I am experiencing very frequent dropouts when trying to do pretty much any playback in Sonar using my new Mackie blackbird.
 
I'm running windows 7 and Sonar 8.5.3 and I have up todate mackie drivers.
 
Is anyone using a blackbird similarly?  If so, are you have the same problems or can you tell me how you have it set up?
 
thanks

Jackel


I am experiencing very frequent dropouts when trying to do pretty much any playback in Sonar using my new Mackie blackbird.
 
I'm running windows 7 and Sonar 8.5.3 and I have up todate mackie drivers.
 
Is anyone using a blackbird similarly?  If so, are you have the same problems or can you tell me how you have it set up?
 
thanks

I am having the same problem. Up to date drivers on everything. Brand new custom built PC. Music plays fine in media player. Sonar 8.5 up to date. Have tried every possible setup I can think of. I have disabled all hardware that is not needed to run sonar. I have adjusted buffer rate from 64 to 1024. I have dropouts when playing complete silence in Sonar! I am losing my mind! I run a pro studio and am out of business until I can get this resolved. Please help!!!
 
windows 7 64bit
Intel dh55tc mobo
Intel i5 3.33ghz cpu
4gb ddr3 ram
mackie onyx blackbird sound card
rosewill pci-e firewire card

Using Sonar 8 PE I run two Mackie Blackbirds with an older laptop (intel 3ghz and win xp) to capture 16 concurrent audio tracks in our rehearsal studio for mix down at home on a quad core desktop pc (audio data captured on the fly to an external usb conntected maxtor 500gb hard drive )....This works pretty well though get some audio glitches/artifacts. I haven't found buffer/cache settings to fix the issue yet so could use some advice. Of note is that I previously had two Onyx 400F interfaces for the same config (16 tracks/maxtor drive) which worked flawlessly until one of the units fw card died and couldn't repair.

Have also tried the two blackbirds with my Win 7 quad core laptop but get constant drop outs (no audio glitches though)....

I'm very interested if you've solved the drop out issue on the win 7 platform.

Thanks

mackie's drivers have been notorious for being horrible.  I know some people have resolved the problem by purchasing 3rd party drivers by CEntrance.  google it - I think the drivers were about $35 last I knew.

Thanks for the tip Beagle...Is it your view then that the issue is with the drivers and not other settings in Sonar?

Thanks!

I don't mind trying to help you with settings in sonar to verify.  I just know that a lot of people had problems with the mackie drivers.

are you trying to use WDM or ASIO driver mode?  I don't know for certain if the blackbirds will work in tandem in ASIO mode or not.

what are your reported latency settings in OPTIONS>AUDIO?

Thanks again Beagle...

I'm using ASIO as the BBs only provide 2 channel operation in WDM and I need 16. Plus, I've always had good luck with ASIO in the past. 


I've been unable to change the latency settings through the audio options tab in Sonar (can't move the slider). I have been able to make adjustments to larger buffer/higher latency through the Blackbird Control program..Currently running at the highest setting in the BB control panel and still getting the drop outs...I'm not aware if there is a way to allow Sonar to make the latency changes (as I was able to with the Onyx 400F units I was using)...


I have not done any optimization of the win 7 laptop for audio (tho I have disabled the anti virus when recording)....


One factor I've been considering though is that I had turned off the waveform generation when recording on the other laptop to save system resources and haven't made this change on the win 7 laptop...Not sure how much of an impact this has...


Any thoughts?

right - the slider only works for WDM and MME driver mode, not for ASIO.  when you're in ASIO driver mode you HAVE to change the latency settings in the soundcards' software.  SOME soundcard software won't change properly unless you close sonar, but it's supposed to be able to be changed when sonar is open and you click on the ASIO button at the bottom of that window.

what waveform generation are you talking about?

as far as "optimization" the only thing I did in win7 was disable the UAC (I would have done that regardless of whether it was my DAW or not - I HATE that controlling crap!)

One issue may have been that I didn't restart sonar after changing the buffer setting in BB control.

Waveform Generation - there is a way to disable having sonar generate the graphic waveform on your audio tracks while you are recording...(it does it after recording = and can take quite a while if its a long recording session). Its on the Global Options General tab as Display Waveform Preview While Recording...

I haven't touched UAC yet though I did find a reference today in the Mackie documentation which advised to disable wireless adapters which I plan to try when my band rehearses tomorrow..We've been recording all our rehearsals and I've found it very helpful in getting everyone on the same page as to areas that need attention (esp when learning new material).

Any other suggestions?   BTW, I enjoyed your website...good info and tunes!

Yeah, Mackie has a great reputation with their hardware... and terrible reputation with their drivers.

That said, make sure you do all the optimization tweaks for DAW use.  Here's a good guide:

http://support.presonus.c...indows-vista-windows-7

(Disabling the power management in the BIOS - ie. Speedstep, C1E, etc - is especially important).