Stone House Studios

19 frets


Not complaining mind you or bashing Sonar, but this seems like a real short coming to me.  I have learned to work around it, but it seems like it would be fairly easy to do and would make controlling things, especially during a live take for example, so much easier than jumping back and forth between the Sonar screens and your interface mixer screen.  Is this something that others would like to see in a future release?  

Not sure what you're after here. Basically, Sonar takes what your audio device makes available, and then puts it into an application that allows you to monitor/edit/record/sync with midi/ etc.
There is a point where you must make quality input available to the application.
 
Brian

 
Yes, and another way to see this is, how would Sonar control your analog gain level before it hits the a/d converters?
 
Now I'm curious though, is it fairly common to have only software control of you input gains? That seems alien to me as everything I've used you controlled at the analog device's knobs, and Sonar's meters indicate my record levels.
 

Vergor


Sure, no problem.

I have four I'm testing.

The one that interests me most is my Delta 1010LT for obvious reasons.

However the ASIO driver interface does not seem to control the input levels, I have posted a question to M-Audio concerning this, probably some stupid mistake I'm making.

other sound cards I will be testing are.

Sound Blaster audigy 2zs

Sound Blaster Live

and Realtek ALC662 on board sound card with what says low distortion audio design let SNR over 95db

As I sure you have guessed I want to find the card that will give me the best S/N ratio, I know I could just read the stats, but I would rather use my ears, even though the stats say one thing it does not mean they did not use low end parts on the card which could compromise the overall quality of my recording.

Vergor,
 
If you already have a Delta 1010 why on earth would you even consider Soundblaster or Realtek?

Vergor




The only way I could find to set recording levels in sonar was under console view, their was two active meters, one with a level adjustment option.

are their other places to set recording levels in sonar besides under console view or is this the only place?

I suspect you have your track inspector turned off.  Just hit the letter "I" to turn it on/off to give you the same fader option as in console view.  Click on the track and the fader will be activated for that track.

That still has nothing to do with settting input levels....

papa2005


That still has nothing to do with settting input levels....

I was just making him aware that the fader is available in track view as he had mentioned.  I wasn't addressing
the input issued as per section quoted.  Just providing a  helpful hint for available tools.

No doubt the V-Studio does what the OP wants in some way or another, but I'm pretty certain it won't be using any Sonar Code to do that.

I guess this is where something like Pro Tools makes use of closely coupled links to proprietry hardware devices.

If they don't want or have a software front end to their interface a sensible solution for the OP would be to purchase an inexpensive mixer with multiple outs.

Phil

19 frets


Not complaining mind you or bashing Sonar, but this seems like a real short coming to me.  I have learned to work around it, but it seems like it would be fairly easy to do and would make controlling things, especially during a live take for example, so much easier than jumping back and forth between the Sonar screens and your interface mixer screen.  Is this something that others would like to see in a future release?  

No.
 
Under your scheme, it would be all too easy to drive your pre-amp/interface into clipping and then drag the level down in SONAR AFTER it's clipped and you/ve ruined your signal.

Not complaining mind you or bashing Sonar, but this seems like a real short coming to me. I have learned to work around it, but it seems like it would be fairly easy to do and would make controlling things, especially during a live take for example, so much easier than jumping back and forth between the Sonar screens and your interface mixer screen. Is this something that others would like to see in a future release?

You learned to work around it? How did you do that? Perhaps you learned to set you levels via hardware just as you did with your old hardware. I don't see how Sonar or any other DAW can change the input gain on an audio interface before the audio is digitized. That is what we are talking about. I don't believe PT can either. After it is digitized its too late to set levels.

See, now I'm confused because I have been using the track inspector fader in the track view to set my record levels, yes I am new to this. 

Now I have just been having a play using my UA-101 input monitor, it seems pretty primative, but what level should it be set to? there is no VU meter just a green/yellow/red flashing light.  That seems a bit hit and miss.  the other thing that confuses me is, if I change the input signal level on the front panel of the UA-101then the track inspector fader level increases and decreases but if I increase the input monitor fader level, nothing happens in the inspector view.  please help me understand what is going.

I thought I was getting the hang of the basics......I guess not :-(

For recording in Sonar.

1, Set all faders in Sonar to unity gain.  This also means the trim controls. Unity gain is the 0 position and is not 0 dB.  This can be quickly done by double clicking on any fader.

2, Arm the track/s.

3, Play your instrument. Watch the meters. They should be set to peak. If the meters go into the red lower the input volume on the your audio interface or amp or whatever has control over volume. Do not change the faders in Sonar.

4, When all is set as above hit the record button. Record your audio.

This above is for a 24 bit recording.