If you have the tracks minimized, then you will only get a very thin graphic of the recorded audio. This is because when miminized the track only occupies a thin strip of space. Try creating a project with one audio track only. Record something. Then either grab the bottom of the track header (the grey area with the track name, buttons, etc. on the left of track view) and pull it downwards, click the widget in the top right of the track header or use the vertical zoom tools (see manual).

You can resize a track vertically so that it fills most of the screen if you want to.

The waveform image generally does not change when you use either pro-channel or fx bin effects - this is usually a good thing (think what a track made of lots of separate clips you want to move around would look like if e.g. a delay was put on the track and the image altered to include all the delay repeats).

Things like fades applied to a clip do alter the waveform image.

In my opinion it's generally a good idea to record a fairly strong signal
(-12 upwards, but out of the red, on the meters if you're recording in 24bit) then mix it at a lower volume if you want it quieter - you get a better signal to noise ratio that way.

As for the Lola card, I don't know it, but having quickly looked at the manual I would suggest making sure you have the "automatic gain control" in it switched off.

Also, depending on how you've set up the card's software mixer the level you hear what you're recording at and the level actually going into Sonar may not be the same.

How good the Lola card is (or not) I've no idea. What exactly it offers e.g. a courtroom that any other multiple-input interface with built-in limiting doesn't offer I don't know either, other than it's probably easier for court staff who are probably not sound engineers) to understand just the card and it's mixer without having to deal with a DAW's signal flow as well. One things certain - anything targeted at the legal market is always expensive :-/

The specs actually look pretty typical for soundcards in general (though only two outputs is perhaps less than ideal depending on your setup). For playing VSTIs much will depend on how good the ASIO (or WASAPI if one's available) driver is. If the driver's no good you will get latency problems. ASIO drivers are about reducing latency, not necessarily improving the sound quality over a WDM driver. PCIe cards generally mean you can get low latencies in principle, but it's down to the driver - and optimising your PC - in the end.

As for drivers, no, a 32 bit driver won't work on a 64 bit system. At all. 64bit Windows is designed to prevent you from even installing a 32 bit driver, and can not load or use them. If you are seeing an ASIO entry in Sonar's preferences on a 64bit Windows system it must be using a 64bit ASIO driver.

Unless your installed Windows version is actually 32bit Windows running on an x64 system, which is quite possible..... In Vista if you open the "System" window from Control Panel then under the "system" heading it should tell you if you are running a 32 or 64bit operating system. Win7 should have a way to give you the same information. It might be worth checking what it says.

About the ASIO: It is 32 bit and my OS is Win 7 professional 64 bit - service pack 1 - ACER VERITON 3 Ghz

 
I suspect you might be getting the many different ways the word "bit" gets used a bit confused - perhaps because it is confusing at first.
 
Your Lola card, according to the manual, operates in 24bit sample-depth audio itself (this is pretty much the standard for interfaces) but can output 32bit data - i.e. data with twice the bit depth of a CD. This use of the word "bits" has nothing at all to do with Windows or the PC's hardware.
 
Your PC is running "64bit" Windows. This has nothing at all to do with the sample bit depth the Lola or it's driver is outputting to Sonar, but is to do with how (to keep thing simple) the operating system handles data and hardware. Likewise, an x64 PC has hardware that operates at a bandwidth of 64bits.
 
It is possible to run a 32bit copy of Windows on x64 hardware, but not vice versa.
 
What matters with the ASIO driver is that it is written (programmed) to work on a 64bit system running 64bit Windows. From what you say it appears that it is. Therefore the driver is what is called a "64bit driver" - if it wasn't Windows wouldn't - in fact couldn't - let it run at all.
 
It would seem that what you are doing is selecting the card's driver "output" that offers a 32bit audio depth. Sonar can handle this bit depth directly I think, if you go into preferences and set it as the preferred bit depth for new projects. It will, however, occupy a vast amount of disc space very quickly (32bit wave files are big...). Personally I'd recommend setting Sonar to record in 24bit then export the finished work to whatver bit depth you need (e.g. 16 for CD).
 
The clicks, ticks and pops you refer to probably are to do with the ASIO settings, and raising the ASIO buffer and adjusting the diver settings may deal with the problem. If it doesn't, or you find there's too much delay between you playing a note on your controller and a VSTi responding ("latency") search this forum for "latency" and "dpc latency" - you'll find much there that will help you. A quick fix that may make a big difference is to use Window's device manager to disable any wireless networking/internet adaptors before launching Sonar - the things (or, to be accurate, their drivers) are notorious trouble causers for DAWs. Latency's a by-product of how modern Windows and PCs multi-task by the way.
 
Working with software synths may be convenient, but it has its problems to, latency being one of them. How low you can get the latency depends on the PC in question (all are different, even if they came off the same production line), the background software running and the particular ASIO driver being used. Some drivers will give lower latencies than others (which is what I meant by saying some are better than others) but all other things being equal, a PCIe card should give you the best chance of lowest latencies.
 
You're right about how few PCIe cards there are on the market, as well. I assume you're using a MIDI interface of some kind as well?
 
I strongly recommend you have a look at Chapter 35 in the pdf Sonar Manual, "Improving Audio Performance" as it deals with a lot of this stuff. If in doubt after that, seach these forums and the web (but be very wary of any advice that pre-dates Windows Vista as much advice around is now outdated) and if you need help never be afraid to ask. You're far from the first person to find setting a DAW up a bit daunting and you certainly won't be the last. We've all been there, and even the most experienced run into a problem they've never come across before at times.
 
Finally, it looks like the AGC feature is actually a compressor/limiter of some sort (a good idea to prevent unanticipated overloads when recording in e.g. a courtroom or meeting). One reason I suggest switching it off is that you may well not want your audio compressed before entering Sonar - you'll get far more control (and choice of compressor) by compressing it afterwards, and there's rarely a need to compress before recording if sampling at 24bit or greater anyway because of the amount of headroom available.
 
Anyway, it sounds like you're making progress :-).
 
As for Sonar X1's interface not being entirely friendly to people with visual difficulties, a few people have made that point before now.

I can attest to the fact that jumping into X1 is quite a learning curve. I've had X1 now for almost 5 months...and I still have a LOT to learn. I went from Pro Audio 9 (using for midi sequencer only) to Sonar X1 Producer Expanded. When I first joined the forum and started asking questions, I too was frustrated quite frequently and more than likely came across as such. But truly, the people here have helped me more than I can say. And I have actually been able to help a couple myself. These folks are great people and a wealth of info and I appreciate each and every one here...!