Bill Ruys

My guess is that the faster I/O from the SSD is causing the USB caddy to choke. I don't know if you have your USB caddy plugged into the front USB ports on your PC, but I have found that a lot of cases have poor quality front USB cables/connectors that generate errors when busy. Have you tried plugging in the caddy to the USB3 ports on the back of the PC? Can you plug the SSD into a sata port instead?

128 samples seems reasonable, depending on how large the project is. Does the problem improve if you bump it up? I would also add that DPC latency can cause crackle. You might want to check it with the tool here: https://www.resplendence.com/latencymon I had one occasion where the Asus AI Suite was generating high latency and this resulted in crackle during playback. Killing it off completely fixed the problem. CPU power saving can also cause crackling as the CPU steps through speed levels. Setting your power profile to High Performance can resolve crackling issues if this is the problem.

This was my thought too. You have not told us what buffer settings you have set in CW. It could well be that out of the box, CW used more aggressive buffer settings than your other software. You need to tell us which driver mode (ASIO, WASAPI, etc) and what audio buffer settings you are using before anyone here can help. Telling us that "as usual" the audio engine is not up to par and then leaving out probably the most important information is just going to rile people up (which I see, it already has). We're here to help, but at least make a reasonable effort to help us help you before telling us the software we all use is not up to par. Otherwise you kinda come off as a bit of a troll (which I'm sure you're not).

I've been an IT professional for over 25 years. AMD are no worse than Intel from a reliability standpoint. We've had both AMD and Intel PCs that have been "lemons" in the past. Never has the problem been due to the brand of CPU. Usually either a hardware fault somewhere else, or a driver or software conflict. We have consumer protection laws where I live and a problem like this, by law, must be rectified within the "expected lifespan" of the device, regardless of the warranty offered by the manufacturer.

Wow! There is so much in this update. You guy have been hard at work! Looking forward to giving it a test drive.

+1 - This is what I found when bringing in tracks from my H6.

I still use the PX64 on almost every project I work on. Something about per-band tube warming in the EQ section just works better than any other tube plug-in I've ever used. I have spent a lot of money on 3rd party plugins, but this is still a go-to for me.

Whangarei, Northland, New Zealand

Some useful DAW benchmark info on the Ryzen 3000 series here: https://www.scanproaudio.info/2019/07/12/amd-ryzen-3600-3700x-3900x-dawbench-tested-3-is-it-the-magic-number/

No FB here either. Anything that requires a FB account is avoided like the plague. I'm pleasantly surprised to see how many here feel the same way. Maybe there is hope for the world after all...

Totally off topic, but when I read the title of this thread, I expected to see a picture of Noel Borthwick with his feet up on the desk, sipping on a martini... 😂

When you say hum, is it actually 60 Hz? If it is 60 Hz, no plug-in EMI/RFI filter is going to help you. Is the hum coming from both monitors simultaneously? If the hum is intermittent, I would suspect that maybe the electrolytic filter caps maybe going bad, but this would likely not affect both monitors at the same time. I don't know what monitors you're running, but some of the M-Audio models, like the BX series suffer from poor magnetic shielding of the main power transformer and hum continuously. I would try: Powering up only one monitor at a time - is the hum only in one monitor? Disconnecting all audio connections - do you still get hum? If so it's power supply related - if not, it's likely an earth loop.

Lee has gone from feigning an interest in Sonar to conspiracy theorist over the course of this thread. I can't wait to see where this goes next!

So I read yesterday that one of the changes in Windows 10 build 1903 was that there was a change made to the Windows scheduler to better operate with Ryzen CPUs. I wondered if this might help with the latency issues I have always had on my 1st gen Ryzen 1800 (8-core, 16-thread CPU). I have a MOTU 896 Mk 3 and have never been able to use the lowest latency for the last couple of years. I upgraded to Win 10 build 1903 tonight and loaded up a couple of projects that always glitched badly at the lowest couple of latency settings (64 and 96 samples per buffer). Holy cow! I am seeing the best performance I have ever seen - zero glitches on these projects! The difference is night and day. And, CPU usage is super even among the cores and lower than ever. I am absolutely blown away in how much better Sonar runs on the Ryzen with this particular Windows update. All I can say is that you have a Ryzen-based DAW, do yourself a huge favor and upgrade to build 1903! I was thinking seriously about going back to Intel for my next DAW. I am now convinced that my next rig will be Ryzen based.

OK, so you are sure, but you haven't cited how these other DAWs have dramatically overtaken Sonar (except for maybe AAF support). The Studio One example was one I could give, because it happens to be another DAW that I own, use, and can give a reasoned opinion of. It is also, I believe, one of the main competitors to Sonar, as it seems to me that it was the most common DAWs selected when Gibson closed it doors and Sonar users were looking for alternatives (based on many comments on the Sonar forum at the time). This is what led me to purchase Studio One at the time. You've said that Sonar has stood still while others have move on. I'm keen to know how? Remembering of course that some DAWs have specialist areas of functionality. For instance, Sonar is not going to challenge Abelton anytime soon for live performance. I would also list Studio One's macros as a great workflow advantage over Sonar, but these are cases of one DAW having a specialist, unique tool or feature, rather that a case of one DAW having a much better update cycle than the other. Just interested in learning what I don't know.

Are you sure about that? I note that nearly all of the new features that users are going nuts about in the Studio One 4.5 update have been in Sonar for YEARS. I had to chuckle as I watched the videos on youtube touting the wonderful new features. And in case you think I'm biased, I own a fully paid-up license for Studio One 4.x

Basically, the lower the voltage available to the internal amplifier, the lower impedance you need in the headphones to get reasonable power output (basic Ohms law). The 2i2 is bus powered (5v), so using Ohm's law, the maximum theoretical power you would get from 250 Ohm headphones in this device is about 70mW RMS. At 80 Ohms you have about 220mW and at 30 Ohms, you have about 590mW RMS maximum power. So, for either bus powered or low voltage battery powered devices, I would go for the 30 Ohm set. If you are likely to use them with some other devices too, like mixing desks, etc. 80 Ohm may be a better compromise. The 250 Ohm set would be best suited for purpose-built headphone amplifiers or HiFi systems designed for high impedance cans. In a nutshell, what it comes down to is that the lower the voltage of the amplifier design, the lower in impedance the headphones must be to get enough power for good volume levels (lower impedance means higher current, which means higher power). Too high impedance headphones on a low voltage system results in low volume.

My guess is that you are using your Focusrite as your default Windows audio playback device. I suspect that Windows has set the sample rate to 48K via the WDM driver and therefore, when Sonar tries to change the sample rate to via the ASIO driver 44.1, it can't, as Windows has exclusive access via WDM. The work-around might be to use your computer's onboard audio as the Windows default audio device, then the Focusright will not be set to 48K by Windows. It sounds like Windows and Sonar are fighting over the sample rate.

Thanks for all the info, Jim. I have also read that latency on the first generation Ryzen processors is a lot worse than Intel CPUs. Apparently the 2nd gen (2000 series) chips are significantly better. No news yet on the upcoming 3000 (Ryzen 2) chips. Given that Thunderbolt is an exclusively Intel technology, I think my DAW experiment with AMD is over and I'll be building an Intel-based DAW next time with good Thunderbolt support and look at one of the newer MOTU AVB interfaces.

I used to have a MOTU 2408 Mk3 and 24I/O connected via PCIe-424 audiowire. Both would run at very low latency and if the product wasn't too loaded, I could run at 64 samples. When I sold my studio, I purchased a 896Mk3 Hybrid, as I wanted some built-in preamps, plus I add more via ADAT when I need them. I have never, ever been able to get anywhere near 4ms whether connected via USB or FireWire (TI Chipset). I find I have to run with 256 samples at a minimum and often more to avoid dropouts or distortion. I really miss the low latency I got with the audiowire gear. However, if you're saying you can get sub 4ms with the MOTU USB stuff, maybe there is hope? Only reason I have steered clear of the new MOTU interfaces is the crap-shoot that is thunderbolt on Windows. Also, I currently run a Ryzen rig, which, of course, does not support thunderbolt.

The only real issue, and it is an issue, that I have with Windows 10 is that each major anniversary update breaks the licensing on a number of components on my DAW. Waves plugins and Addictive Drums being the first two to come to mind. The latest update, 1809 also broke my audio interface driver installation, requiring a full driver re-install. With previous versions of Windows, you knew that if you upgraded, you were in for changes that you could prepare for in advance. However, with Windows 10, major changes that used to be saved for version upgrades can be installed at any time, effectively breaking your DAW. The October update just used up the last license renewal for Addictive Drums and I now need to raise a support call to get it working again. This was not a problem in previous versions of Windows and is quite a significant down-side to being on Windows 10.