bobernaut

Hello everyone and thanks for reading my question. I have a strange problem that I am unable to fix. Please give this a read and make any suggestions you can to help. 1 week ago after at least 10 years of perfect operation, my usual system will not function. I did nothing unusual or different than any other day--no new programs or other were added and I made no changes whatsoever in anyway. I did receive a total of 3 messages, here they are: Engine not responding please check your Rewire host Could not connect to the Reason Engine the Reason engine is already in use. Make sure you only run one instance of Reason. Your audio driver has stopped working. Go to audio page in the preferences dialog and choose a different driver. According to the Task Manager, Reason is NOT running and certainly not another instance of it running. Yes, these are all Reason messages and I do run Reason along with Sonar and have for years and years with no problems. Both Reason 7 and Sonar Professional have worked perfectly by themselves or together. This computer does not ever go online and i have no antivirus loaded. This is all intentional and has worked fine up until now. My interface, the Toneport UX1 suddenly is dead but appears to still be working with green light as it always has in the past. I can click through anything I wish and it responds but it produces no sound. Whenever I run a project on Sonar Professional, everything is there--plug ins, midi notes, track recordings--all as it was before. I can see meters jumping as normal as the song plays but with no audio. It is the same with Reason when I play a song through that but again, no audio. I can not connect to the programs at the same time, which is the problem; that and the no audio part or maybe driver part. I have tried to change audio drivers but I get a red X on all drivers. I also have no audio on anything else on the computer as in, other wavs besides my own, or even the log off sound. That's about it. I have no idea what has caused this. While old, the programs have worked for years and I can't figure out what has caused this since the computer does not go online and no changes were made by me. No one else uses this computer. Please let me know if you have any ideas on how to fix this problem. thanks, bob Windows 7, Reason 7, Sonar Professional, Toneport UX1

Hey everyone, thanks for your answers, I do appreciate them greatly! It turns out that Bitflipper had the solution. I would have bet against it figuring that it would be something way more irritating (as usual), but no--not this time. I followed your advice and there they were again ( the songs) in all their wretched glory--burning my ears with the unbelievable awfulness of my "skills" of yesteryear. Now I have some new work to do which will actually be fun instead of frightening. By the way, one of the plugs that showed up in every song so far was that damned Melodyne. If you have used it before I am sure you will understand my feelings here. Thanks so much everyone! Bitflipper gets the chicken dinner on this one. I'll see you guys around I'm sure. Until then, have fun out there! bob

Hello everyone and thanks for reading this. My question is, what do I have to do to bring up all my old songs up in Sonar x3 Professional? Yes, I know its old but still working fine other than this issue. What happens: When I go to click on an older song from years ago, the song never comes up, as though it searches for it endlessly although I can clearly see the song sitting there where all of the other "working" songs are located. I would love to re-do many of these songs but I can't seem to access them in order to hear how awful they were from maybe 10 years ago. There are no error messages or other. Just a spinning circle--forever, I guess. I have waited for maybe 20 minutes before but, as I say, it never brings up the project. Does anyone know what I need to do? Surely, these songs aren't gone forever...are they? Thanks, and please let me know if more information is needed in order to solve this mystery! bob

Hello everyone and thanks once again for reading this! My question involves a DI box and recording into an interface. I have researched this for awhile now and while I do get the concept, I can't seem to find any videos or other which actually show ALL aspects of setting up a DI box with amp and interface. Here's what I have to work with to do this: amp (Line 6) interface (Toneport Line 6) electric guitar (lots) Sm57 mic, stand and cables PC (windows 7 16 GB) DI box (Live Wire Solutions with in/out and output) guitar cords Does someone here use DI for recording guitars and could sort of draw me a quick map, so to speak, on how to connect everything, please? I would like to be able to record DI tracks (now that I understand their purpose) but can't figure this out unless, of course, I don't have the right equipment to accomplish this. All the "pros" just skip right past everything and say, "always record a DI track when recording guitars" but I can't figure out how they are doing this with either Sonar or the actual rig set up. What I believe can happen is that you can record a clean sound through your amp while also recording a distorted guitar using an amp sim at the exact same time. Is this correct? I surely would appreciate any help here. I currently just record straight into the amp sim but I have always wanted to know how to also record the clean sound using the DI box method. I hope I have made my question clear and also hope someone can help me out here before I give up. Thanks so much in advance, bob

