Help me solve this mistery with latency

Hey there
I have this song, made in 2008 with Sonar Producer 8 on Windows XP machine. At that time I was not using any software synths because I had severe latency issue- would take significant time for synth to respond when pressing the keys. This song only uses hardware synths, and has about 70 audio tracks. All midi tracks removed by now. At that time I noted different issues with the song, for example, my Yamaha Motif XS drum pattern would get recorded with delay- I could not match anything to those drum tracks.
So today I am trying to fix the song and manually move all the audio tracks at the beginning of the measure to start exactly on time, and it gets cleaner, song sounds ok. Now days I use Windows 8 computer, Sonar PX3 and huge collection of software synths. I do not have any audible latency issues with software synths. So I insert soft synth in to this song, and- have huge latency delay. The synths not responding on time just as it was back on the old system. Almost in panic, I open one of the recent songs, insert the same synth, and it sounds perfectly on time. Testing it in this old song- it has latency. Very audible delay- can not miss it. Checking all the settings- can not find anything.
 
My question is, what could cause latency in this particular project and how do I fix it? It was recorded in Sonar P8, had latency issue on old computer, and now opened in Sonar X3, sounds fine, but latency issue persists, but not an issue with any new projects made on this 2013 Windows 8 64 bit computer. The old song was in 16/41.4, now it set to 24/41.4. All MIDI clocks activated. What do I miss- what is going on? Is it some kind of wiring issue of old Sonar 8? How do I make it go away? I need to update the song and use some newer sounds from software synths. Thank you.  
 
 

have you tried ASIO4ALL?it fixed my onboard ASIO latency issues... www.asio4all.com -Shawn

shawn@trustmedia.tv
have you tried ASIO4ALL?it fixed my onboard ASIO latency issues... www.asio4all.com -Shawn

ASIO4ALL is at best a band aid for systems that do not have a dedicated audio interface, and would not apply here, as she has a nice audio interface.  Her issues appear to be really a matter of which plugins she is using, and what settings she has for her ASIO Buffer Size.
 
Bob Bone
 

One thing out of the signal chain? You mean, effects?
 
Robert, thank you for the "E" suggestion and your detailed post. You saying to just press E to bypass effects? I have to try that. If I press E again, it will turn them back on?
 
The issue is not dropouts or delay in audio. Yes, I am in mixing stage, but I want to add few parts from softeare synths. It is not recording of audio, it will be recording MIDI notes. I do not know how to tell which plugins use forward looking anything. But note that no other projects have this issue. These same plugins work fine in mixing, recording and doing whatever I need in other projects. No need to change the buffers.
 
This project was using pitch shifter and few Cakewalk reverb instances- Reverbs are gone due to switch from 32 bit to 64 bit system. There was something wrong with this project- it's MIDI clock and triggering of Motif's sequencer and the turn around from the  time MIDI sequencer was triggered a pattern by note to the time Audio gets recorded- it was like Motif's sequencer would start playing but by the time it goes over audio cables, it appears slightly behind. It makes sense to me that something would affect the software synths tho. How can effects on the tracks affect software synth latency if it has enough memory? I used to have latency issue in all projects on old system, this is why I could not use soft synths when everybody started to use them. Now that problem is gone, but it persists in this one project. In fact few weeks ago I was mixing one of the old projects with new software synth and there was no latency. It is just this one project, and latency is overwhelming- when I play  MIDI note on MIDI controller, I can count to 3 before I hear the sound. I will try E trick but I have feeling that it must be something else. Think more. :)  
 

I dont know what I would take. I have the same effect- Compressor from Sonar on every track. Nothing major to take off.
 
I sent you a PM. :)

1.  YES, hitting E again will turn effects back on.  PLEAS PLEASE PLEASE run this test, as it will immediately indicate if there is a problem with one or more of the effects plugins.
 
2.  If you are trying to record additional parts, then you MUST pay attention to the buffer requirements for the plugins you have loaded.  For recording to work properly, you cannot have plugins that induce high latency, and you have to have an ASIO Buffer Size small enough to keep your Total Roundtrip Latency down around 10 milliseconds.  Otherwise, you will experience what you are experiencing.
 
3.  Please list exactly what plugins are present in this project, AND please list your current ASIO Buffer Size, as well as the Sonar-reported Total Roundtrip Latency.
 
Bob Bone
 

Sorry it took so long to test it- had to wait for everybody to go sleep before I could get to music...
 
The E trick worked! It is caused by the effects! But which once? Can not tell what causing it.
 
I have T-Racks CSR Plate and CSR Reverbs. There is option to have "Insert" presets and "Send" presents. If I am on a track, I am using Insert, right? Also turning them off is not changing the soft synth response time.
 
I disabled effects chain with Izotope Nectar, Sonitus:fx Compressor, Multiband Compressor and Reverb (old effects that came with Sonar).
 
Disabled Pitch Shifter and Akustix- no improvement.
 
I have 16 instances of Sonitus:fx Compressor. I guess I will go ahead and disable (not delete but turn the button off) all of them and see if it helps... How do I lessen these compressors? Should I put one instance on the BUS and then assign those 16 tracks that using it to the BUS? I used to do it but it was long time ago. in fact- I realized that I did it on this song because I see compressor on the bus. I can delete those Compressors, and assign individual track outputs to the BUS, and BUS out to Master. Is it right way to do it?
 
Ok, so I turned off all effects but this time not by E, but by pressing blue power button on effect. And Latency is still there. I dont get it. So E is a different operation than turning effects off one at a time?
 
Also- now what? Pressing E makes latency go away, so it caused by effects, yet turning effects off does not fix it. I do not want to delete all effects. Any thoughts will be appreciated. Thank you.  

Found it. It is Izotope Breath control. So I guess I can only use it after everything is done?
 
You, guys, awesome! Would not find it without you! Thank you.