The lead guitar (into headphones, not so noticeable on monitors), is being placed in the right headset at an odd place. Turning pan effects it only a tad, and convert to stereo has mismatched the timing. It may be a Melodyne thing, but I'm not sure how to remove the melodyne labelled bits that were just checked(for pitch) and not changed.
 
 
I think I know the answer.....clone track and pan where ever?

charlyg
The lead guitar (into headphones, not so noticeable on monitors), is being placed in the right headset at an odd place. 

Do you have a headset that purports to reproduce surround sound imaging? Finding an "odd place" in one phone in a standard stereo headset requires more imagination than I can muster.

Now that you mention it, I should try my trusty MDR-7506
The new headphones, which just came today are Audio-technica ATH-M50X....
 
If mono , it should be dead center... It's off to the right and goes away as you pan left. It is coming in CH2, which is also right.\
 
I must have a setting wrong somewhere. I'm technical enough to get in over my head once in a while. Especially now that I'm older....but I digress.
 

Or maybe you're in offset mode?
 

Dude... on your Track Input (like in Sonar's track controls) set the input to take the mono input from your interface. Not the STEREO input.
 
I do not know the interface you use but Sonar does something dumb whereby it lists ALL of your mono inputs in pairs.
 
So if your interface has line output 1, 2, 3, 4...
 
Sonar will show them on the Input options as
 
Left 1
Right 1
Stereo 1
 
Left 3
Right 3
Stereo 3
 
This... in real sequential input/output terms equals
 
Left 1  = Input 1
Right 1 = Input 2
Stereo 1 = Input 1 + 2 into a stereo track
 
Left 3 = Input 3
Right 3 = Input 4
Stereo 3 = Input 3 + 4 into a stereo track
 
and so on...
 
So what is likely happening is you are recording from something like "Input 1 Stereo" set on your input which results in a "double wave" and only one side being recorded to because your guitar is only hooked up to one input.
 
Switch that to Input 1 Left (or right or whatever your guitar is hooked up to).
 
Then this will record a single mono wave and whatever bus it is being outputted to will play it back in the center.
 
Hope that make sense and if that is not the problem my apologies but I had exactly this type of routing problem/bizarro output wackiness when first figure out the i/o stuff in Sonar.
 
 
Cheers.
 

One of the things I do is set up for  input 1=left input 2=right. It is possible it was set to stereo, but not on purpose. And, one the recording is done, I set the inputs to none, and when recording, vocal< input1, guitar >input2. It is what I thought was a "best practice".

If you are recording ONE single from ONE mix or instrument input then all you need is ONE input channel.
 
So on my Focusrite if I want to plug straight in I plug into the physical input 1. In Sonar before I hit record I set up the track input to Focusrite 1 Left.
 
I don't have to set anything else up. This will record a mono clip from that input.
 
If I choose Focusrite 1 Right I won't get any sound (unless I switch my physical input to input 2 on the interface).
 
If I choose Focusrite 1 Stereo then it will record a stereo clip (so instead of one single wave it's a double wave) but only one side of that clip will have audio. This results in a strange, off kilter sounding track.
 
That last one is why I brought it up because that lopsidedness could be from a stereo signal when you intended to record a mono signal. You can just look at the clip and see. If it's one solid wave... it's mono. If the clip is split in two (one above the other) it's stereo. If it is stereo and you only recorded on input on of those will be a wave and the other a flat line. If you somehow recorded into BOTH sides at once then maybe they will both be populated but for guitar you don't wnat that on the track. You want mono and then send that to a stereo bus like the Master bus (which is default).
 
There is no need for manual conversion or the like. You record mono tracks, they go to stereo busses. You pan the track to put it where you want in the bus.
 
Really the only time recording stereo directly into a track is useful is when you are recording the output of a stereo device like a tape deck or maybe a stereo synth or something. Even if you record both sides as 2 mono tracks you get more options.
 
Whatever... if you don't see the "double" clip then you may just have something routed/panned weird. So check your output routing and any sends as well as pan settings or if you have any effects somewhere maybe they are making something go weird.

It does sound like you have a right input mono track playing through a stereo output without splitting it into stereo pairs. Another issue might be that you are trying to use the mono/stereo button in the track to convert  a mono track to stereo. At least up through X3 that was documented not to produce a stereo output if the first effect in the effects chain was a mono effect. Current version online documentation is mute on this issue so maybe it has been changed.

You seem to have recorded a mono signal to one side of a stereo Sonar track. The only reason it does not sound panned all the way is because some reverb or other effect is on both sides. Bounce the track over to a new track, and in the "Bounce to Tracks" dialog select "Mono" as the Channel Format.
 
When recording a mono source, click the "Input" dropdown in the track control pane (or whatever it's called) and select "Selected Track Input Series..." and choose a mono input. (I'm assuming your Focusrite driver works the same as my Focusrite driver.) This way you'll get a mono track when you record a mono instrument. Then pan it wherever you want, or "stereo-ize" it with a plugin.

I guess I wasn't clear enough. That is exactly what I normally do. I suggested the possibility of me hitting it by accident. 
 
Or I could have missed that step..... I now know more than before I started this thread...
 

I converted back to mono and everything is ok. I was afraid the "stereo" conversion screwed it up permanently.
 
 
Thanks