One trick is to add some empty bars at the start of your project, so it has time catch up with all your system.  It displays the roundtrip latency, under (P)references > Audio Driver.

Oh thats a neat one, makes sense and I had no idea...Could be useful for troubleshooting thats for sure.
 
Put up a feature req. thread http://forum.cakewalk.com/FindPost/3206064 Hopefully that works for anyone that agrees with the concept.
 
Workflow is a funny old thing, always these little niggles that trip me up the most.
 
 

SilentMind
Methinks a feature request for 'live' PDC readings within Sonar would be prudent at this point.

 
Yes, that would be a great feature in SONAR. In REAPER, instead of "live" it is referred to as "dynamic" PDC. Not only are the plug-in delay latency values view-able and updated on the fly during playback, but this dynamic aspect allows uninterrupted project playback as you add sample delay inducing plug-ins on the fly. In SONAR, this can cause a slight gap (glitch) in playback as SONAR resets it's PDC each time you add/delete a plug-in that has a sample delay. Although to Cakewalks credit, the latest versions of SONAR have improved so this gap/glitch is much less noticeable than it was years ago.
 
Cheers,
 
Billy Buck
 

Billy Buck
Yes, that would be a great feature in SONAR. In REAPER, instead of "live" it is referred to as "dynamic" PDC. Not only are the plug-in delay latency values view-able and updated on the fly during playback, but this dynamic aspect allows uninterrupted project playback as you add sample delay inducing plug-ins on the fly. In SONAR, this can cause a slight gap (glitch) in playback as SONAR resets it's PDC each time you add/delete a plug-in that has a sample delay. Although to Cakewalks credit, the latest versions of SONAR have improved so this gap/glitch is much less noticeable than it was years ago.
 
Cheers,
 
Billy Buck

Although in the case where there currently are no plugins adding delay, and you then add one that does add delay, I don't think you can get away without hearing some sort of glitch. Unless the host somehow does the transition by doing some fancy time stretching for a brief moment to smooth it out all other tracks, but that seems like overkill. It can hide the removal of a plugin by simply continuing to use the same delay until the next time you stop playback.
 
Alternatively another way can be if the host introduces some high-ish amount of delay upfront regardless of current plugins, so that any plugin added during playback won't require the overall project delay to be altered.

I know this is an older thread, but in case the OP missed my other thread, here is how you can now determine the latency that each plugin introduces.