OK, it doesn't explode but audio sure is noisy!

I have a small laptop that I use for live gigs and I have used it for years with a Echo Indigo DJx soundcard which so far has worked rather well. The lap top is some dual core thing with Win 7 X64. Nothing is hooked up and internal audio device is disabled.


I have just reinstalled everything, trying to clean up the mess I've made of the system and there's not much installed besides Sonar, neccesary drivers and some utilities. I have always used it with ASIO drivers but when pressing space I get this insane crackling in the sound. It's useless. No matter what I set the buffers to it  starts crackling like there's no tomorrow. I tried WDM and it wouldn't even play along at all no matter what I did in the audio preferences. So I tried MME and it sounded fantastic. So apparently there's no physical issues with the audio card and the files are fine. 

Does anyone have simmilar expreience with Sonar and the Echo Indigo? And did you do something special to fix it? I'm all out of ideas. 

Please ask questions if something is unclear... which it probably is. 

Thanks! 

I have no idea what causes it.

I think it's a Sonar bug. Sometimes after recording a track (mostly MIDI), I do the usual necessary editing and then hit play to listen to what I just did and I get this horrendous blast out of the speakers that won't stop until I hit the spacebar again.

I use an RME audio interface that comes with TotalMix - a mixer outside of Sonar and I see the "Software Playback" meter clipping at +90dB sometimes even higher. Thank heaven for the audio interface that has an internal cut-out / limiter.

Usually though, just exiting and re-opening Sonar resolves the issue that's why I'm guessing it's a Sonar issue, not Windows.

Hey Samhayman!


Thanks for that. This is weird indeed. Perhaps some bug. But, once again, since posting the first post I restarted the machine and Sonar and was able to successfully set it up with WDM drivers. Now it works perfectly - at least so far. 

I only use it for playback. If I need to perform I'm using something else but Sonar has been rock solid for years as a playback device on this machine. 

But I'm quite confused now, why did it suddenly work after fiddling around with it for so long?! I hope it remains that way. 

I too think it's a Sonar issue. Everything Windows play back sounded good. 

go figure

You know, this sounds wierd,  but just about everytime I load a new app on a machine i have problems for a while and then things settle down. Sometimes I think software and hardware have to get to know each other.    

He he Jimbo, you may be right. It sure seems like it sometimes

I kept silent about this for years coz I thought I was crazy to think that :) but now that you guys mention it, yes! I've had countless occasions where I install something and every goes haywire, then the problem vanishes into thin air after a while... crazy stuff! :)

Perhaps its the ghost in the machine?

Hi ,
sure the ghost in the machine is responsable. In this case only a vodoo-cleaning ritual will help to get rid of that ........
Back to topic .
If your set runs for years without any dropouts and you didn´t change the hardware,there must(?) be a software-reason.
Have you received any updates shortly before this dropouts a.s.o. appeared ?
Did you use this laptop for the internet ?
Did you change your  connector cable to an unbalanced one,good cables ?
Any driver update of the soundcard?
Good luck
Pragi 

I don't think its a bug. Crackling is usually caused by your computer or soundcard not being able to process the audio information fast enough. 

You should not be using MME mode. You need to use ASIO mode. Make sure you have the latest driver for the Echo Indigo. In the Indigo's control panel, set the ASIO buffer to 256 or 128 samples, whichever gives the best results. 

daveny5


I don't think its a bug. Crackling is usually caused by your computer or soundcard not being able to process the audio information fast enough. 

You should not be using MME mode. You need to use ASIO mode. Make sure you have the latest driver for the Echol Indigo. In the Indigo's control panel, set the ASIO buffer to 256 or 128 samples, whichever gives the best results. 

Do you really think someone who joined this forum 8 years ago, and has nearly 3000 posts needs to be told the bleedin' obvious.