I try to play and theres this delay when I hit the keys.
I find it really bothersome and I was wondering if theres any way to get rid of that?
I'm new to owning midi keyboards.
 

This is always caused by too high an audio interface buffer setting and/or plug-in delay compensation. Check your interface buffer settings. Typing "E" will temporarily bypass plug-ins eliminating plug-ing delay compensation.

DragonBlood
I try to play and theres this delay when I hit the keys.
I find it really bothersome and I was wondering if theres any way to get rid of that?
I'm new to owning midi keyboards.
 

Hit the PDC button and see if it goes away. If it does, you've probably got a plugin in your project somewhere that has a lot of latency and Sonar is compensating for it.

What kind of audio interface are you using, and is your computer relatively up to date spec wise?

You could try what worked for me. set Audio buffer to 16 set slider all the way fast.
Note: if you do this you may need to change that setting if you want to record.
I was told it's normal to change it during a project. PEACE!

To be honest, this has always irked me. Even the cheapest toy keyboard from Walmart has near-zero latency. They must load those things up with massive amounts of RAM and multi-core i7 processors, right?
 
Meanwhile, the average DAW struggles whenever you load up any sort of track count, or have active plugins, or whatnot. (Yes, I fully realize that DimPro vs Walmart toy is not a fair comparison - but this is just a harmless rant so don't overthink it).
 
The way I see it - it's now 2015. We're living in the future. We ought to be able run softsynths without bringing a DAW to its knees. I'd be happy if there was a lo-res playback engine that we could use while tracking. Or better yet, dedicate processor cores  and memory for the softsynth with its own buffer/latency settings.
 
How much more powerful do our machines need to be for developers to start working on this anyway? Are they just biding their time, hoping the softsynth craze fades away and the kids go back to playing guitars and drums?
 
As far as I'm concerned, making adjustments to the buffer/driver will always be a "work around", not a "solution".
 
That's the end of my rant. I am hereby subscribed, and eagerly await more useful feedback from the more educated among us.
 
For now, this is how I deal with it. First, I should say that my rant is completely unwarranted, and I only make it more difficult for myself by being so stubborn. I never adjust drivers/buffers, I just set 'em high and forget about it. Likewise, I never disable plugins or freeze tracks/stems. And to make matters worse, I stack up ridiculous tracks counts with loads of plugins (mostly audio tracks, with a few soft synths). So yeah, I get it. Boo-hoo for me, I'm hardly a sympathetic character with regard to latency.
 
Anyway, here's how I deal with keyboard latency...
 
1) I record MIDI data into my DAW through my keyboard/controller's USB output.
2) I disable input monitoring in Sonar, and set the MIDI track output so it goes OUT through the multi-pin midi connection on my interface.
3) From the multi-pin connection on my interface, I route it through an old 90's era Alesis NanoSynth module (which must have also been loaded massive amounts of RAM and multi-core processors, lol).
4) I monitor the outputs of the NanoSynth so I can play with real-time monitoring while recording and upon playback.
5) Once my performance is captured, I toggle the MIDI track's output back to the soft synth. Then I tweak my sounds in DimPro or another softsynth, and I move on to the next track.
 
Is that less annoying than adjusting the buffer? Only slightly.
 
Is it less annoying than freezing stems, disabling plugins, and then unfreezing and re-enabling plugins when I'm done? You're darn right.

uh... I get the same amount of latency from my MIDI controllers as I do from my audio inputs on my DAW. No bcakflips required. On my crummy latpop... using the onboard sound? Yeah, some kerfiddling is needed but I can't even run Sonar on that thing. The synths that came with it seem to work alright though.
 
Not sure what's up with your rig, GMGM.
 
As far as the OP... details are needed.

Beepster
uh... I get the same amount of latency from my MIDI controllers as I do from my audio inputs on my DAW.

This is because there are only two sources of latency, interface buffers settings and plug-in delay compensation. There is nothing special about MIDI.

BeepsterNot sure what's up with your rig, GMGM.

 
Haha. No, the problem is all me, not my rig . I can get low latency performance, but I'm too stubborn (lazy?) to freeze and disable everything else. I was just b#tching and moaning, lol.
 

scookThere is nothing special about MIDI.

Correct, but there should be! Someday, somewhere, somehow, someone will figure out how .

TomHelvey

DragonBlood
I try to play and theres this delay when I hit the keys.
I find it really bothersome and I was wondering if theres any way to get rid of that?
I'm new to owning midi keyboards.
 

Hit the PDC button and see if it goes away. If it does, you've probably got a plugin in your project somewhere that has a lot of latency and Sonar is compensating for it.

I did and it didnt do anything for me. I also bypassed the FX (which there are none I just want to play it) and that wasnt helping either.

Dave000
You could try what worked for me. set Audio buffer to 16 set slider all the way fast.
Note: if you do this you may need to change that setting if you want to record.
I was told it's normal to change it during a project. PEACE!

This worked for me but I don't know how viable it is for working on an actual project. Once I did this the response on my keyboard was near instant. Can somebody help explain why? if not I guess I'll have to go back digging through my Sonar X3 videos.
 
I tried shortening midi buffer and playback alone and that didn't really work by itself. The audio section and setting the playback to fast did it though.