Audio Recording Trouble in X2 Producer

Hi Folks.  Newbie forum member here.
 
I purchased Sonar X2 last year but only activated it recently.  It's a big leap from Adobe Audition 1.5 that I'd been using reliably for years.  But I took a new job writing and recording for a music production company that licenses to film and television, so I figured it was time to get up to date.
 
I've had no trouble recording MIDI instruments in Sonar, but I'm getting some odd (what sounds like digital) distortion when trying to record audio--completely unusable.  I can't find the solution.  To get by I've been recording audio in Audition and importing it into Sonar for mixing; juggling between the two is a hassle, though.  I have no issues recording audio in Audition, and there are no issues playing it back in Sonar once I've imported it.  It's just a recording issue.
 
I typically record 48/24.  I'm operating on a custom built PC: i7 quad; 12 GB RAM; Windows 7 Ultimate.  I'm using two second generation Echo Layla interfaces.
 
Incidentally, I purchased Amplitude 3 a couple of days ago and have also had noise issues when using it in standalone mode.  Again, if I use it as a plug-in in Sonar with previously recorded audio it functions as it should.
 
Am I missing a key input setting?  Are my older Layla interfaces the issue?
 
Thoughts/suggestions/comments are welcome.  Thanks in advance!

ASIO only supports one sound card. So you cannot use 2 sound cards in ASIO mode. Only WDM mode allows 2 sound cards. 
 
Now, you must set one sound card as the master and one as the slave. This might be why your getting digital distortion. Only one card or devise, like Big Ben can be used as the master clock. so check your master and slave settings. This should resolve your issue
 
CJ

Yea, you are right and I am wrong. I overlooked daisy chaining.
 
The problem still has to do with setting one to master and one to slave
 
Cj

CJaysMusic
ASIO only supports one sound card. So you cannot use 2 sound cards in ASIO mode. Only WDM mode allows 2 sound cards. 

 
It will support two sound cards if they are the same. I've run both my Layla3G pair and my Delta 1010 pair ASIO with no issues, but if I try to use a Delta with a Layla I have to switch to WDM or MME. 
 

brundlefly
Are the two interfaces able to use the same ASIO driver or do you have to use WDM? If you're using WDM driver mode, you might try switching to ASIO (Preferences > Audio > Playback and Recording) and see if you still get access to all the I/O channels on both devices. But even if only one interface is available, try recording and see if that solves the issue. In any case, make sure the Record Timing Master is the same driver/device as the Playback Timing Master (Preferences > Audio > Driver Settings).

This basically solved my problem.  I was set for WDM (which is what always worked with Audition).  The switch to ASIO gave me clean audio recording in X2.  The catch: I can only use my first Layla unit--the master unit.  Its slave is recognized, but I experienced continuous dropouts when I tried to record using those inputs.  Playing with buffer size didn't help.  I can get by for the time being, but I'll eventually have to figure out more inputs for tracking drums.
 
Now I'm having some issues with plug-ins only performing during playback, not while recording.  Any suggestions there?
 
As you guys can probably tell, I'm still a little green when it comes to DAWs.  I only gave up tape completely about four years ago.  I'm really loving all the options that have been opened up (like MIDI instruments--suddenly I DO have all those vintage keyboards and synths), but I've got some learning catch-up to do.
 
The help is MUCH appreciated.  Thanks!

I didn't sift through the results (peeked at one of them), but if you review Google search results for the following terms, maybe one of the links will help guide you through getting both interfaces chained together:
 
site:cakewalk.com forum layla clock
 
Just pate the above in to a browser address bar and hit Enter.
 
Hope something in the results helps you, 
 
Bob Bone
 

Kewl - only 1 less than a billion or so other things to learn :)
 
It's an amazing set of software - you will benefit greatly from the tutorials, YouTube video clips, and CakeTV, and there are also third-party videos and great books available to help shorten the learning process.
 
Have a blast, 
 
Bob Bone