Thanks 57 and John, I took in all you've said and must make decisions about future upgrades I think, I mean, how long can this old piece keep going? No worries, John. Like I said, you don't remember but you really saved my bacon once or twice before. I agreed with you; it could have been USB, after all. I needed a new one for my M Audio anyway--I had run over that poor, old cable for years. Now, for an interesting report. After updating everything with the interface and then with loss of audio and no recognition of the UX1, I tried what 57Gregy said about the drivers and now I am back to where I was--yes, I still have the popping and crackling and possibly worse than before all this, but, At least I am back to square one instead of watching my projects play on screen but with no sound. I also lost the "box" that was coming up telling me, "No audio devices for current driver model..." I haven't re-tried the start up but hopefully it will not bring up any irritating boxes for me next time either. What have I learned? You know the old saying, If it ain't broke..." However, I think all this has forced me to look into a new interface--exactly what I said from the beginning. Don't you hate it when you don't listen to your own instincts? I do. So, while I have a couple of you here (hopefully) what would you recommend? You've all done plenty already, I am just asking you to throw out what you use or an interface that you know to be good stuff. I hear an awful lot about Scarlett and almost got one just about 1 year ago. I thank you all for your help and will see if any of you have any suggestions. many thanks, bob

Hello again, if there is still anyone following this. Here's an update. Well, after searching for a day, I was able to find my old login to my Line 6 account. I finally got all "greens" for drivers, USB firmware, Gearbox and so on. Sounds great, doesn't it? Nope. When I brought up a Sonar project, I received a little box saying: There are no audio devices for the current driver model on your system. Please go to Edit/Preferences/Audio/Playback and Recording and choose a different driver model. Under Playback and Recording, the driver mode is set to ASIO, but there's no sound through Sonar on project playback. The UX1 is functioning normally. Under "devices" there is nothing listed; neither input nor output. Basically, to make this quicker, it is as if the UX1 doesn't exist in Sonar. When using Reason, there is sound as normal, and as I said, the UX1 itself, is functioning as it always did before. So, before I screw this up even worse, does anyone have any suggestions as to what I need to do here to get Sonar to "see" the UX1? I have somewhat blindly attempted some things--which did not work, and then reset them to where they were, even though there's no sound. I'm hoping someone who has had experience with this will know what I need to do and I am hoping that it's something simple as well. If you have time, please let me know what you think I might try here to get going again. I mean, what if these updates actually fixed the popping and crackling? thanks, bob

Yes, Mr. Bone, you are correct. I don't understand what happened here, but on my screen, that post was not visible until after I submitted the next post. So, it wasn't there when I said that and then afterwards, it was there. I don't get what happened and sorry for any confusion. Maybe this is the result of something I did but not to my knowledge. thanks, bob

Hey, man...this is fairly irritating because I replied to several things from you guys and it ain't here! No way can I re-write all that so I will just say that I am working on many of your ideas and thanks so much for trying! In short, I said that I would probably get a SSD and that I would get a USB cable as well as look into the driver business. Well, I did try a new cable for the interface and nothing changed there, Also, I am trying to find my log in for Line 6 so I can download some potential updates. Thanks again everyone and I will be back soon. Let's just hope this reply stays here... thanks, bob

