vent - tired of reformatting

suggestions or bullets...greatly appreciated

 Have you updated your OS and all of your drivers and software? I know I have been guilty of not doing so in the past and it got me into trouble!

That's why I simply master all my backing tracks to Wave and use Win Amp for live performance. I have witnessed way to many solo acts fumbling around with  a complicated system between songs while the dance floor slowly wanders off. There is no need to play MIDI files live unless you wish to be a karaoke style act. You can make a huge improvement to the overall sound and now with the tools we have it's pretty easy. 

It's as simple as loading the MIDI file into Sonar, load TTS-1 or ?? set your keys etc. and export to Wave. I then proof them through the PA and make minor volume adjustments etc using Wave lab. Bass levels are very picky.
I am now adding real bass tracks and some real drums. I don't use much else. Sometimes a keyboard or horn section.
Once the song is done it's so easy to back it up. I convert them to MP3  and load them into a player I keep as a back up. You can even burn CD's  but they scare me because the can skip. 
My playback system is a off the shelf Asus Netbook and I prefer Win Amp as a player.
It has hot keys for fast selection and can be set to stop after each song. I set the counter to count down so I'll know when the song is over.
I also bought a USB foot controller from X keys
http://www.ymouse.com/xkeys/xkfoot.php

I never have to take my hands off my guitar. Start/Stop/Next.
Win amp allows me to make set lists and save them, You can easily move songs around during a break too. For requests I'll keep the song file folder open and just drag and drop.
For break music I have Media player open loaded with canned music and the volume set lower.

This system has never failed me in over 7 years. Prior to that I used a Mini Disk, prior to that an Atari and a Korg Module. Prior to that, bars would pay for a whole band!!
 

Why use MP3? use Wave! Unless you have a very, very small hard drive.
But then again the more they drink, the better you'll sound anyway!

daveny5


Your computer specs could be the problem. 1GB of memory is barely enough to run Windows. What version of Sonar. The current version recommends a minimum of 2 GB of memory and a dual core processor. 

Windows XP Service Pack 3 (32-bit)/Vista Service Pack 2 (32- or 64-bit)/Windows 7 (32- or 64-bit)*

Intel Core 2 Duo E8200 2.67 GHz/AMD Phenom Quad Core 9750 2.4 Ghz

2 GB RAM

1280x800 minimum screen resolution

4.5GB for minimal installation, 15GB for complete installation

SONAR on DVD: DVD-ROM, DVD+/-R or DVD+/-RW Drive

SONAR download: Broadband or better internet connection for download

Cakewalk Publisher requires available web server space with FTP access

Good grief...I gotta get another laptop?...I ALWAYS get taken...I made the guy look @ the specs of sonar req's & he said I'd be fine - of course, that was almost 10 yrs ago now I guess

dariunas


If you can remove your current RAM stick from underneath the laptop, you should find that you can buy another stick of greater size of the same time for not very much. Ensure that you get the same fitment and DDR type. As I understand it DDR, DDR2 and DDR3 formats are not inter-compatible. Yours will probably be DDR.

Can't be done...future shop...never again - downgrading Sonar maybe - long as I still have use of softsynths

diggerbarnz

daveny5


Your computer specs could be the problem. 1GB of memory is barely enough to run Windows. What version of Sonar. The current version recommends a minimum of 2 GB of memory and a dual core processor. 

Windows XP Service Pack 3 (32-bit)/Vista Service Pack 2 (32- or 64-bit)/Windows 7 (32- or 64-bit)*

Intel Core 2 Duo E8200 2.67 GHz/AMD Phenom Quad Core 9750 2.4 Ghz

2 GB RAM

1280x800 minimum screen resolution

4.5GB for minimal installation, 15GB for complete installation

SONAR on DVD: DVD-ROM, DVD+/-R or DVD+/-RW Drive

SONAR download: Broadband or better internet connection for download

Cakewalk Publisher requires available web server space with FTP access

Good grief...I gotta get another laptop?...I ALWAYS get taken...I made the guy look @ the specs of sonar req's & he said I'd be fine - of course, that was almost 10 yrs ago now I guess

Not necessarily. What Dave quoted was for Sonar X1. Sonar 8 will run on a lot less. You didn't mention which version of Sonar (or which OS) you have. I have 8.3.1 running on a Toshiba Satellite 1955 laptop, 2.53 GHz Pentium 4, 1 gig ram, XP Home sp3, TC Powercore and 200 gig Glyph external drive daisy-chained off the lone FW400 port, Editol UA1000 audio I/O on USB 2.0, MOTU MIDI Timepiece AV USB on another uSB 2.0 port. Depending on the softsynth used I can run 16 MIDI tracks along with softsynths for each, but my latency is cranked up as high as it can go. When I want to fly-in live audio I render out to audio the softsynths and lower the latency. If I'm working in pure audio I can pull upwards of 30 tracks off the Glyph drive before the system starts to grumble.

Part of the key to getting the performance I am getting is to optimize the living daylights out of the OS. I have it down to just over 100 meg for XP and needed utilities before Sonar runs. One of the biggest hogs on Windoze are utilities that don't need to run (like msmsgs.exe, disk indexing, etc.).

Sounds like he has 2 sticks of 512. MAx is most likely 2 Gigs for that vintage. Might be better to spend money on a new laptop. $500 gets you a lot these day's, and certainly better than that.  Quick search of Ebay shows 1 GIG DDR SODIM is going for $49. so that's $100 to upgrade to 2 GIGs.  And you still have a old almost dead machine.
Retire it to a Lyric Display. That's what I do.

Sorry all...lotsa convo goin on since I checked last -- running sonar 8 & windows xp home w/SP2
It DOES get weirder....since post - haven't heard glitch!
Also...when I do have any troubles - my edirol drivers get booted & NI drivers for guitar rig take over (edirol doesnt even appear in list) so I have to reboot.
& yesterday...I got voicelive touch along w/tonematch for my bose system....get home & knew I didnt want the touch(need II for hand freedom & the tonematch has NO POWER SUPPLY included - how dumb is this? I'm being punished by Bose because I was one of the 1st to jump on the train w/the 1st model of the L1 system - now another$$ trip to city.
RE:Daveny 5 - taken because the salesman assured me the system would handle sonar...quote "they just say min req's as a SUGGESTION"
Thanks again all

Thanks Chappel - giverago!
Didnt see the driver mode q but yes ASIO

ok- but isn't "visually skipping" a new symptom?  your original problem was the "buzzz" sound which is usually an indication of trying to run a machine at low latency when it can't handle it because of CPU/RAM/HArddrive resource problems OR soundcard driver problems in general.