zblip2@gmail.com
Why isn't there a direct monitoring bus in Sonar that lets you hear the sound directly from the interface when a track is armed and switches automatically to playback when the track is playing? I can't believe there isn't something like this in Sonar... I know there is feature in Cubase and Pro-Tools...

As soon as the signal goes inside the box it will be subject to bus (i.e. USB/Firewire/PCIe) transmission latencies, A/D/A conversion and software buffering latencies; there's no avoiding this. The only way you get around it is by direct monitoring where the anlog signal takes an analog path through the interface from input to output with no A/D/A conversion or digital processing.
 
Cubase and Protools support ASIO Direct Monitoring, which is just a way for the software to automatically switch the interface to direct-monitoring mode if the interface also supports it. Not all interfaces do, and because ASIO Direct Monitoring is an extremely loosely/poorly defined "standard" (per Cakewalk CTO Noel Borthwick), Cakewalk have chosen not to implement support for it to date.
 
But that won't solve your problem of wanting to monitor with FX. The only way you get that, other then by having a big, expensive pile of all-analog FX hardware, is by taking the signal into the box, and having hardware that can run plug-in heavy projects with small buffer sizes, and minimal hardware/firmware latencies.
 
You'll also want to avoid tracking with plugins that use internal lookahead buffers that induce Plugin Delay Compensation, although SONAR allows bypassing PDC on input-monitored tracks with live input.

What Fabio said, with MOTU 1248 with AVB, matrix routing and internal mixing with effects.  I let the hardware which can support me best, do the heavy lifting.  I route whats being played back to cue me, from Sonar back into the Mixer portion of the MOTU.  Both the cue and my performance are at almost the same identical time (no circuit in this world is real time, takes time for even quirky little electrons to move), and I can effect my performance with whatever sweetening I care for.  That sweetening may not be as great as the tools on my PC but its close enough for me.   My 8 year old MOTU 828MKII had cuemix too,  so there might be a possibility you can work this way too, maybe?
 
Best regards,
 
LL 

Yes, an interface with onboard FX is another option. You'll still have the A/D/A conversion and whatever buffering the firmware FX require, but that'll be on the order of a 1-2ms, and not troublesome. 

My workaround has been to set ASIO low while tracking and high while mixing.
 
That said, I have a VS-700 interface/console in use (and a MOTU 896 interface in the rack and unused).  If they allow you to hear the direct signal while recording and then the recorded signal on playback (like a tape machine), that would be great; but I don't know how to set it up.  (And, if I got it set up, could we hear reverb during tracking?)

Looks like OP has taken a powder. There's good information here nonetheless.

Thank you for all your replies and great advice. No I am not a troll... I just wanted to voice out my frustration.. Sonar, like many other DAWs, have became super sophisticated beasts, it was just a non sense to me that doing something as simple as recording without noticible delay was still an issue these days.  I think it basically comes down to having a good computer, and a quality audio interface whith on board DSP effects..
 
If I was looking for a reasonably priced audio interface that has the adequate onboard DSP, which brand/model would you suggest?

Define "reasonable price". Give us a budget and the max. number of simultaneous IO required

Bristol_Jonesey
Define "reasonable price". Give us a budget and the max. number of simultaneous IO required

Lets say: 2 mic pres, two audio ins for synths, Stereo out for speakers and another for headphones, an inboard reverb and solid driver?...

Bristol_Jonesey
Define "reasonable price". Give us a budget and the max. number of simultaneous IO required

Lets say: 2 mic pres, two audio ins for synths, Stereo out for speakers and another for headphones, an inboard reverb and solid driver?...