CAKEWALK Cakewalk SONAR, User Manual

Page: 162 / 610

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Finally, you say "3." By this time the original "1" has been converted back to analog audio by the DAC,
and that analog signal is mixed in with the "3" you have just said. The ultimate result is that you hear a
"1" and "3" mixed together at the line output of card—seemingly sounding like an echo, but actually just
an artifact of the signal flow through the system.
You can eliminate the echo by muting the line-in from playing back (see “To Eliminate the Echo from
Input Monitoring” on page 162); you’ll send only the processed signal to the sound card outputs. This
technique introduces a little extra latency to what you hear coming out of your sound card, but if you
use WDM or ASIO drivers with your sound cards, the latency is negligible.
The feedback problem results whenever you have a loop in your mixer path: the output of your mixer is
patched into the input of your sound card. Feedback can happen with or without input monitoring, but
since input monitoring can add several levels of gain to the signal flow, it’s of greater concern when you
have input monitoring enabled. Input monitoring is disabled by default when you install SONAR, and
you enable it with the following procedure.
To Enable Input Monitoring
• Turn your speakers down, and on an audio track that you want to monitor, click the Input Echo
button so that it’s lit up (on)
. To disable monitoring for this track, click the button off.
Or
• Turn your speakers down, and on the Playback State toolbar (to display, use the View-Toolbars-
Playback State command), click the Input Monitor button so that it’s lit up—this enables input
monitoring on all tracks. To disable monitoring for all tracks, click the button off.
Now you can hear your instrument in real time with any plug-in effects that you want to patch into the
current track. You might also hear an echo, because the dry signal is coming out of your sound card
slightly ahead of the processed signal. To eliminate the dry signal, see the next procedure.
To Eliminate the Echo from Input Monitoring
1. Open the software mixer that controls your sound card. If your sound card uses the Windows
mixer, open the mixer by using the
Start-Programs-Accessories-Entertainment-Volume
Control command, or double-clicking the speaker icon on the Windows taskbar.
2. In the Play Control window of the mixer, check the Mute checkbox in the Line-In column, or in the
column of whatever jack your instrument is plugged into, and close the mixer window.
Now you can hear only the processed sound when you use input monitoring. Using WDM or ASIO
drivers for your sound card keeps latency to a negligible amount.
Note : This procedure does not eliminate feedback from you system, only the echo. If you experience
feedback, you have a feedback loop somewhere in your mixer setup.
The Audio Engine Button
SONAR has a button in the Transport toolbar 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. Whenever the button is enabled, the Audio Running message lights up on the Status bar that’s at
the bottom of the SONAR window.
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.