stevec
Do you have Record mode set to Sound on Sound?   Or do you mean the first take plays back, just not every note? 

Yes I record the first pass which is a kick and then listen to it back while still in record and not all the kicks are playing. But when I go out of record and into playback all the kicks are sounding.
I have sound on sound enabled.
 
Looks like I need to make 25 posts before I can post a link to a video..
 
 
 
 

Jlien X
I've seen some people (in other forums) cite this issue as their first reason why they don't like Sonar and uses their current daw. I think Cakewalk can acquire new users by adding the option to switch the behaviors. So, I think you should submit a feature request (oh, I guess sharke already did ).

How do you submit feature requests?

From here: http://www.cakewalk.com/Support/contact/default.aspx

 

OK the problem I've been describing happens when you have input quantize enabled. I just did some more tests. When I recorded a kick drum in loop mode with input quantize enabled some of the kick were not sounding  . But as soon as I disabled input quantize the problem disappeared. So it must be a bug.

Adralicus
OK the problem I've been describing happens when you have input quantize enabled. I just did some more tests. When I recorded a kick drum in loop mode with input quantize enabled some of the kick were not sounding  . But as soon as I disabled input quantize the problem disappeared. So it must be a bug.

Huh... probably worth submitting as a bug if you can reproduce it. 
 

Adralicus
OK the problem I've been describing happens when you have input quantize enabled. I just did some more tests. When I recorded a kick drum in loop mode with input quantize enabled some of the kick were not sounding  . But as soon as I disabled input quantize the problem disappeared. So it must be a bug.

It's very unlikely that Input Quantize would affect anything while recording as it isn't applied until after you stop. It's basically just an automatic post-record operation.
 
Try increasing your MIDI Prepare Using buffer to 500ms if it isn't there already. Recent versions of SONAR default to 250ms which is too low for some systems and results in dropped notes on playback.

brundlefly
It's very unlikely that Input Quantize would affect anything while recording as it isn't applied until after you stop. It's basically just an automatic post-record operation.
 
Try increasing your MIDI Prepare Using buffer to 500ms if it isn't there already. Recent versions of SONAR default to 250ms which is too low for some systems and results in dropped notes on playback.

I tried your suggestion and initially the first time I recorded the kick it played back without dropping any notes . I was overjoyed but it was short lived because the next time I tried recording it reverted to the previous behaviour of dropping notes. I understand what you say that input quantize would have any effect but turning it off definitely fixes the problem.
I wish I could post a video showing you the behaviour but I'm not allowed to until I've reached 25 posts .

I'm guessing that the connection to Input Quantize is that having all the note events exactly on beats (causing some to be simultaneous) is what's causing the dropped note on playback. You can check to see if you get the same result by recording without Input Quantize, and then manually quantizing with the same values. If that's the case, you can try slightly higher Prepare Using values; some systems need 650 or more, but you shouldn;t have to go higher than 1000. You can also try quantizing to something less than 100%, and see if that helps.

For testing purposes all I'm doing is setting up a four bar loop and recording the kick drum four beats to the bar. There's nothing else being recorded simultaneously just the kick drum. So there's no reason for it to be choking. When it loops round the 2nd time the notes get dropped(record is still enabled) As I mentioned I can record without input quantize and it works every time. Manual quantize "Q" only seems to work after playback has stopped. I tried setting the prepare values as high as 1000 but to no avail. 
 
The whole idea is to build up a drum loop first playing the kick drum then the snare and then the hi hat. But because the kick is dropping out randomly after the first cycle I can't  play the snare in context.
Okay there's nothing to stop me recording without input quantize enabled and quantizing afterwards when I'm out of record. But Input Q should be working regardless. I'm guessing your not able to reproduce this behaviour?

Okay. Sorry I didn't try this earlier. I am able to reproduce the issue. With Input Quantize enabled, some notes from each take are being dropped on each subsequent loop until I stop recording and play back; playback after stopping plays all notes as expected. And recording without Input Quantize enabled does not exhibit this problem.
 
Also, it appears that quantizing is being done on playback of previous takes while looping so I think SONAR must be using something like a live MIDI FX to do this. There are known buffering issues when looping with MIDI FX in place, so I don't think there's going to be a workaround oither than disabling Input Quantize. I never use Input Quantizing so I've not run into this before, but I would be surprised if this problem didn't already exist in X2a.
 
EDIT: Confirmed the problem it existed in X2a and earlier versions, but didn't seem quite as severe in SONAR 8. It's also sensitive to what the quantize resolution is, and how far off your hits are. Initially, I was deliberately playing way off the beat in order to see what was going on, and have since found that if I set Input Quantize to a high resolution and/or play with more precision that the problem is much less severe or even non-existent. Conversely, some combinations of resolution, pattern and precision can result in almost every hit being dropped.
 
Time to visit the Problem Reporter.