My setup:

- Windows 7 SP1 64 Bit
- Sonar version X1d (build 533) - x64
- Axiom 49 USB keyboard
- Line 6 X3 Live as audio interface
- A smokin' new PC with a hex core i7 and 16 gig of memory

I've got a session with lots of plugins and soft synths. I select a softsynth track and I get the auto-thru light and I can hear it when I play my keyboard. I start recording. I've got like 0 latency! This system rocks. I press a key on my keyboard and I hear the synth right away. I am loving life. I record 16 or so bars.

I stop and playback what I just recorded. Sounds OK, but I want to do another take. But wait...

Now... even without the song playing... I have a huge lag between when I press a key on my midi keyboard and I hear the softsynth :-( Where did that come from?

I think all is lost... but then...

I select "Edit | Preferences...". I get the preferences dialog box. I CHANGE NOTHING! I simply click "OK".

The dialog goes away, but I get a few seconds of "spin cursor" as Sonar does... something?... then...

Lag is gone! Yay!!!! I click the record button and lay down another take. During that recording immediately after going to preferences I have little detectable latency.

ONLY...

I have to do this EVERY TIME I want to record! Every time I finish a take and press stop this lag appears, and I have to go to the preferences dialog and exit it to make the lag go away.

Anyone got any ideas?

Thanks,
Buzz

I don't know what the prob might be, this sounds like a good one to call cake support.   But you aren't alone, someone else posted the same thing a day or two ago.   Maybe you could compare notes/configs/etc, see if there's something in common...

http://forum.cakewalk.com/tm.aspx?m=2591515

I posted this same problem in both the x1 and the producer forums and know one answered. I guess it's so obscure that there is no solution. I write it off as a bug. I'll have to try your trick of opening the dialog box, however, as what I had to do was close Sonar. It's only happened to me with X1 projects.

Adjust your global MIDI buffers.

Is bigger buffer less latency, or the other way around?

bigger buffers usually mean more latency, as the buffer gets filled before it gets handed over to sonar for distribution to all the tracks where it is headed, to be recorded or drive fx or whatever.  I think that's how audio buffering works at least with ASIO and I believe windows as well.  Midi might be different within sonar.  The main thing that buffer size insures is smooth playback/recording without clicks and such or loss of samples, usually at the expense of some more latency.

If this is a buffer problem, though, it sounds more like something is not flushing or releasing the buffer at the right time (end of take), so it's contents have to be processed at the beginning of the next play/rec pass, hence the delay people are seeing - it just gets behind and stays there until somebody does something that flushes, like clicking that dialog maybe?  I don't know if different buffer sizes would stop this, but its possible.  If you could get by with a much smaller buffer, the effect would be less pronounced, but it would still be there I imagine.  If you shrink the hell out of the buffer and nothing changes at all well, it isn't a buffering problem.

It could be a Sonar bug, but since only a few are seeing it, there might be a plug or synth (or combination of things) that they all have in common and looking at that might be the best way to diagnose this.  Or call cake...

I've had it happen too. Randomly. Usually doesn't happen if the FX button is toggled to OFF. Definitely a problem.

Ya me too, Tried the buffers , that's not it. I only use TTs-1 and Session drummer 3. It's random and only in X1 for me. If I close and open it goes away, sometimes for a long time. I would like to know what causes it too.

I'm fairly certain this is a Cakewalk bug. I have the same problem. I will do a track out for Guitar Rig 5, perfectly with no lag on the software monitoring, using 256 size buffer, and I will go set up another track, and WHAM! Latency. The funny thing is that if I clone that track and don't try to set another one up for recording, I can clone 100 tracks and play back with no problem. I have a veritable super computer in my studio, which should have no problem processing a playback & record situation, but yet here it is. I've always had this issue with cakewalk, they blame everyone else, but the fact is, people that use protools don't seem to complain. I found that restarting the computer helps sometimes. If anyone else can shed some light on this, I would appreciate it as Cakewalk seems to have abandoned their customers, and just keeps putting out new versions of their software every year or two even though they haven't addressed core issues in their software. BTW my setup is as follows: Intel Core i7 3930K 6-Core CPU Windows 7 Ultimate 64-Bit 32 GB RAM w\10GB RAMDISK 6 Hard Drives, including OCZ RevoDrive 3 X2 PCIe as OS drive MSI Big Bang 2 System Board NVIDIA GFX 3GB Video Card Texas Instruments PCIe Firewire Card RME Fireface UFX Interface