Help! Crackling problems with Sonar 8.0

[sith]

First thing to know: I'm a total noob when it comes to audio recording
I only use recording software to record some ideas ( not more than 4 tracks) so I'm quite a basic user...
The thing is that I recently bought new computer for recording purpose (old machine was to slow) and it actually work worse than on the old machine:

PC: intel dual core 3'0 GHZ
4 GB RAM
500 GB disk
integrated sound card (realtek) - not going to buy a new one, cost me enough already
64 BIT vista

When I try to record guitars a crackling sound appears and when i listen to recording it's even worse ( lo quality and tons of noise).
I tried to find the solution on the internet but it's really hard to find any useful informattion since I don't know what asio, buffer,.... and similar thing mean

signal chain :

guitar (EBMM jp6)-->boss GT-PRO input--> boss GT main out-->PC line in


And another thing, when i record with windows sound recorder it works perfectly so I think there is surely problem with sonar...

Excuse me for bad english, please help me if you can

 

[Smellybum]

Hi

I love sonar, it's smelly proof!!! -

I suspect it's the soundcard, I had massive problems setting mine up - have you changed the Mhz settings and tried new drivers??

 

[sith]

I can try updating the drivers, but I think they already are recent ones.... Not sure what are those MHz you were talking about

 

[douglasspears]

grrr, wish I could help. I run Sonar 5 now....after trial and error I got things running smoothly and haven't touch it since, haha! I just searched and found the Cakewalk/Sonar forum, and got a lot of answers there.

I recall maybe setting your Megahertz (MHz) on your computer, bit rate, sampling rate, etc. Something like that. I'm also a low-tech individual living in a high-tech world, so I can't give you a step by step solution.

You'll get it, just dig for info and try to figure it out. I would assume you'll be able to get your current set up working just fine....however, an audio interface (I have an 8 channel PreSonus FirePOD) with pre-amps to replace your existing PC line in will improve sound quality, and probably take care of this problem. It'll cost a few hundred $$$ though. You have an incredibly powerful computer, might as well take advantage of it. Your computer is light years ahead of and more powerful than my 8 year old Dell, haha!?!?!

 

[Grand Wazoo]

Well a similar crackling issue apperas on my son's computer when he uses the JamVox, people have been complaining to JamVox and they have put a fix on their website, what is believed to cause issues is the midi function of Windows based pc which is very poorly this does not occurr so much on an apple Mac so the fix is as follow, try and see if it helps you:

Pop/Click noise happens on a Windows PC. : FAQ : JamVOX-Online

 

[douglasspears]

YES, as Capt said, I should've added that selecting the correct MIDI inputs does solve some problems that I had experienced. I don't use MIDI much at all anymore, and I never understood how MIDI input settings impacted the audio source, but it very well may be the issue here. Give it a shot and let us know!

 

[sith]

I've played with latency&buffer settings yesterday and made some progress, now the recording sounds like it's clipping, also I cannot hear playback when recording...

well, I'll have to dig into this one..... maybe I should do a dual boot and load the machine with XP and cubase sx3 which never caused me any problems.

Thanx for help guys

 

[Slingy]

Maybe you are clipping the input from the GT's output. Try reducing the levels. Not a Sonar user here, but surely there is a way to turn on monitoring of the recorded signal.

You might want to try Reaper if Sonar wont play nice with your integrated card, free for 30 days fully functional shareware. See if you can narrow it down to Sonar or just a an issue with your soundcard.

 

[Dead-Eye]

Doesn't the GT-Pro have a USB out that would let you record directly into the PC? That would definitely be a better choice than going through that rather bad Realtek sound chip.

 

[INMT]

I'm betting you installed the 64 bit version of sonar 8 (which would only make sence on the system you listed). If that's true , your sound card will not suppourt the factory 64 bit settings.
You will have to convert your recording depth to 16 bit in order to use your internal sound card.
Which if you spent the money on Sonar 8 and didn't pirate it, why not spend another $50 or so bucks for a audio interface of some kind.
Also the owners manual has a few pages on just this topic, in the TS and setup chapters.

 

[sith]

thanx guys,..
yes, i've installed 64bit version (it's trial , I'm not buying without trying first and I'm glad I didn't)... I will try out your suggestions and report....
GT-PRO has USB out, thanx for reminding me ) i'll try it out... I wish had more time to play with this things

maybe I'll give Reaper a try... any other vista64 compatible software out?

 

[Colin]

you need a dedicated soundcard also having separate drives for the software and recording destination will help immensely.

 

[DavidOfOz]

you need a dedicated soundcard also having separate drives for the software and recording destination will help immensely.

+1

When I first started with Sonar a few years back, I was using an integrated Realtek soundcard which caused me endless problems. I upgraded to a decent soundcard (though not a pro audio one), and the problems disappeared. Probably not the solution your after, but this is what worked for me.

RE the clipping: my soundcard has an applet that lets me select the source recording and level for recording. Sonar just uses this, which makes it really easy to get levels right.