My rig - Win7 64-bit, Sonar X2 64-bit, midi controller Kurzweil K2500XS, audio interface Focusrite Scarlet 18i8. All is set to sync from the Kurzweil. I open a new project in Sonar, load a soft synth (I've tried Dimension Pro, Rapture, and Pyramid, play around a few notes, and Sonar locks up and crashes - says it's sending a message to Cake. This same rig never had a problem in X1 - any ideas? Thanks, john

Hi - could you have a sample rate mismatch between the interface and X2?  Edit>Preferences>Audio>Driver Settings I think

I know I locked it all up with that when I AudioBox 1818 VSL was set differently than I had it set in X2.

Hope it's that simple, 

Bob Bone

I thought I had taken care of the sample rate, but I didn't do it your way. Sounds worth trying. I have X2 producer, if that makes a difference. Thanks, John

I too have X2 Producer.

That's the only way I am aware of setting it in X2.  I am assuming you have the driver mode set to ASIO?

Anyways, in the Device Settings section of Preferences, you will see sort of in the upper middle a Sample Rate, and you can pick the one there that matches whatever you have your interface set to.

Then click Apply.

Give that a review and change if needed, 

Bob Bone

OK - I went to Edit/Preferences/then set the sample rate. Before I was hitting "P", which brings up what appears to be the same screen, and entering the sample rate. When I go through Edit, etc., everything seems to work just fine. When I go through the "P", it crashes. Sounds like a bug in the software - or the devil's in my computer. Thanks, john

Well, now you have ME confused.

I was meaning to say that it is only through editing Preferences that you can change the sample rate within X2.  BOTH 'P' and Edit>Preferences SHOULD get you to the same place.

Why you burst into flames upon hitting the letter 'P' is beyond me.

I guess since you got to the sample rate that part is done, anyway.  Just pretend that whole 'P' thing never happened?

Sooooo, at the end of all of that, did you see any improvement in the outcome?  Are you able to play things without crashing now?

Bob Bone

Yes, after going through the Edit/Preferences and resetting the sample rate, everything works as it should. Very strange. In X1, I had always used the "P".

I hadn't actually meant to suggest that using the 'P' to get to preferences was to be avoided.

I had just meant that Preferences (however you get to them) was the only place to change the sample rate.

Good luck though that for whatever the reason, getting the sample rates the same was accomplished, and that it fixed your issue.

WHEEEE :)

Bob Bone

I am planning a new system. I think I'll be using firewire and will have a PCI firewire card on my PC.  How would i know what sample rate Sonar needs to be set at?

Well, it would depend on several factors, such as the capabilities of the interface itself, the horsepower of the computer, and how close to the edge you want to run.

For SURE you need to make sure to keep Sonar's sample rate the same as whatever you have your interface's sample rate set at, or you will cause audio processing problems - either bad performance, no sound, or flaky intermittent performance.

It would be probably safe to start with a setting of 44.1, bit-depth of 24, a driver mode of ASIO, and an ASIO buffer size of either 128 or 256.  You can check the total round-trip latency within Sonar (Preferences>Audio>Playback and Recording).  If all works there you could try bumping up the sample rate to 48, then maybe try 96, making sure to keep them matched between the interface and Sonar.

Once you get to a point of audio problems, simply back it back down to the highest level you can where normal processing sounds clear, without a lot of latency.

Thousands of threads have jumped into this piece of things - it's getting easier with the more powerful computers we can get now days, but can still be a giant pain to get set correctly.

There is a site, I think it is www.blackviper.com that goes into an incredible amount of detail on what Windows Services you can turn off to improve performance.  I went through a MASSIVE undertaking to set all of mine per that site, and achieved about a 2 millisecond reduction in latency.  That was, however, at the expense of being connected to the internet, and did away with my antivirus software, and I couldn't print anymore, and that sort of thing, so I just undid it and everything works fine.

Generally, a fast processor, lots of memory, and running on a 64-bit Windows 7 is a pretty safe bet, additionally going through some experimentation as indicated above, to see what you find works at an acceptable balance of it all.

Hope that helps, 

Bob Bone