Recording Lag in Sonar

[hokus7]

I've done a few home recordings before, but nothing too in-depth, and always with a standalone unit. I thought a couple years ago I'd try a computer-based setup, and so I picked up Sonar Home Studio v4 XL, and a Lexicon Omega. Then I got kinda busy, and didn't have much time to figure things out. Anyway, now I'm back at it, and though I know the software is a bit outdated, I figure it'll still work fine.

My problem is that when I'm recording, there seems to be a lag of about half a second or so - that is, I can record a track, and when I attempt to record another over it, the second track lags behind by half a second or so, as do subsequent tracks. The first recorded track will also lag behind the metronome on playback, which makes sense if I've got a lag problem.

The setup I'm using is modest at best, but I wasn't under the impression that I needed any type of powerhouse specs. Acer Aspire 1350 laptop, AMD Athlon XP 2600+ 2 Ghz motherboard, 1GB of RAM. I generally either run my bass straight through the Omega, or my guitar through an Adrenalinn II and then to the Omega. In each case, the lag is the same.

Is it that I don't have enough processing power on the laptop? If so, I can try switching to my PC, I just wanted some portability in the setup. If not, is there anything in particular I can try, maybe a feature of Sonar, to cut that lag out? I don't have anything processor intensive running in the background, so that shouldn't be an issue.

Thanks in advance for any help.

[PCMS]

hmm so the recorded track is out of sync with the newly recorded info..is that right? Go to the options menu and select Audio. Then run the wave profiler (I am assuming you are running WDM drivers) that should fix the problem.

If you load one of the included audio and MIDI files (on the install disk) do all the tracks play in time?

[hokus7]

Thanks for the reply.

I'm actually running the ASIO drivers, as I couldn't get the WDM to work, either before when I tried them, or just recently when I tried again. I don't know if it's a conflict or what, but I can never record with the WDM drivers. I'll try downloading new drivers, to see if that helps.

As for the actual recording, I prefer to use a metronome, and when I record the first track, and then play back, it's off sync from the metronome. Each subsequent recorded track is, in turn, more off sync from the metronome and the original track. It's basically like it's lagging as it's actually recording the signal - there's no lag when I play with the metronome.

The included demo files all play correctly - the problem seems to lie in actual recording.

[PCMS]

If you are using version 7 definitely get the 7.02 update. Also, you might want to try ASIO4ALL. It's an ASIO wrapper that makes just about any driver work in ASIO. It's free and I have seen it improve performance on interfaces that ship with ASIO drivers.

If you are weary of freeware downloads you can grab the FL Studio (Fruity loops) demo and install it. ASIO4ALL is included with it.