Reference Guide

1260 Troubleshooting

Patching an effect into SONAR causes a dropout

You may have simply reached the maximum number of tracks and effects your CPU can handle. If

this is the case, there are several things you can try:

• Freeze tracks and synths that you presently don’t need to edit. For details, see “Freeze tracks and

synths” on page 858.

•Use the Bounce to clips command to mix down clips that contain a lot of edits (clip effects,

automation, AudioSnap, etc). Doing so will decrease the amount of data your system has to

process simultaneously. For details, see “Bouncing to clips” on page 787.

• If you are using V-Vocal, a lot of processing power may be required from your system. For best

performance, it is recommended that you use a clip as small as possible to apply the V-Vocal

effect, then use the Bounce to Clips command to mix down any final V-Vocal clips that don’t

require any more editing.

• Open the C:\Cakewalk Projects\Picture Cache folder and delete its contents (do not

delete the folder itself). Doing so will free up disk space so SONAR may perform more efficiently.

However, if SONAR’s CPU meter does not appear to be maxed out, or other plug-ins seem to work,

you may need to address the problem by editing a line in the Aud.ini file. You can edit the

Aud.ini file from within SONAR.

1. Go to Edit > Preferences > Audio - Configuration File.

2. In the Properties list, scroll down to the property named ExtraPluginBufs.

The default value of the ExtraPluginBufs variable is 0.

3. Change the value of ExtraPluginBufs to 1.

4. Click OK to close the Preferences dialog box, then try to insert the effect that caused the

dropout.

If you still experience a dropout, change the value of ExtraPluginBufs to 2. Continue to double the

value of this variable until you reach 128 (4, 8, 16, 32, etc.). If a value of 128 does not fix the

problem, it is time to try something else. For more information about potential dropout causes, see

“Dropouts and other audio problems” on page 1197.

More “Frequently asked questions” on page 1251.