I would think the Precision Workstation would be a good choice for a DAW. You should be able to lower your latency considerably by using the ASIO4ALL driver.
If you are using the laptop's internal IDT audio hardware, then you have to have a DAW program that supports ASIO. ASIO was originally developed to work with Steinberg's Cubase, but I think that now most other major DAW programs support it. I use Cakewalk's Sonar 4 program. This is a shot from Sonar's options:
ASIO4ALL's default setting lowers my latency to 11.6 msec, which is good enough for me, but one can tweak it to as low as the processor can handle. [I have a Latitude e5420 with a 2nd gen i5 processor.]
So check your DAW program's help file to see if it supports ASIO. If you are using the free Audacity program, it is not licensed for ASIO and you have to re-build the program from the source code to get it to support ASIO. Audacity supplies instructions for doing that here.
I've just tried it again and now it is OK or at last better since there is an output. Only explanation is that I have bought this as a refurb and whoever installed the OS did not installed the correct sound driver. I noticed this after trying and failing with ASIO4ALL. I installed the one from DELL for this machine.
What I had not tried until just now was having the correct driver for the machine and then putting ASIO for all on.
I did install ASIO 4 all when I'd failed to find anything else.
It seemed fine but when I selected ASIO (in as coincidence would have it SONAR X3), all audio outputs disappeared from the Output drivers tab in Preferences.
My Sonar 4 is quite a bit older than X3 so things might be different. After selecting ASIO4ALL as in my 1st screen shot, then I had to exit Sonar. Upon restarting it, only ASIO4AL shows up in Options>Audio>Audio Options>Drivers tab, which I believe is normal. I don't think my version has Preferences.
Then on the Options>Audio>Audio Options>General tab a new button appears, named ASIO Panel, which can be seen in my 2nd pic. Clicking on that open the ASIO control shown in the pic, that lets me choose among devices.
Probably someone on the Sonar forum can help you get it working as I bet many if not most X3 users have ASIO4ALL.
Doesn't X3 have Melodyne? If so have you tried it? I downloaded a trial version but then found that Sonar 4 cannot host it. If I were to upgrade it would be for Melodyne but I don't know if it is worth it or not.
Jim Coates
4 Operator
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13.6K Posts
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August 24th, 2014 09:00
I just cross-posted with you.
Jim Coates
4 Operator
•
13.6K Posts
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August 24th, 2014 05:00
I would think the Precision Workstation would be a good choice for a DAW. You should be able to lower your latency considerably by using the ASIO4ALL driver.
If you are using the laptop's internal IDT audio hardware, then you have to have a DAW program that supports ASIO. ASIO was originally developed to work with Steinberg's Cubase, but I think that now most other major DAW programs support it. I use Cakewalk's Sonar 4 program. This is a shot from Sonar's options:
ASIO4ALL's default setting lowers my latency to 11.6 msec, which is good enough for me, but one can tweak it to as low as the processor can handle. [I have a Latitude e5420 with a 2nd gen i5 processor.]
So check your DAW program's help file to see if it supports ASIO. If you are using the free Audacity program, it is not licensed for ASIO and you have to re-build the program from the source code to get it to support ASIO. Audacity supplies instructions for doing that here.
pmj_rit
4 Posts
0
August 24th, 2014 09:00
I've just tried it again and now it is OK or at last better since there is an output. Only explanation is that I have bought this as a refurb and whoever installed the OS did not installed the correct sound driver. I noticed this after trying and failing with ASIO4ALL. I installed the one from DELL for this machine.
What I had not tried until just now was having the correct driver for the machine and then putting ASIO for all on.
pmj_rit
4 Posts
0
August 24th, 2014 09:00
Thanks Jimco,
I did install ASIO 4 all when I'd failed to find anything else.
It seemed fine but when I selected ASIO (in as coincidence would have it SONAR X3), all audio outputs disappeared from the Output drivers tab in Preferences.
But perhaps it was not really installed properly.
Jim Coates
4 Operator
•
13.6K Posts
0
August 24th, 2014 09:00
My Sonar 4 is quite a bit older than X3 so things might be different. After selecting ASIO4ALL as in my 1st screen shot, then I had to exit Sonar. Upon restarting it, only ASIO4AL shows up in Options>Audio>Audio Options>Drivers tab, which I believe is normal. I don't think my version has Preferences.
Then on the Options>Audio>Audio Options>General tab a new button appears, named ASIO Panel, which can be seen in my 2nd pic. Clicking on that open the ASIO control shown in the pic, that lets me choose among devices.
Probably someone on the Sonar forum can help you get it working as I bet many if not most X3 users have ASIO4ALL.
Doesn't X3 have Melodyne? If so have you tried it? I downloaded a trial version but then found that Sonar 4 cannot host it. If I were to upgrade it would be for Melodyne but I don't know if it is worth it or not.