Reference Guide

1253
Audio Options dialog—Advanced
Dialog Reference
Mixing Latency (MME and WDM drivers only)
•The Buffers in Playback Queue values determine the buffer characteristics for transfers to and
from the audio drivers. Lowering this value improves audio Latency, though making it too low
makes your system more susceptible to stuttering or dropouts
•The Buffer Size Slider enables you to set mixing latency manually, overriding the value set by
the Wave Device Profiler. Lower numbers increase the risk of audio problems. WDM sound card
drivers offer lower latency than the older MME type.
Wave Profiler (MME and WDM drivers only)
Wave Profiler attempts to detect the make and model of your sound card, which determine the card’s
DMA (Direct Memory Access) settings. Once Wave Profiler identifies the card, it displays the results
and asks whether you want to use the default settings for that card or to override them:
If Wave Profiler has identified your card correctly, you may accept the default settings. Otherwise,
Wave Profiler will run a series of tests to attempt to determine the correct DMA settings. Usually this
process is successful; however, if it is not, you will need to enter the correct settings in the Device
Profiles tab of the Audio Options dialog box.
To determine the correct settings, consult your sound card documentation. Our web site, at
www.cakewalk.com, contains the latest DMA settings for commonly used sound cards.
The Wave Profiler utility runs automatically the first time you run SONAR. You need not run it again
unless you install a new sound card or an updated driver for your current sound card.
Wave Profiler will not analyze the card at the 48 kHz sampling rate. It assumes that 48 kHz settings
are the same as 44 kHz settings. If your sound card doesn’t sync to 48 kHz, you may need to enter
the settings manually.
ASIO Panel (ASIO drivers only)
This button opens a dialog where you can set the buffer size for your ASIO driver and change the
driver configuration. See your sound card’s documentation for more information.
For more information, see:
Improving Audio Performance
Audio Options dialog—Advanced
The Options > Audio command opens the Audio Options dialog box. Choose the Advanced tab
to control the following options:
File System
• Enable Read Caching and Enable Write Caching. Choosing either of these options lets
SONAR use the Windows disk cache while reading or writing audio data. SONAR will usually
perform best with all caching disabled, which is the default setting. If your computer has an older
IDE disk controller, or a disk controller that does not use DMA transfers, enabling caching may