Hi guys and thanks for still trying to help me figure this out. Tezza, thanks for all the info, man. For sure, I do believe that I will at least buy a SSD and install like you suggested and I guess maybe slowly begin to use that as my primary drive for DAW stuff. I don't see how it could hurt too much, so thanks. I'm not sure if I do have a ton of samples but I might because I have been making them for many years now. I never gave it much thought until now. I don't know the speed of my drive or how to find out but it is the same drive that came with the machine about 6 years ago I guess. I'll go and research the ways to speed up the machine for music production, as you suggested. I reall appreciate your assistance! Fwrend, you are right, I have yet to use a new USB because I haven't even left this place to go get one which is kind of pathetic really. I know John knows his stuff quite well as he used to help me out years ago. I would be surprised if it was that simple but it could be. Either way, I really need to replace all my cables because some of them are years old and have suffered more than one time being run over by my chair. So, that's on my list for this week and thanks for the reminder. I am not sure what you mean about the VSTi. I have suspected something like this but don't know Sonar well enough. Can you explain how to check the default setting at the source please? And Matt, thanks for your help, too. Nice to finally find someone who also used the UX. I have fought myself for years on this--about getting a Scarlett but other than this problem (if it is Line6), I have never had any problem with it . I played some pro wavs on the same pc and there were no pops or other. When I pulled a pro wav into my DAW--without any plugs, it popped and crackled. What does this tell me? Maybe what you have suggested so I will go and attempt to check and/or update the drivers. if it's still possible. Great idea by the way; too bad I didn't think of it! Thanks for helping! Well, I may be a little closer, here. Thanks so much for everyone's help. I'll keep you up to date on this and if you have anymore suggestions, I would love to hear them. thanks again, bob

Thanks for the follow up, Tezza. I remember (now), that I almost got the SSD when I got this computer but thought, "Naw, I'm not gonna need that for awhile..." Yep, here I am. I have only 1 HDD (SSCI disk drive, WDC., and no Solid. I am running any and all music programs (Sonar, Reason, Serato) through this 1 pc but never use this one for anything else, such as internet (updates only and buying plugs), or games and so on. I thought that by doing this, I would be alright since no other unnecessary clutter would be on the computer. I bet that is a smart and good idea to do what you are doing but I really don't know how to accomplish this and am always terrified of ruining everything by trying. How hard is it to do what you've done with the 3 different HDs? Is it possible to perform some variant of the different drives but just sort of by adding on maybe? I don't really know what I am talking about here, but it certainly makes sense to split the work up like you are doing. Thanks again and please reply when you can. I'll check out our post in a bit. thanks, bob

Hey all you guys, thanks so much for our help. Here's the funny thing--after reading tezza's reply, I suddenly remembered having this same problem about 5 years ago maybe. It's funny how we forget, but I am nearly 100% sure that I remember asking this same thing about the popping and crackle. What I determined last time this happened was that my system just couldn't keep up with all the demands that I placed on it. After I got a new pc last time, sure enough, no more pop, crackle and drop...up until now and here it is again. I have been putting off getting a new computer for too long now and that was mostly due to the hell of transferring everything over to the new pc. I was even on here awhile back asking you guys what you recommended for a new pc. I'm still on Dell Inspiron 3847 i5-4440 CPU @ 3.1 ghz with 16 GB mem and 64 bit os with windows 7. It's from around 2009 although I haven't had it that long; maybe more like 5 years. Also, service pack 1. and using that older interface as I mentioned. I'm real flippy about messing around with a pc that is working so I don't usually do much of anything extra (which is probably art of the problem). Tezza, I do have many plugs and about 30 to 40 tracks per projects; maybe 2 to 3 plug ins per track and then there is all the buses and their plugs. In short, I think that I am right back where I was before...needing to upgrade once again. I don't want to waste everyone's time but man, as usual, you guys are by far the best at helping someone out with tech stuff. Hey, Mark, thanks for that link. That was an amazing little gem and it basically told me what I just said above. It said, in part, that I was experiencing buffer underruns and potentially power management problems. It said to disable CPU throttling settings in the control panel and BIOS setup, but I am not exactly sure what they mean by this and I don't want to make things worse for sure, if you guys know what this means and how to do it correctly then please advise if it is not overly difficult to do. So, what do you think? Is there hope for this machine for this application or is it time to send her on out to pasture...sniff, sniff. Thanks again to all of you folks for helping it is greatly appreciated. I'll stand by and wait to see what you might have to say now that you have some specs and stuff. thanks, bob

Many thanks Matt! However, as per my luck with all this, it did not stop the crackle and pop. I really appreciate you giving it a try and I am delighted that it worked for you--you must be a happy person! Now, why couldn't it have been that easy for me, too (darn it) thanks for trying, bob

