Reference Guide

1198 Improving audio performance
Improving performance with digital audio
from that point). It is possible to experience a dropout while working exclusively with MIDI (i.e., no
audio data in the project), but this is a different matter and is not covered here.
All of these audio problems are the result of audio information not being sent to or received from
your sound card fast enough or reliably enough. During recording, the sound card sends incoming
audio data to the sound card driver, which in turn sends audio data to SONAR to store on hard disk.
When playing back, SONAR reads audio data from the hard disk and feeds it to the sound card
driver, which in turn passes it to the sound card for audible output. If these activities can't be
completed fast enough, or if the communication between SONAR and the sound card driver is
broken in some way, recording and/or playback will be disturbed.
Causes and cures
The exact cause of your audio problem will vary depending on the configuration of your computer
and/or the content of the project file you're working with. The majority of audio problems are caused
by one of the factors listed here. Read each of the following topics, in the order shown, and follow
the recommendations provided:
“The CPU is being interrupted by "background" activities having nothing to do with audio” on page
1198
“Cakewalk doesn't properly “recognize” your sound card” on page 1199
“The "I/O Buffer Size" may not be well matched to your hard disk” on page 1199
“Mixing latency may be set too low” on page 1200
“Your hard disk may be excessively fragmented” on page 1200
“Your project file may be excessively fragmented” on page 1200
“Your sound card's driver may be obsolete” on page 1201
“There may be a conflict with your video card or other multimedia streaming card” on page 1201
“Your sound card may have a conflict with another device in your computer” on page 1203
“Your project may simply be too "complex" for your computer” on page 1204
“Upgrade your computer hardware: more RAM, a faster CPU, and a faster disk drive” on page 1204
The CPU is being interrupted by "background" activities having nothing
to do with audio
Turn off these other activities, so your CPU can process audio without interruption:
• Turn off the Microsoft Office FastFind option if present on your system.
• Don't use any scheduled background tasks (e.g., tasks which are part of the Windows Plus
package, or which you have scheduled yourself using the Windows Task Scheduler utility).
• Discontinue use of any networking or communications applications on your computer. For
example, don't run email programs (like Microsoft Outlook), Web browsers, or AOL client software
while you are running SONAR. These programs send and receive chunks of information over a
modem or a network connection; when one of these data chunks is sent or received, your CPU
may be unexpectedly interrupted from SONAR audio processing to deal with the modem or
network data. That interruption can disrupt the smooth processing of audio data, causing a