sonar 6 PE - zero latency monitoring

Ok forgive my ignorance once again.
I bought Sonar 6 PE years ago, and never used it. I couldn't get it to work for the longest time and a friend gave me a little multitrack that i was using instead... Now i no longer have that option, so i installed sonar and this time got it to work (all i needed to get the input working was to switch Driver Mode from ASIO to MME... i didn't understand this back when i first bought it).
So i really am completely new to this whole DAW recording thing... Now here are my CPU specs:
dell inspiron E1705 laptop w/ 1Ghz RAM and 1.73 Ghz processor. SigmaTel Audio soundcard.

i understand this is an older computer and JUST meets the minimum requirements for sonar 6. being naive, i thought my computer's soundcard would do the trick. now i believe i need an interface, but do not know which one to get. i need to be able to monitor with close to zero latency, and i'm getting so discouraged by the need to buy more **** i can't afford! i thought you might be able to recommend a USB interface that will work well with my setup, and is reasonably priced. Or do i need a new soundcard? or a better computer? i'm so tired of dealing with this, i should have just bought myself hardware. i dont even understand what asio, mme, and all this other stuff is all about, so it's hard for me to pinpoint how to fix the latency problems. is my computer speed the problem? or are there interfaces that will work for me WITHOUT having to replace the soundcard as well?

sorry for the convoluted mess. i guess i'm a better musician than an engineer.

http://pro-audio.musician...lePre-mk-II?sku=H65460

for instance this mkII interface claims to have a "direct monitoring" button that will let me here my input at low latency, but i won't be able to hear that in the headphones along with the other tacks i've already recorded, right? i don't understand how this works. if i want to record a guitar solo over tracks i already have arranged in Sonar, how do i monitor them all at once, while monitoring the track being recorded, at close to zero latency?

well all i will be doing is hip hop stuff. i have a yamaha motif and mpc1000 to make the beats, and recording them has been just fine in Sonar.
i was puzzled about the input monitoring issue for two reasons: monitoring while recording my vocals, and also doing guitar and piano overdubs in Sonar.
so since i can blend whats being played with what i'm recording, i suppose i will need to get an interface, but does this also require a better soundcard? my understanding has been that the interface is basically like an external soundcard, meaning i wouldn't need a new one.. is that right?
either way, i'm going to have to go cheap. and i hate to say that, since i already have so much great equipment as far as toys to play with, my setup is the motif, mpc, dr. sample all routed into my mixer. i just felt that this monitoring issue was a pretty substantial problem.. i'm not about to record vocal tracks with no sound! and the guitar overdubs would be even worse!

oh, and thanks for your response, good sir...

Back to what you said about not being able to monitor any of the softsynths... Can I get around this by either "freezing" the soft synth tracks or converting them to audio?

dumby the wise


Back to what you said about not being able to monitor any of the softsynths... Can I get around this by either "freezing" the soft synth tracks or converting them to audio?

What I meant was that you can't use the kind of 0 latency direct monitoring with soft synths because this kind of monitoring allows you to listen to what is coming in the Input mixed with what is coming out the Outputs as you record live. You can only hear soft synths live as the audio is processed by your system and audio interface. So if you plug in a guitar you can hear the sound of the guitar with zero latency, but if you want to hear the guitar playing sounds from a virtual guitar amp like Guitar Rig, the processed sounds are going to have some delay (latency) between the notes you play and the sound you hear. How long the delay is depends on how fast your system can process the audio.

Freezing a soft synth or converting the tracks to audio is different because the material is already recorded.