Reference Guide

864
Improving Audio Performance
Improving Performance with Digital Audio
•Select Options > Audio, click the Drivers tab, and make sure that only your sound card's input
and output drivers are highlighted in both menus. (If you have more than one sound card installed
in your system, try using only a single sound card and deselecting the other(s). If you can get
audio to record/playback properly on a single sound card, but you encounter problems using two
sound cards simultaneously, there may be a conflict between the two sound cards. Contact
Cakewalk Technical Support for assistance in this event.)
• If problem(s) continue, another multimedia audio device on your system (like a built-in sound card
or voicemodem) could be interfering with your sound card's functionality. To see if this is the
cause of your problem(s), you'll have to temporarily disable these other devices. Note that this
may cause other programs which rely on these other devices to no longer work correctly.
To disable these other device(s), in Windows go to the Control Panel, and double-click the
Multimedia icon. Click the Advanced tab, and click the plus sign next to Audio Devices. Double-
click any audio devices listed there that AREN'T the sound card, and choose Do Not Use Audio
Features on This Device. Click OK, and repeat this step for any non-sound card device,
including voicemodems, 'virtual audio devices' or 'game-compatible devices'. Once the sound
card is the only device left, click OK, and restart the computer. After restarting, delete the file
cw9auddx.ini from your Cakewalk folder. Once you've deleted those files, launch Cakewalk,
and let it profile your audio hardware. When it's done, try playing your audio again.
• If problem(s) continue, try deselecting any MIDI devices which you might be using. In SONAR,
click Options > MIDI Devices and deselect every MIDI device in both Inputs and Outputs, then
when SONAR asks, select Continue with no MIDI input and Continue with no MIDI output,
and try re-test your audio recording/playback.
• If problem(s) persist, reselect your audio and MIDI devices, and continue with the next step.
Your project may simply be too "complex" for your computer
Your computer may not have enough processing power to deal with all of the tracks, clips, and real-
time effects used in your project. You can upgrade your computer hardware (see later items, below)
or you can simplify your project’s content so it demands less processing power.
If possible, try reducing the complexity of your project in any of the following ways:
• Reduce the number of real-time effects used in your project. Instead of generating the effects in
real-time (nondestructively) during playback, consider applying the effects offline (destructively),
before beginning playback.
• Reduce the number of distinct tracks being played back simultaneously. Consider “sub-mixing”
several of your audio tracks into one track (using the Edit > Bounce to Tracks command), and
then archiving the individual tracks which were combined in the sub-mix. (Archived tracks don’t
use up any CPU resources during playback, leaving more CPU resources available to properly
play the non-archived tracks.)
• Where possible, record audio using a mono source, rather than a stereo source. Mono clips
require less processing power than stereo clips.
• Avoid using overlapping audio clips. Where possible, combine/blend overlapping clips into a
single clip, which uses less processing power.
• Thin the amount of MIDI controller data and the number of SysEx messages in your tracks.