cyberzip
Here is how a chord analyzer is built-in into Logic's control bar:
 

 
Bakers - please implement this in Sonar! :)
 
Here is a link to vote for an idea for this at the Bakery.

I think I know how to do this in Sonar... If I only had free time... Well, I guess I still will be faster then Cakewalk
 

SigiZ58
+1 
 
Are you in Advertisement business ? :-)
 
Perfect presentation!

No, but I get called "Don Draper" a lot anyway... ;) Thanks, I just really dug that Logic feature!
 

mettelus
Thepiz.org referenced above has a pretty hefty set of free plugins for MIDI. Be aware that they are MIDI plugins, so they will not appear in the audio FX list, but some of them are rather useful.

But the Piz Here midiChordAnalyzer is a regular VST instrument as msorrels said above?

cyberzip
 
But the Piz Here midiChordAnalyzer is a regular VST instrument as msorrels said above?

Yes, I tried it and it inserts as a VST instrument.  It can monitor any MIDI input you route to it.  By comparison, a MIDI effect needs to be inserted into the effects bin of a MIDI track.

Many users use the phrase "MIDI plugin" when they are really VST instruments.  This is because VST doesn't actually have a MIDI plugin "type" but a VST instruments can process MIDI.  SONAR supports MFX MIDI plugins that can be applied to a MIDI track, those are a Windows DirectX thing.  I don't think very many DAW applications ever supported MFX plugins.  Which is too bad really.
 
The MIDI-oriented plugins at Thepiz.org are very useful, but I wouldn't get worked up about naming issues.  You just have to remember that VST plugins that process MIDI are instruments inside SONAR and can't be used like SONAR MFX MIDI plugins.  Which can be applied to MIDI tracks as effects.
 

abacab & msorrels - thanks for your input! Agreed that the MFX MIDI plugin standard is cool and underused! :)
 
For this purpose, it seems that the quickest way is using a MIDI (MFX) plugin (the Cakewalk Chord Analyzer), since the other alternative requires setting up routing between VST plugins.

cyberzip
abacab & msorrels - thanks for your input! Agreed that the MFX MIDI plugin standard is cool and underused! :)
 
For this purpose, it seems that the quickest way is using a MIDI (MFX) plugin (the Cakewalk Chord Analyzer), since the other alternative requires setting up routing between VST plugins.

Not really.  For example, just insert midiChordAnalyzer as a VST instrument, and set the MIDI input to omni.
 
Then any notes you press on any controller connected to Sonar will register on the display.  No need to route anything between plugins to make it work.

cyberzip
As snaut2000 said, Sonar's built-in MIDI plugin "Chord Analyzer" does exactly this. I just recently found it. :) It shows the chords in realtime on a piano graphic as well as a guitar neck (I'm no guitarist, but I think it is one!).
 

 

That's a staff, not a guitar neck.

RSMCGUITAR
That's a staff, not a guitar neck.

Thanks. :)
 

abacab
Not really.  For example, just insert midiChordAnalyzer as a VST instrument, and set the MIDI input to omni.
 
Then any notes you press on any controller connected to Sonar will register on the display.  No need to route anything between plugins to make it work.

Ah, should've guessed, that was obvious! :) Thanks!