Reference Guide

284 Recording

The Audio Engine button

SONAR has a button in the Control Bar’s Transport module called the Audio Engine button . This button lets

you turn SONAR’s audio engine off if you’re getting distortion or feedback and want to cut the sound off. When

playback or recording are in progress, SONAR enables the button automatically—however, the button appears

greyed-out during playback or recording because you can’t control the button at that time.

If you experience feedback during input monitoring, you can click the Audio Engine button to turn

off the audio engine. However, if playback or recording are in progress, the button is unavailable,

and you should click the Reset button that’s just to the right of it instead, or else stop recording or

playback first and then click the Audio Engine button.

You may experience slightly better playback and recording performance by turning the Audio

Engine button off before you press the Play or Record buttons. This happens if your computer’s

resources are already stretched to the limit. When you start recording or playback with the audio

engine already functioning, there is still some processing that SONAR has to do that’s left over when

you start the transport. This places an extra load on your system that can cause dropouts if your

system is already stretched thin. A more effective solution than disabling the audio engine before

starting the transport is to reduce the load on your system by hiding some meters, increasing latency

slightly, reducing the number of plug-ins and/or tracks, etc.