Questions: realistic expectations with SONAR X2 producer

Hello All,
 
    This is my first post as a new member on the Cakewalk forums, so please be gentle. (haha?)
 
    My biggest concern involves the hardware I presently own, and whether or not I will need any other components to complete my setup. This is my hypothetical situation; I will be running SONAR X2 producer, and as far as Hardware, I PLAN to use a POD HD500 as the interface for all my guitars and a ZOOM R16 for anything else (mics, drums, w/e). Both connect to my PC with USB 2.0. As you can probably tell, I have no experience with any DAW so this is all virgin territory for me, so my question is thus:
 
    With the aforementioned devices, is it reasonably practicable to assume that I can start learning SONAR and expect to have everything I need/get a decent performance out of the equipement/software and not suffer any severe latency or other issues on my PC (assuming said PC is exceeding opertaing requirements)? I am aware that there are certain processes and tools within SONAR or any other DAW that will induce latency regardless.
 
    If that is insufficient equipment for a bare-bones set up, then what TYPES of devices am i looking at to complete it? Any advice on the subject is most welcome.
 
                    Looking forward to being a part of the Cakewalk community,
                                                                                                        
                                                                            Blaine

The plan is definitely to include a sound card,
 
I apologize for any peculiar use of the terminology I am using! as it says in the post, this is all new to me.
 
I see what you are saying in regard to the sound card. I think it would fall on me at this point to inform myself as to how the processes in the proagram and the sound card relate to one another. my biggest setback at this point, to be embarassingly honest, is that I havent the faintest clue what I'm doing, I just want to know whether or not my gear is gonna work for or against me...
 
Thank you very much for taking the time to respond!
 

Thanks, I will see what I can find! As far as the Zoom R16 is concerned, there is some propaganda on their site as far as it functionality with any DAW, but I would like to find out if that accurate or not...
 
any advice is always appreciated :)
 
                Thanks again

It looks like the Zoom R16 is a full on 8 in 2 out 24-bit/96Khz USB 2.0 audio interface (aka sound card) with ASIO drivers. Personally I'd just use the R16 as my interface and route the POD audio through it as swapping interfaces (and monitor outs etc) every time you want to record different instruments sounds to me like more hassle than it's worth.

Will do, I just wanted some clarification as to whether or not it was even enough to get started with. The next plan is to use and abuse the setup to see how far I get along! I will do my best to keep everyone updated.
 
            Cheers! 

I would think when it is all said and done, you might want to look at a "proper" sound card such as those produced with multiple inputs like Focusrite, Presonus, Tascam, etc., since these are DESIGNED for the DAW market.  By all means, you should see if the Zoom and POD work, but In my mind, I'm guessing that ultimately you will prefer a dedicated audio/midi interface.  Just my thoughts...

Regards

And just to confuse you even further, I've got a POD Pro XT and I only have the audio side of this set up, totally ignoring the digital & Midi side of it.

I run all of my IO through a Focusrite Saffire PRO26 and just treat the POD signal like I would any other audio signal - straight into the Saffire & into Sonar.