Reference Guide

1188 Improving audio performance
System configuration
To choose a rendering bit depth
1. Go to Edit > Preferences > File - Audio Data.
2. Under File Bit Depths, change the Render Bit Depth field to the desired number.
3. Click OK.
Preparing higher-quality audio for CD burning
If your project uses a different sampling rate from 44,100, or contains files that are not 16-bit, use
this procedure to prepare your project for CD-burning:
To prepare higher-quality audio for CD burning
1. Use the File > Export > Audio command to open the Export Audio dialog box. Choose RIFF
Wave in the Files of Type field, Export to Stereo File(s) in the Format field, and 16 in the Bit
Depth field.
2. After exporting the audio, close SONAR and open up your sound card control panel (for M-Audio
cards, usually the Delta Control Panel, for Echo Audio, usually the Echo Console, for MOTU it's
the 324 console, etc.) Once the control panel is open, change the setting for your sampling rate
to 44.1 kHz.
3. Next launch SONAR, go to Edit > Preferences > Audio - Driver Settings and change the
Audio Driver Bit Depth to 16. Change Default Settings for New Projects to 44100 Hz for the
Sampling Rate.
4. After making these adjustments, click the Wave Profiler button. In some instances, with certain
audio hardware configurations you may be prompted with an audio driver error dialog box during
this process. This is nothing to be concerned about. You will have to exit SONAR, re-launch,
verify the settings you made in the Preferences dialog box, and click the Wave Profiler button
again. When you can successfully run the Wave Profiler without an audio driver error, proceed to
the next step.
5. Create a new project (File > New command). The Normal option is fine for this.
6. Import the mixed down audio by using the File > Import Audio command.
7. Confirm the bit depth and sample rate of the imported audio by using the File > Info command,
and clicking File Stats. The File Stats dialog box lists the correct sample rate and bit depth.
8. Final step: use the File > Export > Audio command. Be sure to select 16 for the Bit Depth and
uncheck all Mix Enables.
Now you can burn your exported audio file to CD, using Pyro Audio Creator, or other software.
SONAR project file compatibility notes
Cakewalk Bundle (.cwb) files containing double precision 64-bit floating point files will not open in
SONAR 5 or earlier versions.
Project files saved in SONAR X2 will not open in SONAR 4 if they reference or include any of the
following types of data or information: