stxx
... when ever the track is rendered, including realtime or audio render, I think the offline bounce is used.

I'm with you on most of that, and had forgotten that Percussion algorithm could also be used 'online'. But 'offline' by definition means 'not real-time', so I don't think it's possible for SONAR to use an 'offline' algorithm while rendering in real time with Fast Bounce disabled. The calculations (and probably some look-ahead) used by those more sophisticated algorithms are incompatible with any kind of real-time processing.

1) The only one that seems to allow both is Percussuon. 2) Offline means behind the scenes rendering and/or not committing to “tape”. . Offline just uses more cpu. When using online “cpu lite” algorithms There are difference you can hear vs the rendered algorithm and whenever I’ve bounced to a mix I always get the higher quality regardless of the type. Maybe neil B will pick up on this and clarify

stxx
Only time to really need to use realtime bounce is if you are using external inserts or recording virtual instruments.  Bottomline, no matter how the project is rendered, it will sound identical in the end.
 

Uh Uh.. I am confused on reading this. You mean virtual instruments need real-time bounce or certain problematic virtual instruments need real time bounce?

If you want the audio rendered onto a track (say via aux track recording) ... yes.  Not if you just leave it as midi - fast bounce will work otherwise but later on your virual instruments might have changed so its a good idea to have them rendered as audio tracks.