Reference Guide

1653
Preferences dialog
• Record Timing Master. If you’re using multiple wave drivers for playback, this list lets you
specify which audio device should control the recording timing.
Audio Driver Bit Depth. Determines the number of bits per sample used for communicating with
the audio hardware for playback. Your audio hardware must be capable of supporting the setting you
supply here. In SONAR, choose between 16, 18, 20, 22 and 24. In most cases, even if your
hardware is “advertised” as being 18 or 20 bit, you will want to set this value to 24 for optimum
performance. SONAR 16-bit only.
64-bit Double Precision Engine. Enabling this check box chooses 64-bit (double-precision)
mixing in SONAR throughout the entire signal path. This includes dithering and plug-ins. SONAR will
send and receive 64-bit data to and from all plug-ins that accept 64-bit data. If a plug-in requires 32-
bit data, SONAR will send and receive 32-bit data.
Stereo Panning Law. Use this menu to choose a panning law for the current project and new
projects. The current project’s panning law is also displayed in the File Stats window, which appears
when you open the File Info dialog box (Project > Info command), and click the File Stats button.
Determines the mathematical formula used to control panning. The choices are:
• (Default) 0 dB center, sin/cos taper, constant power. This choice causes a 3 dB boost in
a signal that’s panned hard left or right, and no dip in output level in either channel when the
signal is center panned.
• -3dB center, sin/cos taper, constant power. This choice causes no boost in a signal that’s
panned hard left or right, and 3dB dip in output level in either channel when the signal is
center panned.
• 0dB center, square-root taper, constant power. This choice causes a 3 dB boost in a
signal that’s panned hard left or right, and no dip in output level in either channel when the
signal is center panned.
• -3dB center, square root taper, constant power. This choice causes no boost in a signal
that’s panned hard left or right, and 3dB dip in output level in either channel when the signal is
center panned.
• -6dB center, linear taper. This choice causes no boost in a signal that’s panned hard left or
right, and 6dB dip in output level in either channel when the signal is center panned.
• 0 dB center, balance control. This choice causes no boost in a signal that’s panned hard
left or right, and no dip in output level in either channel when the signal is center panned.
For more information about panning laws, see “Configuring panning laws” on page 223.
Note: Every sound card’s clock crystal is slightly different, which causes minor differences in the
actual playback rate on each card. These differences may lead to slight synchronization
problems if you use one card for recording and a different one for playback. Multiple wave
drivers on the same card will not have sync problems.
Note: Using an audio driver bit depth that is greater than 16 means you also need to choose a
preferred setting in the Stream >16 Bit Data As field in Edit > Preferences > Audio - Audio
Profiles.