and stay with my current setup by the sounds of it. Obviously by mere logic i am assuming that WaveRT drivers will not be available inside Sonar, so maybe you guys should tell Cakewalk to stop asssuming we are all recording guitars and instruments and and thus the need for specialized ASIO drivers form a thirdparty soundcard, maybe Cakewalk should just give us a Sonar WaveRT driver option inside Audiopreferences, or is the WaveRT driver something that comes with the inbuilt RealTek soundchip inside my Samsung Laptop, i don't know about such things, like i said, i am a beginner when it comes to these things. Clearly Microsoft has actuated such a nice driver to let us achieve such good performance without the need for thirdparty soundcards, so there is no need to tell me i'm talking SH_T.

Your welcome to come to my house and see this scenario for yourself, i am not lying at all. I thought such ideal performance was just normal from DAW's, obviously i was wrong. I do have 17 softsynths playing in realtime alongside heaps of audio channels and tonnes of simultaneous effects (over 100 and nothing has been rendered to audio yet) with near zero latency to record another softsynth in realtime if i wish. Clearly Sonar is not as professional as i thought it would be, or maybe they are and i will get the same performance from Sonar if i use the WaveRT driver combined with my inbuilt soundcard, i've just been taking my fortunate and ideal recording situation for granted, and obviously didn't realize how lucky i was. There is no need to be so cynical toward me just because i am currently getting such unique and ideal performance.

so one minute your making out you just started , next minute you sound otherwise... if you are gonna troll , do be consistent...

name me one maker that advises using an onboard soundcard (realtek or otherwise) instead of one designed for the purpose  . I could do with a laugh.

I use reason also, thats forgiving to onboards... but you notice the difference when you fit something that intended for pro-audio.


go try diva with your onboard.. watch it get crushed ;-)

if you get a ferrari.. will you run it on re-treads? 

C'moon gents..
If the OP is happy with the integrated soundchip, let him be.
It's really a one-in-a-million-case, but why should anyone argue about it??

I believe, as we all do (I think), that he'll be disappointed, but if his system has run fine this far, it's OK with me.

Oh, so now i'm trolling, well according to Fog anyway. Sheesh.

Whose a beginner, someone who has been do this stuff for 10-20 years, or me, who has being doing this stuff for twelve months? So yes, i correctly stated that i am a beginner when it comes to this.

I have been consistent in what i have said all along, there's just no pleasing some people, or at least the ones that want to throw accusations at me for no good reason.

You guys are telling me that i ain't got the pro stuff and seem to be suggesting that i don't know what i'm missing, poor ole me, even though my inbuilt soundcard with the WaveRT driver is by far outperforming your so-called pro stuff. Seems there are some long-standing delusions and misnomers taking place here. Looks like you guys need to get past ASIO and try WaveRT from what i can see.

Come on Fog, you seem to be having trouble seeing through the fog. My purpose is to use softsynths only, not record acoustic instruments from the real-world. So it does seem that my inbuilt RealTek soundcard is perfectly suited for the purpose when combined with the seemingly spectacular performance of WaveRT drivers compared to what some of you have described about Sonar and dedicated ASIO performance. Looks like i better leave you guys with your 'PRO' thirdparty soundcards. Clearly you are misconstruing your assertions and just having envious cheapshots at me. I don't appreciate your vitriol when all i did was ask for some helpful information, but then everyone starts having a go at me just because their 'PRO' ASIO dedicated soundcard seems to perform like a relic compared to my inbuilt soundcard with WaveRT.

I believe i have no reason whatsoever to be disappointed; seems that i merely need to make sure my next laptop has got WaveRT drivers coded for the inbuilt soundchip and apparently that will mean i have got SUPER PRO PERFORMANCE compared to you lot. I've got the right to stand up for myself instead of standing here getting crap thrown at me.

WaveRT is not bad. Compared to the older drivers like MME/WDM, it's certainly much better in terms of latency. I've started from the era of using MME for DAW. I've used all the drivers. And ASIO still beats WaveRT. There's no competition. That's not to say in any way that WaveRT is not good. In my humble experience, it's just that ASIO is better. That's all. 

However, if by some miracle it works for you (running so many simultaneous tracks), then stay with it. Still, I will recommend at least trying ASIOforall. Quite a number of people I know used internal soundcard with surprisingly good results - using ASIOforall. It's a free download. No harm trying.

Back to your original question on the need to optimize Windows off the shelf. Well, I don't use Windows 8 so I have no experience with it. But my suggestion is still to optimize. You can squeeze a lot more power with optimizing. You'll start to appreciate it when you start using lots of plugins. What I usually do (in this order):

1. Dual boot with dedicated boot partition for DAW.
2. Uninstall all useless drivers/devices (e.g. Smartcard reader, and in the case of using an external audio interface - disable the build-in soundcard; we already know you are not going that path )
3. Uninstall all bloatware and useless Windows applications
4. Disable system restore, disable all eye-candy in Windows etc
5. Make sure Windows doesn't load useless stuff during startup - safest way is to use msconfig, but I would also use regedit to do deep registry cleaning manually (not recommended if you don't know what you are doing).
6. Many doesn't recommend this, but I would use a registry cleaner to clean out mess. JVPowertools is my standard - been using it since Windows 98 days without problems.
7. Defragment as the last step.

There are a few other tricks I would do. But the above ones are the key essentials.