Instruction Manual

873
Improving Performance with Digital Audio
Improving Audio Performance
accept any default settings.
• If you decline to use default settings (or if Wave Profiler can't find any
for your sound card), Wave Profiler will analyze your sound card's
capabilities by running some tests and automatically establish
appropriate settings based on the test results.
• If your sound card is listed at http://www.cakewalk.com/Support/Docs/
sound cardtips.html, read and follow any special card-specific operating
instructions listed there.
• Re-test audio recording/playback. If problem(s) persist, go to the Next
Step.
The "I/O Buffer Size" may not be well matched to your
hard disk
SONAR may be reading and writing audio data to/from your hard disk in
chunks that are either too large or too small for your particular hard disk's
characteristics.
Select Options-Audio, click the Advanced tab, and try different values in
the I/O Buffer Size textbox until you find a value that works well for your
particular hard disk:
• The default value is 64. Try reducing this value, to 32, then 16. After
each change, close the dialog box (click "OK") and re-test your project's
recording/playback behavior.
• If problem(s) persist, try increasing this value, to 128, then 256, then
512. Again, close the dialog box and re-try your project after each
change.
• If you have an older, slower computer or an older, slower hard disk, you
should try increasing the buffer size; decreasing is not advised on
slower hardware. However, increasing this setting uses more of your
computer's RAM. If you have a smaller amount of RAM in your
computer, increasing the buffer size may not help.
If problem(s) persist, restore this value to its default and continue with the
next step.
Mixing latency may be set too low
SONAR tries to send and receive audio data to/from your sound card with
very a minimal delay (so that any real-time adjustments you make to a
track's volume, pan, or other settings will take effect rapidly). If the latency
setting is set too low, the sound card driver may not be able to keep up with
the SONAR, and audio will be disrupted.