Confused about Control Surface settings

I apologize for the long post, but I try to be thorough when I'm asking a question, hopefully to avoid confusion.
 
Allen and Heath ZedR16 - Sonar X2 Studio
(Yes, I know FastBikerGuy is the authority on the Zed - Hoping he'll drop by here!)
 
OK - I set up some mics to do some drum recording today: 6 instrument mics and 2 o'heads, and a room mic. = 9 mics>first 9 channels on my Zed mixer. Everything was cool 'til I got to the mic in channel number 9.
On channel 9 I had my inputs and outputs set up just like the first 8 channels in Sonar: Input = channel number and pan assignment. Output = Master Bus in Sonar. All channels have 'Sends' set up to send the channel's signal to its corresponding Zed channel (i.e. Channel 1 in Sonar has a Send assigned to 'Channel 1 Left' on the Zed mixer).
All channels worked fine (with one exception which I will discribe shortly), but I got no signal to Sonar on Channel 9's mic.
I suspect this has something to do with my Control Surface settings under Edit>Preferences. It's been some time since I set this up and I'm sure I didn't know what I was doing when I did it, so I'm not sure how to remedy the situation.
 
I have 2 controller/surfaces listed under that section of 'Edit>Preferences', each with the Zed as the Input Port: ACT MIDI controller - 1, and Cakewalk Generic Surface. The Output Port on each is set to 'None'.
Of course, each control surface has its own color assigned to the WAI, but oddly Channel 1 in Sonar is one color, while channels 2 thru 8 are the color of the other controller. This is probably problem number one. I'm not seeing any color code for any channels above channel 8 in the Track View, so that's why I'm guessing the mic I had plugged into channel 9 does nothing.
 
Additionally, under 'Utilities' I'm seeing the 2 Controller Surfaces listed: The ACT MIDI Controller gives me a pop up window with 8 columns and 4 rows. Again, this makes me suspect something in this window needs modification to allow me to get signal from a mic plugged into channels 9 and above.
When I click on the other ('Cakewalk Generic Surface), I get the checklist sort of window where I enabled control of my Zed faders to operate Sonar's channel faders. 
I've read over the available literature for setups and controller surfaces, but for one who isn't clued into the lingo I find it confusing. Anyone care to put things in layman's terms given the situation and settings I described?
 
OK - now this is really strange. In the scenerio I described above, the mic plugged into channel 3 on my Zed (and routed in Sonar just like all the other channels) records: I can see the waveform in Sonar on that channel, but when I play it back, I got nothing. Again, as far as I can see, everything is routed the same on that channel as the others...inputs and outputs with their own assignments, etc., but I get nothing on playback. The 'meter' on the Sonar channel on channel 3 doesn't even register at all, as though there's nothing there.
I've got the Zed's channels all set up for playback and I'm not seeing any difference between channel 3 and all the other channels, as far as routing and such is concerned. I'm thinking the problem is within Sonar, as I'm not seeing any movement on the 'meter' - nothing is there to send to the Zed?
 
Thanks in advance for your help!
 

AndyDavis
I would try and separate your report into the audio routing portions and the ACT portions.  ACT is a flaky beast, so I would get the audio side of things working first.  Just use the mouse to set fader levels, buss assignments, etc.
 
You say that you can see the waveform in sonar.  Do you mean that you have recorded a track and waveform corresponding to what you have recorded is present in Sonar?
 
If so, then follow the faders and routing; otherwise was the track armed for recording?

"..seperate your report into the audio routing portions and the ACT portions." - I have no idea what you're talking about here.
 
"You say that you can see the waveform in sonar.  Do you mean that you have recorded a track and waveform corresponding to what you have recorded is present in Sonar?" - Exactly.

The ACT colors you are seeing in Sonar have nothing to do with the audio.  It has only to do with the channels on the ZED that have control on your fader actions etc.
 
Select "P" to go to your preferences menu
Under "Audio"/"Devices" you should see your ZED options for input.  If you are using firewire, you should have all 16 selected as well as the main.
 
My guess is that you don't have all of the inputs selected.
 
If you are using ADAT, you will only have 8.

Between working a full time job, playing out in my band, and rehearsing with my other project (acoustic), (not to mention the duties of husband and homeowner!) it's been too long since I turned on Cakewalk!
 
OK - I deleted the control surface selections in Preferences and started over. I 'added' 2 ACT Control Surfaces, both the Allen and Heath Zed, each with their own WAI color, obviously, and I immediately saw the first WAI color associate itself with the first 8 channel strips in Sonar, but the remaining 8 (channels 9-16) remained without any WAI color.
Acting instinctively and on a hunch, I placed my cursor over the area on the Channel 9 track strip (Track view) where the WAI color should appear, and right-clicked my mouse. Lo and behold, a little window appeared with the option asking if I'd like to assign one of my two ACT controllers here. I chose the one whose color wasn't visible yet, and channels 9-16 instantly became assigned to that controller. Haven't checked yet, but I suspect I will now be able to record a signal onto those tracks.
 
Now it was time to go back into Preferences and add the Cakewalk Generic Surface to allow me to assign the transport controls on my ZED R16 for those functions. I had accomplished this before, so I did not anticipate any problems. Unfortunately, I had problems.
It's a fairly simple operation: Open the Utilities drop down and choose 'Cakewalk Generic Surface'. A window with all sorts of choices opens and I simply tick the little circle next to 'Play' under Global Parameters, press the Play button on the ZED, and click the 'Learn' button in the window.
I did this and I could see the movement of the marker in Sonar, merrily making its way through the track.
I next ticked the little circle next to 'Stop' in Global Parameters, pressed the Stop button on the transport section of the ZED, and clicked 'Learn' button in the window.
Immediately, the marker that had been indicating the progress of the track as it played became totally erratic, as though it was trying to play and stop at the same time. I tried using the mouse and cursor over the transport controls in Sonar, but got no response - only this erratic crazy behavior.
I went back to Utilities and deleted the Cakewalk Generic Surface from my list of Control Surfaces and regained control of the transport, but only 'in the box', not via the ZED (which makes perfect sense to me).  
I closed Sonar and reopened; repeated the same steps; and got the same results. For some reason, I cannot get control of transport with my ZED anymore. (At least not in the way that I had once before.)
 
I did solve the problem I had earlier with not being able to get one of my tracks to play, even though I was looking at the waveform in its channel: I opened up the track lanes and saw that the 'Mute' button was on, though evidently it wasn't visible when the track lanes were collapsed.

Pretty much figured out all the stuff with the ACT and Generic Midi Controllers. My problem now remains that I can't get a signal to any of the channels in Sonar above channel 8.
See my new thread here - any help is greatly appreciated:
http://forum.cakewalk.com/Cant-see-a-signal-above-channel-8-m2851151.aspx