In the past, I've always used Sonar to record only instruments, using midi (for external synths) and soft synths.
 
I'm now trying to record vocals in Sonar, but I'm having trouble allowing the singer to hear the backing track and his own voice in headphones when recording so that  just the vocal is recorded (not the backing track as well which is what's happening!).
 
I do get around it by using a combination of two (hardware) mixers with the backing track playing back from an external source, which is a bit of a pain!
 
I'm assuming it's just a matter of setting up things on different busses, but the method escapes me.
 
Can anybody please point me in the right direction.
 
My soundcard is a Roland SonicCell (perhaps this is the problem!) and I use Sonar Platinum.
 
Thanks,
 
Paul
 
 

I'm not familiar with the SonicCell but the usual method for creating a headphone mix is to use a send, to a buss which is connected to a hardware out.  I gather the Cell is primarily a synth w/ a usb interface attached, which is likely to be the problem if it doesn't have mixer software that separates external input from the output.  You have to output the synth mix to headphones, while recording the vocal input.  If the Cell mixes those two streams internally, there is nothing you can do.  Sonar can keep them separate.  You'll just have to see if the Cell can if it has its own mixer.  Every interface I've used has a method to keep the two separate, but since it is more of a synth ...
 
 

Without having the hardware in front of me, I can't verify, but I think you can do what you want. Start on Page 43 of the SonicCell_OM.pdf manual (http://cdn.roland.com/assets/media/pdf/SonicCell_OM.pdf). It looks like you use the SonicCell itself to do the routing. The manual also includes info for connecting to SONAR LE or 6.x.
 
Like my Tascam, the SonicCell sums all of the audio sources to the Mains. You may need to temporarily route the offending audio track(s) in SONAR to a dead buss while recording (for the headphone mix) and then route back to the Mains for mixing.

If I understand correctly, your problem is not the volume relations of the vocalist and background, but the backround getting recorded on the vocal track, is that right?
In many interfaces that is due to a setting called either Stereo Mix or What-you-hear. If there is such a setting, it mustn't be selected. However, as I don't know anything about SonicCell, this may not be the cause of the issue in your case.
A separate headphone mix is needed especially when the singer doesn't hear him/herself loud enough through the monitored background or you want FX in the headphones. .A separate hp-mix gives more flexibility

Thanks for your help.
 
I've got it sorted now.
 
I should have thought of it before - I bought the SonicCell second hand, and because of the nice user sounds on there, I didn't do a factory reset.
As soon as I did a reset, everything was working!
 
Paul
 

good you got it sorted out.  You might want to go back to the title and add [SOLVED]
 
have fun