Okay, thanks tez and John for checking this out. The screen shot was helpful, too. I have switched out many kicks and still no change. Nothing I do changes the crackling on guitars or bass either. It said 16 bits because I forgot that I had changed it in an attempt to learn anything about the crackle--it is not at 16 normally. I am not using an internal card nor a laptop but I have long suspected that maybe my interface is old and maybe nothing special to begin with. I have been using the UX1 from Line 6 for about 10 years. I don't know what else you would like to see but I will try to get you whatever specs you would like to see if it will help. Hopefully, you have a screen cap to look at here. Please let me know what you think after checking the cap. Thanks, guys bob

Thanks John and Pragi, for our replies and suggestions. I should have mentioned already that I am hearing the popping and crackling in m headphones. I do have old and probably beat up cables that I have stepped on over the years. I hear these sounds over monitors and through headphones. Now, about the specs, I have the buffer set all the way to the left (extra small) and the default buffer size is set to 512 with 16 bit depth. I have played around with these settings and the noises did not go away. Driver operating at 44100 hz; 16 bit. One of my thoughts on this is that I may have overloaded the guitars and bass at time of recording (not according to my inputs though) but even if they were true, why is the kick also popping? The kick is just a sample from Session Drummer. As I have said earlier, even when I take off any plugs and also reduce the kick volume to almost nonexistent, the crackle and pop is still present. I don't understand this. I am not overloading the kick--it sits at -18 currently and the gain is set to -6 and this is still plenty loud enough like this. Even with all plugs bypassed on Master Bus as well as individual channels, the pop and crackle is still there. Okay, I hope this helps. Please let me know what your thoughts are on this as I continue to try to hunt this down. thanks again bob

Hello again everyone, and thanks for reading this. Don't want to waste your time so I will get right to the question... I get irritating popping and crackling sounds with primarily kick, bass guitar, guitars on some of my projects and not on others. I follow pretty much the exact same way of recording and mixing on all songs but have noticed that I have this problem sometimes. With the kick, it isn't even a real kick but the Session Drummer kick. The bass and guitars are real in the sense that I go through an interface and use amp sims and/or DI box. I am not clipping on any tracks and I do use gain staging and a variety of plug ins. I have even turned the kick almost all the way down, in solo, and the pop/crackle is still there--same with the bass and guitars. I have 16 GB for processing and rarely have audio dropouts. I am curious if anyone else has had this same problem in the past and if so, how did you overcome this pop/crackle thing or does it still linger for you? I welcome any suggestions that you might have about this and hope that someone knows the answer. Thanks, Bob

I can't thank you enough, User 905133. It seems that we are the only help that's coming I'm afraid. As you have some interest in this piece of junk, I will tell you what has occurred since last time. This won't make much sense but maybe it will help somehow. Last night, I brought up all things--Sonar, Reason and the piece of junk. Expecting the usual, I hit the "cue" button (I think), and I heard files playing on both sides. It was wonderful. But, it gets better...without even being aware of what I was doing, I played with the jog wheel and it made a scratching sound. I could hardly believe this! I did my best to take notes so that I might discover, later, how I managed to get this to happen. I unplugged the USB and then plugged it back in and I received a message in the bottom right corner telling me that "A new device has been detected" or something like this. Anyway, It told me that "Partymix" has been installed ( I think ) successfully. Now, that's weird--it actually was something positive in regard to all this. So, quickly, I looked over at the device with the stupid flashing lights and hit the play/pause button and it actually worked as in playing the wave file which was already loaded. But, could there be more? I moved the jog wheel and it scratched. Next, I brought up Sonar and as near as I can tell, this is when I lost control over the partymix box. Even after I closed out Sonar (with partymix still up), none of the buttons on the device were responsive. Now, in between and here and there, a variety of pop ups came up from Numark ( I was not online for any of the aforementioned things ). It might be looking like this company wants to lure you in on the cheap side and then, in order to actually use the device beyond just hitting the play button, you have to continue to buy license after license--and they ain't cheap, either. They say that i am a "professional" and therefore need to pay for these licenses because I guess, I am a rap or rock star, making tons of money. Maybe this is not the case but I believe this may be the reason why nothing works--they have disabled nearly everything until (hopefully), you start forking over money for these licenses which then magically enable my interface. Pretty pathetic. I have not heard back from the so-called Numark tech advisor either. I honestly didn't think he knew anymore about the product than I did, anyway. Thanks for your advice on the virus; you could be right and they may extend that but I don't think that I will hold my breath on this. Basically, I think, maybe--this may be nothing more than a glorified MP3 player until you pay hundreds of dollars for licenses. And then, I think I might be willing to bet that it still won't work. I hope you have success trying to figure this out and I do appreciate your help, but I wouldn't blame you if you've had enough. I'll continue to frustrate myself and waste time trying to get something to happen here for a while longer. thanks, bob

