soundblaster audigy sonar 8

and even in 16 bit it seems noisy.  hum etc

most of the SB cards would not run 24bit simultaneous recording and playback, so sonar would not allow it to be set to 24bit.  even tho SB claims "24bit" on the marketing hype, they didn't mention that it was 24bit playback OR 24bit recording, but not simultaneous - 16bit only in simultaneous.

My old DAW was a Q6600 machine.  I upgraded my computer to a new system - completely upgraded everything including the case.  so I put my Q6600 in another room to serve as a backup.  but the only soundcard I have available for it was the onboard soundcard or an SB card (I don't remember the exact model).

I had to use ASIO4ALL to get it to work correctly, but it does work correctly using ASIOALL in sonar.

If your still there, I just re read your first post , do you have the soundblaster mixer set to "what you hear", that would create the loop.

it is still pciking up some hum somewhere not terrible but not ideal  I make sure I am not too close to the monitor.  could my reciever being next to the montior cause it.

I didn't know that about ASIO4all.  this isn't on my laptop.  I was probably not clear with what I said.  I cant get sonar to run for crap with that laptop.  with or without the asio4all.  but it is running on the old xp2500  just a little noisy   no crackle in the audio though just some hiss and hum

k  I just put sonar 8 back on thsi computer and I cant get it to record in 24 bit.  The card is supposed to be 24 bit.  If set sonar at anything above 16 bit in audio options the channel meter goes right to being pegged in the red on the channel/track.  any ideas?  it is on its own irq  windows xp sp3  I have disabled onboard sound

No not a ground loop but an audio loop. When you said above that it pins the meters this was my first reaction. This can happen when you use "what you hear"
But now I'm confused, Are we talking about a Laptop or a Desktop??

When you said SB Audigy I assumed it is this model ( the same as mine) we are talking about. Or??

well it is working ok at 16 bit.  When I get bad hum is when I am plug something into my mackie 1402vlz mxer such as a direct out from a line 6 amp while the computer audio outs are plugged into mixer.  If I unplug the computer I dont get as much hum.  Nor do I get it  bad when the computer itself is plugged into the mixer.  So the chain is this.
Mixer outs LR are going to a tape in on my reciever, This is a good onkyo 3 pin plug grounded reciever.  everything is going into the same wall outlet.  there are a few power strips involved. computer audio outs are plugged into one of the stereos channels on the mixer.  that is when the hum really starts thoif I have the line 6 plugged into another channel.  If I unplug the line 6 or the computer audio outs the hum reduces quite a bit.  gotta be somekind of a ground loop.  I also get it on my other computer with the same mixer. 

you could look into a transformer isolator to try to eliminate the ground loop.  I do not recommend a simple 3 to 2 prong adapter.  those can be dangerous.  they are useful only for troubleshooting, do NOT leave one in the circuit permanently.

I'd also check your power strips.  one of them may be a culprit.  anything can be a culprit - even the "really onkyo 3 plug reciever" - ground faults can happen internally.

thanks.  I dont think the hum is the sound card.  I get hum with the same mixer on a different computer that has a delta 44.  I guess ground loop is a different topic.  Thanks again.

that is interesting about the mackie.  I dont think this one is quite that old.  i would guess it is around 2003 or so. I have ground lifted everything.  but lots of good points there.  thank you very much

Sorry to dig up an old thread, but I just installed a SB Audigy RX into my new computer yesterday, and tried using it with Sonar X3, so this seemed like a relevant place to ask my question.... 
 
First of all, regarding what the OP said about 16 bit, I experienced the same thing.  The card says "24 Bit", but when I opened Sonar, it said it had to switch to 16 bit since 24 bit isn't supported.  At least now, after reading this thread, I know why.  For my purposes, honestly, 16 bit is fine.  I'm not a pro, this is purely a hobby to pass the time, and I do entirely MIDI stuff, using softsynths, so I'm not trying to record external audio or anything. 
 
However, the problem that I AM having is that I keep getting a crackling sound during playback.  It comes and goes, but it's there.  Anyone know what might be causing that?  (I know the obvious answer is, "Your cheap sound card is causing it," and maybe that's true, but I've ALWAYS used cheap SB cards, and never had any crackling before.  In the past, I worked with Sonar 4 and Sonar 6.  This is my first time using X3, so I'm wondering if maybe there's some difference I'm not aware of in terms of settings.) 
 
 
 

It's crackling because it can't keep up... Depending on the chipset used,and if you are technically inclined, Google kxproject drivers

It was a lifetime ago, but the old Audigy's had some ... problems.  I think there was a 16/24 split between in and out (playback of 24 bit material, not recording).  And the old emu engine used 48 KHz and resampled for 44.1, which produced artifacts.  either of those could be the problem, or maybe not.  This was over 10 years ago when I learned that stuff.
 
@

In the old days some of the fixes for noise were turn off virus scanners, turn off all power management schemes, turn off Windows system sounds, turn off screen savers and wallpaper, ensure that you have the latest audio drivers for the interface and OS, etc.
With modern computers that have huge hard drives and boatloads of memory, I don't know if any of these are applicable, but you can try them.
I once had a Sound Blaster Extigy which advertised 24 bit but didn't discover that 24 bit only worked with the S/PDIF input until I hooked it up.