Matrix and loops that were not converted to grooveclips

First off, I tried to search this forum for other user-experiences with the matrix-view but got zero results. Does the search-field just search titles only? If someone else posted on this subject: my apologies for posting it again.
 
I want to use Sonar for extracting ideas from jams with my band and creating new songs from them. If possible without having to redo the whole song again in the studio. Here's how I work:
- identify useful parts, most of the time loops
- with drum recordings (mono, overall) I extract the kick and snare patterns in MIDI and overdub with drum samples
- the audio and midi pieces are put in Matrix-view WITHOUT converting them to groove-clips as to preserve the original timing, tempo and also tempo fluctuations in the song
- the tempo of the project is matched to the tempo of one of the clips
 
Now I have columns with cells that loop perfectly, even with each column having it's own slightly different tempo and no quantisation has been performed. I have added new instruments and rearranged the piece. All is well when I stay within the matrix view :-)
 
It all screws up when I capture a matrix performance. Cells start irregularly and in the trackview there are strange skips, ommissions and out-of-sync cells. So my great song is stuck within the matrix view. Here's what I did in an attempt to resolve this:
- adjust latency settings to different values (from extreme short to extreme long): same problems
- drag the drumloops (MIDI and audio) out of the matrix view into the track view. Import these clips with Convert to groove clips in the Matrix view switched on: MIDI and audio clips are out of sync in Matrix view
- drag the drumloops (MIDI and audio) out of the matrix view into the track view. They are alligned and the same length. One is the original drumrecording (audio) and the other the MIDI drum replacement. When selected looped, the are in perfect sync. When converted to groove clips, the MIDI clip gets longer, almost an extra beat for some reason. Note that this is the same drumloop
- I can convert the MIDI clip to audio but that would reduce my flexibility with the MIDI plugin-settings.
 
Any suggestions on how to resolve this or on what I am doing wrong?
 
It seems to me that Ableton and Bitwig are more flexible and I am seriously thinking of switching. Also because of earlier negative experiences with eg buying a controller suited for SONAR (Roland A-500PRO) that actually doesn't work well with SONAR... Perhaps I don's work with SONAR enough but I constantly have the idea that it keeps having a steep learning curve, despite all the tutorial videos I watched. Perhaps I am not the standard user of SONAR, not being into EDM or other quantized music.
 
Sorry for the long post and thanks for the readers that got this far :-)
 
 
 

Thanks for th quick reply!
 
In this project I started off with a simple live recording of drums and keys on two tracks:
track 1 Drums (1 mic)
track 2 Keys
track 3 I extracted the kick and bass pattern to a midi (instrument) track which triggers drum samples 
track x ... are overdubs I did later on
 
The tempo fluctuates slightly throughout the recording. From this I took loops from all tracks simultaniously and put them in Matrix view, without converting them to groove clips. Consequently each columns differ slightly in length from the other, but the cells within the column are of same length thus each column loops perfectly. So, within the Matrix view all works.
 
The issue is with the capturing of the matrix performance. I suspect that the retriggering of the cells is now done by the track view and not the matrix view. The track view uses a fixed tempo whereas in the matrix view the retriggering is determined by the length of the cell. 
 
FYI: my aim as a producer is to maintain the unique timing of the collaborating musicians and creating organic and natural feeling songs. I'm intrigued by the unique band timing of D'Angelo and the Vanguard. They rebuild jams also but totally in the analogue environment. I'm trying to figure out if I can do this in a DAW environment. Ableton indeed also works with a groove looping, but you have more flexibility in tuning the content of each cell and can edit and see what's inside. But I realise that even in Ableton I probably won't be able to do what I want

Hi Craig,
 
Thanks again for your extensive response. I understand what you're saying and this is indeed a workaround or another approach. But, maybe we're digressing from my original question (and maybe my question was not clear in my extensive original post):
Why is my project working perfectly within matrix view but turns into chaos when I try to capture the performance?
 
I'm having a great time creating a new song by switching columns and cells on and off and the song is really grooving. When capturing the performance the playback missaligns, cells start with delay or don't start at all. Very frustrating. It almost seems best to record the audio with a seperate device when working withing the matrix view but that defies the whole purpose.
 
I see two possible answers to my question above:

• I'm doing something wrong
• There is a bug

I'll read the manual once again but if I can't find it in there perhaps I'll try to make a screencast and report a bug. But if anybody knows a checkbox hidden in a secret menu that solves this, pls let me know ;-)