After testing a bit more. These are my results. With playback meters on the Track meter for MIDI will show whether inputing or not. With them off and record armed the track header MIDI meter is no longer showing the inspector is and works. 
 
The MIDI meters show velocity and events. The red part is the event. They can be used to confirm that MIDI is coming or going out. 

John
Also I'm not all that sure that inputing MIDI is not monitored.  How could it show activity on mine if it didn't? How could it become recorded and in a track if Sonar didn't see it?

I'm saying the meter doesn't read the Input, it reads the Output. If you disable Input Echo, you'll see no activity. But if you have Always Echo Current MIDI Track enabled, you'd have to disable that first or move focus to another track. MIDI meters have always worked this way, as opposed to Audio meters which will show input signal if armed even with Input Echo disabled.
 
Based on your most recent post, it sounds like you have now replicated the issue: No problem with the meter in the Track Inspector; it's the one in the track header that doesn't show up if you don't have playback meters enabled.
 
And this is not about whether MIDI activity is registered. It's just about whether the meter is displayed when the MIDI track is armed.

Bristol_Jonesey
It might be necessary to right click in the space below the track header and select "Show Playback Meter"

That's precisely the issue. It shouldn't be necessary to "Show Playback Meter" in order to get a "Record" meter when the track is armed.
 

After going back and comparing behavior between 8.5, X1, X2, and X3, this seems to have always worked this way. I no longer believe it is a bug.
 
I don't know where I got the impression that you could choose to display a MIDI Record meter when playback meters were hidden. It never seems to have been possible.
 
Rather than submit a problem report, this is more likely suitable for a feature request. And given that there are other things would prioritize over this, although I agree with Brundle, I'm not going to bother.
 
Thank you all for the discussion.

Yes, I realized that I still have 8.0 as well, and it's the same. I still think it's kind of an "oversight", but does appear to be "working as designed".
 
 

Sounds like a feature request.

So glad to have found this thread. I have noticed since upgrading to Plat last month that the midi track meters are not visible even when midi track is armed to record unless echo is turned on. It makes it a little inconvenient to quickly see whether the track is receiving midi if you are setting up to record a midi track and an audio track from an external synth. Setting echo to 'on' will quickly confirm that midi is present by immediately pegging the midi because of the midi loop it creates. Obviously, carefully checking the routing will confirm also, but just seeing the activity on the meter is more direct and foolproof than manually verifying tnat input device and channel on the midi track match the external synth midi out setting. It may be default in Plat for playback meters to be hidden (or I accidentally changed the setting). Anyway, glad to have found the fix and stop thinking I was going crazy!
 
Along the same lines, I think it would be convenient to have an out option of 'None' on midi channels. There are times (like above) when I just want to see and record a midi data stream without sending it anywhere. Another instance would be trying to record a midistream when you don't have an importable file (e.g., a MusicNotes .mtf file , that will be the topic of another thread!)Setting echo to 'off' accomplishes this but the output parameter still shows what is basically a dummy output. Not a big deal but a bit confusing when you look back at your midi tracks and ask yourself 'why is this track outputting to a vst, drum channel, ext synth...etc.
 
Brian

Sorry, fat finger error. MusicNotes are .mtd files.

filtersweep
Setting echo to 'on' will quickly confirm that midi is present by immediately pegging the midi because of the midi loop it creates.

Assuming we're talking about hardware synths, that shouldn't happen unless the OUT on the synth is acting as a THRU or you've actually connected a dedicated THRU back to the DAW. In the case of soft synths, it can happen if the synth has MIDI Out enabled, and the input of the track is set All Inputs. Just making sure that the Input to the track is from a specific port should avoid that.
 
 
 
 

That is a good point. I have hardware synth (Kurz PC3X) midi connected via usb. On the standard midi ports I can choose either midi out or thru ports. But as far as I can tell the USB port doesnt provide an option. Seems like it acts as both! It is definitely acting as an out because the midi ports are not even plugged in, but definitely creates a loop if the synth is selected as midi out in Sonar (and midi echo is on)