How do I deal with the delay on my midi keyboard in Sonar X3?

This is always caused by too high an audio interface buffer setting and/or plug-in delay compensation. Check your interface buffer settings. Typing "E" will temporarily bypass plug-ins eliminating plug-ing delay compensation.

What kind of audio interface are you using, and is your computer relatively up to date spec wise?

To be honest, this has always irked me. Even the cheapest toy keyboard from Walmart has near-zero latency. They must load those things up with massive amounts of RAM and multi-core i7 processors, right?
 
Meanwhile, the average DAW struggles whenever you load up any sort of track count, or have active plugins, or whatnot. (Yes, I fully realize that DimPro vs Walmart toy is not a fair comparison - but this is just a harmless rant so don't overthink it).
 
The way I see it - it's now 2015. We're living in the future. We ought to be able run softsynths without bringing a DAW to its knees. I'd be happy if there was a lo-res playback engine that we could use while tracking. Or better yet, dedicate processor cores  and memory for the softsynth with its own buffer/latency settings.
 
How much more powerful do our machines need to be for developers to start working on this anyway? Are they just biding their time, hoping the softsynth craze fades away and the kids go back to playing guitars and drums?
 
As far as I'm concerned, making adjustments to the buffer/driver will always be a "work around", not a "solution".
 
That's the end of my rant. I am hereby subscribed, and eagerly await more useful feedback from the more educated among us.
 
For now, this is how I deal with it. First, I should say that my rant is completely unwarranted, and I only make it more difficult for myself by being so stubborn. I never adjust drivers/buffers, I just set 'em high and forget about it. Likewise, I never disable plugins or freeze tracks/stems. And to make matters worse, I stack up ridiculous tracks counts with loads of plugins (mostly audio tracks, with a few soft synths). So yeah, I get it. Boo-hoo for me, I'm hardly a sympathetic character with regard to latency.
 
Anyway, here's how I deal with keyboard latency...
 
1) I record MIDI data into my DAW through my keyboard/controller's USB output.
2) I disable input monitoring in Sonar, and set the MIDI track output so it goes OUT through the multi-pin midi connection on my interface.
3) From the multi-pin connection on my interface, I route it through an old 90's era Alesis NanoSynth module (which must have also been loaded massive amounts of RAM and multi-core processors, lol).
4) I monitor the outputs of the NanoSynth so I can play with real-time monitoring while recording and upon playback.
5) Once my performance is captured, I toggle the MIDI track's output back to the soft synth. Then I tweak my sounds in DimPro or another softsynth, and I move on to the next track.
 
Is that less annoying than adjusting the buffer? Only slightly.
 
Is it less annoying than freezing stems, disabling plugins, and then unfreezing and re-enabling plugins when I'm done? You're darn right.

Beepster
uh... I get the same amount of latency from my MIDI controllers as I do from my audio inputs on my DAW.

This is because there are only two sources of latency, interface buffers settings and plug-in delay compensation. There is nothing special about MIDI.

TomHelvey

DragonBlood
I try to play and theres this delay when I hit the keys.
I find it really bothersome and I was wondering if theres any way to get rid of that?
I'm new to owning midi keyboards.
 

Hit the PDC button and see if it goes away. If it does, you've probably got a plugin in your project somewhere that has a lot of latency and Sonar is compensating for it.

I did and it didnt do anything for me. I also bypassed the FX (which there are none I just want to play it) and that wasnt helping either.

Dave000
You could try what worked for me. set Audio buffer to 16 set slider all the way fast.
Note: if you do this you may need to change that setting if you want to record.
I was told it's normal to change it during a project. PEACE!

This worked for me but I don't know how viable it is for working on an actual project. Once I did this the response on my keyboard was near instant. Can somebody help explain why? if not I guess I'll have to go back digging through my Sonar X3 videos.
 
I tried shortening midi buffer and playback alone and that didn't really work by itself. The audio section and setting the playback to fast did it though.

DragonBloodOne more question. How do I set midi input echo to Auto Thru? or is that exclusive to when I create a midi instrument track?

Input Echo is one of the buttons on the track view screen (ie - Mute, Solo, Pan, Volume, Input Echo). More about that here.
 
I'm not sure what you mean by "Auto Thru". Are you looking to pass MIDI straight out of your DAW into something like my NanoSynth (or a stage piano, or similar)? If so, I can't remember if you actually need to toggle the "Input Echo" switch or not. But if you want to send MIDI data out to a keyboard that has its own sounds, then you make that change in the same track view area as the mute/solo/etc. Simply select your MIDI output destination (on the MIDI track) from the "output" dropdown menu. So you'd either be sending your MIDI into the softsynth for full-blown processing in Sonar, or out through your MIDI interface into a keyboard or any other MIDI device that has its own sounds.
 
Unless I am completely misunderstanding your question :)