Thanks so much, user905133, I really appreciate your effort! Your second message is almost exactly what I got, minus the the device. How much memory does this thing require! No matter what I have tried thus far, which is everything that you mentioned, I still get the "not enough memory" message. Yes, I am trying to see if either Reason or Sonar can run this as an instrument, I guess you would say. I don't have a great deal of experience or knowledge pertaining to the inner workings of sound cards or Sonar. I guess I am trying to do something which can't be done maybe but it sure seems to me like it ought to be workable. As I had given up for today and began to shut down, a message popped up asking if I would like to add Virtual DJ to Sonar. After reboot I can detect no change. Surprisingly, I was able to add the device to Reason but that's all. Another odd thing is that when I plugged this in today, I was surprised when I heard audio for the first time. However, it is playing independently of Sonar and Reason--just in it's own display. So, the problem is still the same for me. I can't figure out how to get Sonar and Reason to actually "pick up" the Numark device although it did play at first, it now does not (after me messing around with it and trying to get it to run through Sonar and Reason). Running out of time here to get a refund for this piece. If you have any further suggestions about this I would love to hear it and thank you for trying to help because I'm not the sharpest with this kind of stuff. bob

Hello everyone and thanks for reading this! I recently received a Numark Virtual DJ Partymix box as a gift, which is cool, but neither myself nor the tech advisor from Numark knows how to hook this device up to Sonar Professional or Reason. The advisor says he knows it can be done but doesn't know how to actually pull this off as of yet. I can return this to GC for a refund but I only have 9 days left before I am stuck with this thing. So, I am terribly afraid of jacking around with my settings in Sonar and don't want to blindly mess with everything just to try to make this box work with my set up. BUT, maybe, just maybe, someone here knows how to alter settings in Sonar to allow this thing to be used as an instrument within the software...I hope. Also, I received this message in my interface while trying to get this to work: Not enough memory. I don't get this because I have 16 GB, more or less and this Serrato lite software that comes with this can't possibly be that big. I am hoping that someone can help me with some guidance or at least a jumping off point before I get stuck with this box. Please advise if you can I will deeply appreciate it! bob

Thanks for your response, I guess I was lucky to even get one. Looks like you and me are the only ones who do this ( I will soon). BTW, would you happen to recommend any on the cheaper end which will still let me do some scratching? Or, do you have to spend a certain amount of bread to get results? I'm not trying to be a pro DJ-just trying to mess around a bit and maybe lay some down on a track or two. Thanks, bob

Hello all, thanks for reading... My question might be really easy but I don't know myself, so here goes... I was wondering if it is possible to hook up some kind of DJ controller with Sonar in order to record just as you might a guitar or vocal and if so, what all is involved to do so? Is it a matter of just going through your interface? Has anyone here done this and if so could you please explain what needs to be done. Thanks bob

