DethBringa
It seems to be pulling me in the exact opposite direction of where I want to go.
number 1 is gaming with a close 2nd being communication. