Hey everyone, So I've been using sonar Le for a while now ,but only recently have I needed to use the input monitoring, so I have played around with the sample rate to decrease latency. I use a samson c01u condenser mic. When it's at the fastest sample rate in Sonar LE in audio settings it's still to slow (as in I notice a very large delay in between when I start singing and when it stops). So from reading around it may be my soundcard is too slow? I have a realtek high definition sound card. I honestly don't really know what else it could be considering it works fine on my macbook pro in GB(garageband) with no delay at all when using input monitoring. I would be using the mac instead of my pc but my macbook isn't working atm. So any tips or advice on soundcards would be appreciated. Cheers, Chris.

What on earth do you mean by "fastest sample rate" ???
What driver mode are you using?

Your  USB mic is as a soundcard as well. Using two soundcards usually causes timing problems. If you get a proper soundcard, you need a normal mic instead of the Samson. The USB mics are known to cause a lot of head scratching, partly because the most effective and recommended driver, ASIO, can only use one soundcard at a time.

THere's a sticky about these USB mic on this very forum. Maybe you'll find some help there.
But in general, the USB mics just don't cut it in DAW work.

If you don't mind, my curiosity is urging me to ask what version of Sonar came with your C01U and what mic stand came with it? I keep seeing videos and images of people with this one mic stand type (the name of which I can't remember) and it even says in the manual to mine that it comes with this addon, but all I received was this really shoddily-designed spider tripod that bends the wire no matter which way you set it down. (Thankfully, I now have an actual mic stand for standing up and recording vocals, so I don't have to use it anymore) Also, maybe they just upgraded later, but my C01U came with Sonar 4, but I think I've seen some people say it comes with versions as recent as X1. Again, they may have just upgraded though. Also also, while I'll agree with Kalle Rantaaho that you should definitely invest in a better microphone when you have the chance, I find that C01U will work fine depending on your own methods and styles of recording. But then, I have yet to get anything out to show you, and I'm by no means a professional, so maybe it's just me. EDIT - After a quick Google search, the microphone stand in question looked like this:

 @Kalle Rantaaho: Sorry what I meant was that I increased the 'buffer size' to the fastest available on Sonar LE to decrease latency on the mic, but when I increased to make it faster it sounds unbearable (really distorted) and there wasn't a way to make the usb mic (Samson c01u) monitor the sound in near real time. I'm using MME (32 bit) driver mode as that's the only driver mode that worked for me. I'm more than likely going to trade in the samson c01u and buy an XLR input Condenser mic for vocals. Also if this doesn't paragraph properly sorry I don't know why it keeps changing.

  @Akito; Sonar LE came with my Samson C01U and I didn't receive that stand, in fact I recieved a smaller stand with no shock mount. Should I be getting a different version of Sonar if I only have LE I'd like to be able to use effects such as Reverb, Chorus ect? Cheers.

Sonar LE has Reverb, Chorus, Flanger and many more effects, so as far as that goes you're fine. Depending on what you hope to achieve, you shouldn't need to upgrade anything. I was just curious to see if I was the only one whose package didn't come with all the other stuff that I've seen.

Chris Grant


  @Akito; Sonar LE came with my Samson C01U and I didn't receive that stand, in fact I recieved a smaller stand with no shock mount. Should I be getting a different version of Sonar if I only have LE I'd like to be able to use effects such as Reverb, Chorus ect? Cheers.

Different hardware manufaturers have included many different LE versions with their gear. It could be SONAR 6 LE, or 7 LE, or 8 LE or X1 LE. What you got might depend on how long the box was sitting on the shelf.
 
This forum software doesn't play well with all browsers, usually Firefox, so bad formatting is common here.
I'm on IE 8.

57Gregy

Chris Grant


  @Akito; Sonar LE came with my Samson C01U and I didn't receive that stand, in fact I recieved a smaller stand with no shock mount. Should I be getting a different version of Sonar if I only have LE I'd like to be able to use effects such as Reverb, Chorus ect? Cheers.

Different hardware manufaturers have included many different LE versions with their gear. It could be SONAR 6 LE, or 7 LE, or 8 LE or X1 LE. What you got might depend on how long the box was sitting on the shelf.
 
This forum software doesn't play well with all browsers, usually Firefox, so bad formatting is common here.
I'm on IE 8.

Hi Greg thanks for the tip, using IE for the forums now.
As to what version of sonar I'm using it's Sonar LE 8.5.1.17 not sure how recent that is.

Update to OP: I bought a condenser AKG Perception 220 XLR mic which is amazing! (retail AU$185).
So now my setup is perfect because I'm able to run this mic through my M-Audio Fast Track interface without any delay what so ever!
So anyone who owns a usb mic, if you can trade it in it's a headache having to deal with real time input monitoring.
Will also post back with a sample song of what the mic is like in here for those interested.
Trying to learn how to use effects for vocals guitar ect atm so anyone with any tips or reccommendations please let me know.
Chris.