Sonar/Cake question

[rjt]

I was running Cake pro 9.0 and switched to Sonar. Now (without using soft synths or anything) I started getting drop outs. I am using the same settings in sonar as i was in cake. I had so few problems in cake, I left show the cpu usage and disk usage turned off. So....
1) Is Sonar more of a resource hog than Cake 9?

2) My disk usage bounces around a lot--- like from 7 to 70%, even for very few tracks, is this normal?

This isn't (yet) a post on how to fix this stuff...but that may be coming.

Thanks for your time.

 

[crustacean]

What is your computer's processing power? Please state specs.

I am using a PII-333/128/26

This is why I haven't upgraded. Sonar cites 450MHz I think in the specs.

Cakewalk 8 (yeah, I'm lagging) gives me 30+ tracks (I never need more than 30, except mix down.) I have no problems, but avoided the update until I can scrape up enough pennies for a better CPU.

 

[rjt]

I have a pentium III 733 with 256 K ram
Scsi, the main drive which includes sonar and my sound files is an IBM DDYS T09170N, spinning at 10,000 with a data transfer rate of 160mbs per sec. I have an adaptec scsi card. My sound cards are Frontier design Dakota and Montana so I can move 32 tack of ADAT in and out. Kinda think it should be good for a couple of tracks anyway.

 

[dachay2tnr]

RJT -

Assume you have shut down any background programs.

I am running a 933 MHz PIII with 256 memory, and a 7200 RPM ATA-100 HDD. Amazingly I can playback 11-12 Track projects with most tracks using realtime Reverb and my disk usage sits at 0%. In fact, my HDD often actually goes to sleep while I'm listening and editing (I probably should turn the power save function off).

From various posts I have read, the consensus seems to be that Sonar is a bit more resource intensive than CW PA, but more stable (i.e., CPU and disk usage don't seem to bounce around as much).

With your system you shouldn't be having any problems. Do the dropouts occur while your trying to do a particular edit, or just upon straight playback?

This hasn't been much help, except to concur that you shouldn't be having dropout problems with just a few tracks. If you haven't already, you might try lowering hardware acceleration for your video card to see if that helps.

 

[rjt]

I've got some utilities that tell me what is going on in the background and almost nothing. Oddly, I may have found it. I have several articles about customizing your computer for music. In it, both recommend specifying your own virtual memory (not letting windows do it) and putting both the min and max at 125% of your RAM. I did this a long time ago and it seemed to work fine in cake and other programs. For some reason, not sonar. I decided to test my system bit by bit. After making changes one at a time in sonar, then two at a time, I was going nuts. I decided to test some of the ways to maximize for audio and as soon as I change the virtual memory setting back to "let windows do it" everything worked fine. A little puzzled, but happy. Now the Tassman won't come up... but that may be another story!! Aaarrggh computers!!

 

[Mr_Kee]

I have the same problems. I was just running the simple tutorials at the beginning of the Sonar manual and get drop outs all the time. (Once I got to the tutorial 7 or 8, the one with the loops)

I am running a Intel PIII 600 Mhz with 200 Meg of RAm and an SB Live sound card. My CPU usage stays around 7% but I get drops outs anyway. Never did with Cakewalk 9. I am about to get a new HD and am going to fresh install everything. I am hoping that will fix my problem.

 

[rjt]

Well as stated, my "fix" seemed to be returning virtual memory control to windows. (got 20 tracks with no dropouts and probably could have gotten more) I spoke with cake today about somehting else and the tech said I should use (unless I have the new drivers installed) always use MME drivers. That's okay by me as I don't have the new ones in yet. I am going to try that later. If anyone else tries it, let us know how it works out.