EQ while recording, MIDI playback

The output of your controller keyboard is midi data, not sound, so you can't apply EQ to the midi being recorded.

To do what you want you set up a Sonar (or whatever you are using) project and insert a midi track and a software synth you want to listen to.  Set the midi track input to be your keyboard.  Set the midi track output to be the software synth.  You can add audio effects (EQ, Reverb, etc) to the track with the software synth.

I think that's an easy way to do it but others might have an easier way.

--Larry

SONAR always records the dry signal. If you want to record the FX you need to use some special routing. IIRC it's possible, but now I don't remember how it's done.

I'm not sure I understand the second part of your question. Are you not familiar with soft synths? How have you used your UF7 this far? Insert any of the ones in SONAR using the synth rack and play to your hearts content. There's a tutorial in the help files.

Larry has it pretty much dead on.
Set the MIDI track's input to the keyboard and it's output to the soft synth of choice. When you play the keyboard, you should hear the synth sound.
Of course, how the sound card handles it is another question. If you're using the stock computer sound card there will almost certainly be a delay (latency) from the time you hit the key until you hear it from the speakers. What is your sound card or audio interface?
As far as EQ, or any audio effect, they are only applied to the output. You can permanently apply the effect to a track by bouncing the track or using the Process>Audio>Apply Audio Effect function at the top. That cannot be undone once the track is saved and closed, though.

It looks like the Echo has ASIO drivers. Change the Driver Mode in SONAR to ASIO and that should make the Echo the default device since with SONAR in ASIO, only 1 device can be used.
How you do that depends on which version of SONAR you have. Putting that info as well as your audio interface and computer operating system in your profile signature can keep us from having to ask what you're using each time you have a question.
In older SONAR products, go to Options>Audio, find the Driver Mode and change it to ASIO.
In X1 and Music Creator 6, press the P button on the computer keyboard to bring up the Preferences screen to change driver modes, or Edit>Preferences at the top.
 

In many (most?) soft synths, you change the patch in the MIDI track, not the synth GUI. Try that.

Ah, MIDI has 16 channels to transmit on. Usually synths are set to Channel 1 unless changed. If you record a midi track on channel 1 then the next one has to be (without interfering with the first one) set to channel 2 and on like that. Then you have to check in Sonar to make sure you are playing back the midi channel that was recorded on that track. You probably could use just channel 1 for a few tracks but I would not want to actually do that with midi because everything for those few tracks would be on channel 1 no matter what soft synth or patch you have set. Not really done that way. (studio channel is also called a channel strip).

I do not use soft synths so I really can not help. But in Sonar if it is like mine (Sonar 7) on the Options menu - Midi devices, do you have the one you want to use - checked there. Since I have the RME Babyface, I have midi in - Babyface Midi In and output is Babyface Midi Out checked. The Microsoft built in midi soft synth is there but not checked or at the top of the list - the device being checked should be at the top of the list both Midi In and Midi Out. Otherwise, someone else will have to chime in on using soft synths from Sonar. I don't use midi anymore.

Got it working!!! Really cool stuff!

Not completely sure about the solution....I went into Windows Control Panel and made my regular speakers the default.....I guess I was not doing something right on the outputs.....

"Not completely sure about the solution....I went into Windows Control Panel and made my regular speakers the default.....I guess I was not doing something right on the outputs....."

Your instinct to question this is correct.
Here's the problem:

"MIDI track shows on far left In=MIDI Omni Out=MS GS Wavetable Synth"

While Greg is correct, generally speaking, there are exceptions, and some sound cards can indeed see the MS Wavetable Synth using ASIO. My E-MU0404 can, and it appears thet your Echo can as well.
First step, uncheck the MS Wavetable Synth in the Preferences manu. You don't want to use it. Ever. Even though it is technically a soft synth, sonar sees it as an external hardware device. It operates outside the Sonar environment.
The reason you can hear it through your normal computer speakers is because the sound is being handled by Windows and the built-in sound card, not by Sonar and the Echo.
The Echo option you see as a MIDI output would be for an external device connected to the Echo MIDI OUt port. The port itself cannot produce sound. it is merely a connection point.
You hear no sound from the Roland soft synth you have inserted because there is no MIDI data being fed to it.

Insert a soft synth (TTS-1 is a good one to start with).
Select:
MIDI Source Track
First Synth Audio Out
Synth Properties Page(the GUI)
 This will create a MIDI track and audio track properly connected to each other.
Assuming you have everything else properly connected, this should give you sound through your monitors connected to the Echo output.
Take some time to digest that. This is a basic signal path, and works with all soft synths in Sonar. it's confusing at first, but once you wrap your head around that, the world of soft syths is yours.


Your EQ question is a completely different animal. Lets take them on one at a time.

there are exceptions, and some sound cards can indeed see the MS Wavetable Synth using ASIO. My E-MU0404 can, and it appears thet your Echo can as well.

 
Even after 10 years, I still learn something new. I did not know that. I thought it was a universal restriction. Thanks, Bob.
So, rnelson, is the sound coming out of your Echo or out of the computer speakers now?