Dropout question

J

Jacksondog

New member
Hey guys, I could use some help. I have a feeling what the problem is but just wanted to run this one by you.
I recently installed sonar 2 onto my new machine, got dropout the first time I played a wave file. Worked fine on my old amd 400 mhz running win 98.

Current Specs are as follows:
windows xp
amd athlon xp 2600+ 2.08 ghz
480 mb ram
gigabyte mobo GA-7vm400m

NO soundcard, using the mobo onboard sound VIA ac'97 enhanced audio controller WDM

I think that the problem may be the lack of a sound card. What do you guys think?

Thanks,
Trev
 
Just to put things straight: You have a soundcard, allthough it is a crappy one.

Does Sonar support it? (In other words, what shows up under Options -> Audio -> General?)
 
I'd think that the Audio engine would still run even without a soundcard. What does your cpu usage/memory usage look like?

I run Sonar 3 on XP, and to help it out I created a second boot profile that I boot to when I want to record. Basically removing everything that isn't necessary and loading the bare minimum to free up as much system resources as possible.

Is Sonar dropping out immediately on you, or does it play the file for a bit?
 
Well,
Sonar does recognize the soundcard under audio options. It will playback for about 2 seconds before the dropout.
Also, cpu usage is to a bare minimum right now. I only placed one clip in a new file and no effects were applied or anything. Just a simple drum clip all by itself, and still the dropout...

Jdog
 
Have you set the latency to the max?

Options -> Audio -> "The Latency slider"






But I find it rather strange that someone will spend alot on software without spending some on a soundcard....

Just a thought...
 
Great! The latency slider did the trick.

Yeah, I am looking at buying the m-audio revolution this week. But for my purposes, a gamer card will suit me fine. I am not doing pro recordings. Just playin the bass to loops, and using the computer to jot some ideas down for fun.
I have heard that this is a solid all-purpose card that will work fine for games, and music. Would you guys agree with that claim?

Thanks so much,
Jacksondog
 
Jacksondog,

Have you run wave profiler? Before you slide the latency to the right, run wave profiler. It will give you the best latency which you can run the WDM drivers for your sound card at... plus it should also be the first thing that you do when loading Sonar :-)

Porter
 
Jacksondog said:
Would you guys agree with that claim?
Click to expand...
Well no, not really. I would clasify it as "the upper end of gamers cards". Check out the M-Audio Audiophile instead.

If you play games, you can keep your old soundcard in the machine (if you absolutely have to). But remember to disable it in Sonar. :)
 
Jacksondog said:
Would you guys agree with that claim?
Click to expand...
Well no, not really. I would clasify it as "the upper end of gamers cards". Check out the M-Audio Audiophile instead.

If you play games, you can keep your old soundcard in the machine (if you absolutely have to). But remember to disable it in Sonar. :)
 
I had drop-outs even at very long latencies like 100 ms. Occasionally at least. This cured it:

http://www.musicxp.net/tuning_tips.php

Do as told. It is very easy. It will turn off screen saver and lot of other things that can interfere while making music with Sonar. Only it didn't tell about MS Messenger, but maybe it doesn't matter. The way to get rid of messenger is first close it down, then find the folder named messenger in Program Files, change from read only to readable and rename it messengerdisabled. That way you can easily make it work again by renaming it back again.
 
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