I know I can set up a custom keybinding to do it, but the space bar can't be changed. There used to be a box to un-check under Global options.

 

It will take me forever to modify a habit I established well over 20 years; not only in Sonar but in Vegas as well.

Do you mean press the spacebar?
Cuz that works for me

Maybe you are looking for the "On Stop, Rewind to Now Marker" setting in the Track View Options menu

Space bar default is Play/Stop which returns Now Time to the beginning. But you can "fool" it into Play/Pause by deselecting "On Stop, Rewind to Now Marker" in Track View > Options.

Per scook's post:
 
When I am recording, I usually leave that option checked, to that Sonar will effectively treat pressing the space bar as a Rewind - back to wherever the Now Marker had been set prior to playback/recording.
 
When I am editing, I usually remove the check box, so that Sonar will effectively treat pressing the space bar as Pause/Play.
 
Hope that helps, 
 
Bob Bone
 

There's a few tricks you can use as well.
For example while the transport is rolling if you press "W" the transport will stop in its tracks.
If you press "W" again, it will rewind to project start. You can also hit Space bar + CNTL to stop the now time in its tracks.

SONAR has never had a built-in shortcut for true 'Pause'. As noted by others, disabling On Stop Rewind to Now in Track View Options or using Ctrl+Spacebar will stop without rewinding, but in either case, rewind will take you back to zero rather than back to the last place you started playback. This is stopping, not pausing.
 
For the true Pause function where you can start/pause repeatedly, and then rewind to some starting point other than zero, you need to create a custom keybinding to the 'Play/Pause' function. I use Alt+Spacebar.
 
Be aware, however that there's a slightly confusing misbehavior that when On Stop Rewind is not enabled, the Now Marker travels with the Now Cursor during playback so that you can't see where playback originally started after pausing, though Rewind after Pause will take you back to that non-zero starting point.
 
I'e been nagging the Bakers about this off and on for years. There have been several different not-quite-right implementations of these various options since X1. The last time everything worked as expected was in 8.5. 

When I'm playing a song and I press the space bar, mine currently "rewinds" to the previous Now position

I want it to stop on the first press, then continue from the spot where I stopped when I press the space bar again. I call that a Play/Pause function.

I can certainly understand why it's useful to have it jump back. That's just not the way I've used it for the past couple of decades, and old habits die hard. 

It seems to me a global setting for the transport ought to be under Edit|Preferences, but I couldn't find anything there. I will check under the track options menu as SCOOK suggested above. I keep forgetting there's another menu in track view in addition to the main menu up top. 

I've always toggled this with CTRL W.   
This toggles between the space-bar stopping where you are and the now time jumping back to the last position you hit the space bar. Could not live for long without this working. 

db66murray

I want it to stop on the first press, then continue from the spot where I stopped when I press the space bar again. I call that a Play/Pause function.

Just disable: On Stop Rewind to Now (in Track View Options) and you will be good to go.