Audio Options Setup - Buffer size, Dropouts, etc...

Hello friends,

I'm getting dropouts really soon after I start recording one track and I'm seeing that buffer size may be an issue.  I've tried the latency check tool and am seeing my "absolute maximum at 520us" and it's saying "this machine should be able to handle real-time audio..."

I have a quad processor system with Vista 64 and 8GB of RAM...so I'm doubting it's my system, as this machine was built specifically for music recording.

My buffer size for Playback I/O and Record I/O is set at 256 KB though...and I'm just not sure how high I should make those without doing anything detrimental.

Does anyone know of a tutorial that says what all these configurations mean and what would be the best settings to put them at?  There's so little info in the manual, it's ridiculous.  With all this software can do...I'd expect the manual to be fatter than a phone book!

Thanks, in advance, for your help!

What soundcard/interface are you using?

As to buffer size it is discussed in the Help files.

Rockofaith


Hello friends,

I'm getting dropouts really soon after I start recording one track and I'm seeing that buffer size may be an issue.  I've tried the latency check tool and am seeing my "absolute maximum at 520us" and it's saying "this machine should be able to handle real-time audio..."

I have a quad processor system with Vista 64 and 8GB of RAM...so I'm doubting it's my system, as this machine was built specifically for music recording.

My buffer size for Playback I/O and Record I/O is set at 256 KB though...and I'm just not sure how high I should make those without doing anything detrimental.

Does anyone know of a tutorial that says what all these configurations mean and what would be the best settings to put them at?  There's so little info in the manual, it's ridiculous.  With all this software can do...I'd expect the manual to be fatter than a phone book!

Thanks, in advance, for your help!

FWIW, I always recommend (and it seems to do good for most) the following:
 
1- under OPTIONS->AUDIO->Advanced (in Sonar), set playback i/o buffers to 512, record i/o to 256.
 
2- Set the audio latency (assuming you're using ASIO) via your sound cards control applet to 512 to start.
 
Those settings have worked so well for me for years - and seems have solved problems for many others.  And I'm on 32Bit XP Quad Core, 2G Ram - and I run a TON of plugins always.
You can adjust your audio card latency lower IF your system can handle it (and depending on the project load of course).  I just find 512 a good sweet spot/balance for working with a lot of plugins/Synths.   For strictly Audio you might be able to go lower if your system has the horsepower and the project doesn't starve from going lower.
 
It's possible your audio card latency is a tad too low, and I think that 256 for Sonar's playback i/o buffers just is too low in general (even though it's Sonar's default for some reason).
 
Dropouts can be caused by various things, including slow hard drive(s), IRQ conflicts, Memory issues, Video issues, etc.
And, it can also be caused by bad plugin(s), poor routing (ie, some type of loopback), and so on.
 
So try the settings above and see if that helps at all.  And also let us know what soundcard you're using.
 
If you are running an internal cheapo soundcard, go to the corner and don't come out until you promise to get a real sound card
 

Does anyone know of a tutorial that says what all these configurations mean and what would be the best settings to put them at? There's so little info in the manual, it's ridiculous. With all this software can do...I'd expect the manual to be fatter than a phone book!

There are no correct settings for this. Performance depends on the type of sound card you have and the pc you have.
 
What sound card do you have?
Are you sure you installed the 64bit Vista drivers for it?
Are you sure that those drivers really work in 64bit? any card can have 64bit drivers , but only a few work well or good enough to run sonar.
 
You need to determine what driver mode works best for your sound card and pc. Either WDM or ASIO.
You need to try both of those modes with different ASIo buffer sizes and different WDM latency slider positions, until your pc is happy.
 
Keep your Recoding and playback I/O timing masters at 256 and just adjust the ASIo buffer and/or the WDM slider until the project runs well.
Every project will have different needs, so you may need different settings for one project and the other...
 
The lower your ASIO buffer or WDM slider, the higher your CPU works. The higher your ASIO buffer or WDM slider is, the lower your CPu is.
So small projects or projects that are just getting started can use a lower settings and as the project grows and you start mixing it, you may need a higher settings
 
Cj
 

The reference guide is on Disc 1 of your installation disc set.