Suddenly unable to record audio (Solved)

I am recently unable to record on any existing or new audio track in any Sonar project.  When I try to record (R), I can see the input level in the track view bouncing back and forth as it should, when I play before or during recording.  So there is no question that the track is receiving my audio signal. But the resulting audio clip just shows a flat line, as if Sonar is ignoring the audio signal it receives. I have the track armed, and the audio punch toggled off.  I tried creating a new audio track in a new project, but the same thing happens, I can see the input signal, but the clip is empty.  AFAIK, my audio track's input and output settings (and all project settings) haven't changed since I was last able to record.

I don't see audio signals in my Xonar Audio Center when I play or record, though I've seen audio signals there
before. But since I see the input signals in my Sonar audio track ok, it doesn't seem to be a sound card problem.
Any ideas? 

Sonar X2

HP Z210 CMT
  3.3GHz
  6 GB RAM
  Xeon E3-1240 Quad core
  Windows 7 Professional 64 bit

Xonar Essence STX sound card
Sample Rate: PCM 192 KHz
ASUS driver
Audio Channel: 2 Channels

Audio Track:
Input:  Left Xonar Essence STX ASIO(64) IN-00
Output: To Xonar Essence STX ASIO(64) L

Please confirm:
Have you auditioned if anything gets recorded or not? The flat line in the clip may just tell your picture cache is full.
The waveform in the clip is just an independent picture, it's not "tied" to the existence of the actual audio file.

Hello,
Does opening project show you a 'output is assigned to silent output'. I've had this happen before, but it's been awhile. Is recording set up to show wave files while recording. If so, does the wave show sound being recorded. If it does than sound should be there. Could be routing problem. I've noticed that Sonar sometimes does what it wants to do.
MJ

Also, do you have some other software program open that might be stealing control of the driver?

Apparently its for headphones and is not a game card.  I know of no game that uses ASIO.

Cactus Music
It appears to be for enhancing the listening experience of everything, Games, Movies and a lot of good stuff, but it was not designed with DAW recording in mind, nowhere is this mentioned in the user guide. It should work but to me it's like the negative experience I had with my Creative Audigy card which is in the same category as this one.   
It does not mention ASIO drivers anywhere in the manual, but I see from the OP's  list that it must use them. 
 
So I would say try a more reasonable sample rate even 44.1 and see what happens first. 
But the probability that the drivers are not going to play well with Sonar is high as we see all the time when people try using none trusted brand audio interfaces round here. Sonar is picky about drivers. 

I would agree with most of that except the last sentence. I find Sonar the least picky. 

P.S. I tried it with sample rate 44.1, and there was no change.  The tracks I recorded successfully until now were at 192, and with the same ASIO driver.

Since you were previously able to record with this setup, what changed?

If you are getting a wave file created in the project folder, can you play it with Windows Media Player and does it have sound (and the sound you expect?)

Dave - when I play the wav file that gets created, there's no sound.  The file is about the same size as other wav files that were already there (which I can hear) of the same time interval.  When I look at the binary in notepad, I can see the Unicode characters are very repetitive compared to the files I can hear (sort of like OOOO|OOOO over and over, but the chars are more exotic), so I guess it's filled with silence, so to speak.
 
musicjohnnie -my sound card has L, R, and stereo output, but I guess the output's not the problem, since the wav file is empty (nothing to output anyway).  I'm going to check out the modules/sends and hardware outs (as John suggested) later today. 
 
 
 
 
 

It seems that you can get sound out of your DAW, but are having difficulty getting it in (recording).
 
Maybe you could try downloading the free Audacity audio recorder and make a test recording with that.  It's starting at the bottom, but it's light and easy to configure, and it should at least rule out your audio hardware and your computer. 
 
Or if you already have other DAW software, you could test with that also.
 
http://www.audacityteam.org/

Cactus Music
Yes swapping out components when Troubleshooting is a good idea, Different audio interface would be my first bet. 

True, but it's quicker and cheaper to at least try an alternate DAW first.  Test the hardware signal path.  If that works then it means the audio interface is working. The question then becomes, why isn't it working with Sonar?

+1

Actually my card lets me hear the audio being recorded, but it was too faint to hear above the sound of my "live" instrument.  That's often the case even with the preamp working, so that's why I over-relied on the audio signal meter.  It's weird how the meter could be 1/3 of the way up for such an incredibly low volume - must be a logarithmic scale, like the Richter scale.

I have a new twist to this situation.  Recording 24 tracks in, all meters reading properly showing input and leaving picture trails on console view.  Finish recording, hit stop, only 6 or 7 tracks show the pictures of the tracks.  There are also no other .wav files recorded.  It is as if I had not armed the other tracks.  This may happen every once in a while.  Sure would like to solve this.  Anybody got any ideas?