Dang...you guys must be part cyborg--which is pretty cool. I suppose I might be able to build something but I have a sneaking suspicion that I would end up wishing that I had just bought one from Jim. But, I really do appreciate all you heavy-hitters who chimed in here, thank you all so much! By the way, I originally had just 100 plugs but decided to change it to 200 primarily just to mess with people--sorry. That would indeed be a monstrosity for sure. I don't really do 100 tracks either but it could happen...maybe. I wonder, do you actually get Jim when you call or does he have quite the number of employees? Well, I almost certainly will be trying to get through to him very soon so I may well find out for myself. Not much more I can say at this point except to say thanks for all input from everyone and that I will probably be dropping a small chunk in Jim's direction pretty soon. Epilogue Okay, this is boggling me now. Not one mention of Sweetwater from any of you whether good or bad? Don't get me wrong, I have never purchased anything from them but I figured that surely someone would have something to say on this. Jim: 30+ Sweetwater: 0 Thanks everyone (cyborgs too!) Bob

Wonderful replies here, thanks! It would seem that there are two possibilities here... 1) Jim is a great guy who knows his stuff 2) Jim has agents who help him work a scam on musicians Joking, of course! Believe it or not, I trust the members here far more than I trust many other people. Is that sad? Whatever the reason, you all look out for each other here and that's awesome...man! Now, as for the topic, again, thanks for your help. Now, all I have to do is try and figure out which one to go for (at Studiocat's) and narrow down some things or maybe I should say figure out some things. I actually have good mechanical, building and electrical skills but can't see myself trying to build one even though I am certain that there is a great satisfaction in doing so. Can you really save that much money by building your own anyway? I don't know but you all probably do since you have already built a PC or two. I am afraid I shall have to go the purchase route on this one. I am thinking about the one s.l.i.p. suggested--it seems about right, or do I go higher for "future proofing"? Or, is it overkill as mettelus suggested? I guess I need to call Jim, that is, if he accepts calls. Did you guys just order yours by clicking through the parts or did you have a discussion with him first? Also, how does payment work? Do you pay in full prior to the build or some other way? I think that's probably fairly important... Also, not one taker on Sweetwater's builds. I'm surprised by that. I guess they just can't hang with Jim. Well, thanks so much everyone for your help on this. If anyone has more to say about any of this I would love to hear it many thanks bob

Thanks for the replies, I appreciate it. Tezza, the reason I said music production is because that's what I do--a little bit of everything. I am mostly interested in replies from musicians who will share what they have currently and if they are happy with all their gear as well as who they would recommend. I don't use loops--I record everything myself using whatever I can find and have a small home studio that I work out of which seems just fine for me. I am not trying to record bands but sometimes I record primarily vocalists with me doing everything else including the mixing and light mastering. I am sort of a Graham Cochrane kind of guy. I hope this helps and thanks for your reply. BRainbow, thanks for your info--that's about what I was looking for. I did check out his place but of course, I am concerned about purchasing from someone I don't know even a little bit, as I am sure you can understand. Have you personally bought from him? Has anyone reading this reply? Who did you buy from if not Jim, if you don't mind me asking. And you're right--there's a lot of good info there. Also, what about Sweetwater and their custom PCs? Have you heard anything much about them? By the way, I see all your stuff there and thanks for sharing. Thanks for helping out and I welcome anyone else's input should they care to reply to this. Thanks, bob

Hello all, and it has been awhile for me here so I hope everyone is doing well! Now, to the task at hand... I'm getting ready to do a serious PC upgrade for MP and I was wondering what some of you would recommend. Not only that, but WHO would you recommend? I surely would appreciate it if a few users would share their thoughts on this. Here is what I am looking for mostly: NO MORE WINDOWS applications than is absolutely necessary Power, speed and memory (of course) Proper connectivity as per what you suggest based on your home studio rig Does Windows 10 work alright with what you do (MP) or are there some problems? How high can you record and export at with your rig? What would you suggest on this matter? Did you have any difficulty transferring and using any plug-ins? (Waves and T-rackS for me) This is not an interface question unless you feel it is relevant at this point. Basically, I am trying to run as much as I want to with no pops, glitches or drags. If I want to have 100 tracks up and 200 plugs going at the same time I want to do so without any problems. What PC and PC maker(s) do you suggest whom you know are good and concerned about the customer? I look forward to hearing from those of you who have already transitioned to the heavier stuff and will strongly consider your bits of wisdom should you be so kind as to share them with me (us). Many Thanks! bob