I would appreciate any help or guidance. I have never  encountered this dilemma before. I cannot figure out 
how to play my XF8 and send midi notes to be recorded by Sonar. Or play a file from Sonar to control my XF8.I am using a USB cable to a laptop cable.
 
When I playback midi files from Sonar it does not control my keyboard. Rather I hear the Sonar instruments routed through my Keyboard to my speakers. Do I need some type of midi adapter cable? I have checked and rechecked all of my midi settings and everything appears to be in order. I also have full DAW control from the keyboard. Is it a cable? I have tried General Midi mappings, Ch1 to Ch 1 mappings etc. And the Motif does show up in the I/O Midi device list. I couldn't find a single tutorial on how to create a Midi project..... 

What kind of audio interface are you using, and how is it connected?

jcwalsh1961
When I playback midi files from Sonar it does not control my keyboard. Rather I hear the Sonar instruments routed through my Keyboard to my speakers. Do I need some type of midi adapter cable?

If you hear the Sonar Instruments, the MIDI data is being sent to the softsynth(s), not the Motif.
This aspect of your problem is simple pilot error. You are not directing the MIDI track output to the device (real or virtual) that you actually want to use.
Double check your routing.
Also, you say the Motif shows up in the MIDI I/O list. Have you selected it in both fields?
Its mere presence is not enough. That just tells you Sonar knows it's there.
You must tell Sonar to use it.
 

Hello , thanks for the reply guys. Here is how it is showing up in the Sonar GUI.BTW I am running Windows 8.1.
 
https://flic.kr/p/rUuZtf
 
https://flic.kr/p/rUuZho
 
 

Anderton I am not using an audio interface. Just using a USB A to USB B cable. The Keyboard USB host output is connected to the laptop USB input. 
 
 
Regards,
 
 
JW

In your screenshot it looks like you have about six instances of the Motif and you're using the second one. Any idea why?

Also, Windows has a midi device limit which is dumb and annoying and a great point in favor of OSX. If you have installed more than ten midi devices (ever, since the history of your computer, and the same device on a different USB port counts twice!) any newer midi devices will not function. I can't say often enough how ****ed this is, especially in a pro environment, but we have deal with it. Korg makes a utility that lets you remove unused and corrupted midi devices. It comes with any Korg midi driver you can download from their site. If you start the removal utility you can untick the box that says "Korg drivers only" and it will let you clean out any drivers you don't use anymore. Worth a try if it seems you've made all the correct settings and nothing is happening.

A few things:
 
1. You need to have the audio outputs of the Motif connected to your soundcard's audio input. The USB cables only carry MIDI.
 
2. Then you need to have an audio track in the project with Input set to the soundcard input that's connected to the Motif and Output set to the soundcard's output that's connected to your speakers/monitors. Then you need to enable Input Echo on the track so that the incoming audio is passed through SONAR to your soundcard and on to the speakers.
 
3. In order to hear the Motif while playing live and recording, you will need to have Input Echo enabled on the MIDI track as well (SONAR does this by default based on the Always Echo current MIDI Track setting in Preferences when the MIDI track has focus), and turn off Local Control on the Motif so that the keyboard only responds to MIDI played or echoed back to it from SONAR.
 
4. I think what you're hearing on playback of existing MIDI is the output of your soundcard's GS Wavetable synth going directly to the speakers. The keyboard is not involved in that routing. You should probably uncheck the wavetable synth as an output as it will have high latency so it won't play in sync with other instruments, and its sounds will be inferior to both your Motif, and most of SONAR's bundled soft synths.
 
EDIT: Also, following up on jcwalsh's comments, since the Motif apparently offers multiple virtual MIDI In/Out ports via the one USB connection, you'll need to make sure that the Motif's keyboard is sending on MIDI Out 2 and that its onboard synth is receiving on the MIDI In port 2 that you currently have enabled. My guess would be that it defaults to using the port 1 in both cases, so you might just want to change your selections in MIDI Devices.

In regards to the question "In your screenshot it looks like you have about six instances of the Motif and you're using the second one. Any idea why? " This is the setting that the Yamaha Manual tells you to use when using Sonar as your DAW. Not sure what the logic behind that is. 
Regarding some of the points made by Brundlefly, I am not using a sound card. I use powered speakers connected to the Yamaha keyboard. So some how the audio is passing through the USB to the Yamaha. But I would agree all I am hearing is the synth sounds. I can switch between Microsoft GS Wavetable and Cakewalk TTS, But at no time do I hear the output of the Yamaha triggered by Sonar midii output. I can tell because when I change the Yamaha voice the sound of the voice coming from the speaker doesn't change. I also only had a roland connected recently so maybe the multiple midi issue is happening. 
 
I will check that and my echo settings. And the local control tip is a good one. That has got me in the past. Thank you all for the invaluable information and tips. Must be something with Windows as I have the same problem with Sibelius. I'll let you know how I make out. Cheers. 

So you're monitoring the Motif through powered monitors, and possibly hearing your wavetable synth through another set of speakers connected to your sound card? Or is there an external mixer in there somewhere that alos conects your soundcard to those powered monitors?
 
Now I'm thinking it's more probable that you're hearing the Motif, but because you don't have the MIDI routing figured out inside the Motif, the patch that you're changing is not the one that the Motif is playing. In any case, it's highly unlikely that audio is passing from SONAR through the Motif.
 
 

No, There is no connection between the laptop and any speaker system or mixer at all. The only cable that is connected to the laptop is the usb cable from the Yamaha. In fact the windows sounds such as application pings  and sound notifications also come through the powered speakers. So there is definitely something weird going on. I'll post a video later today so I can demonstrate what is going on . Thanks again so much for helping out.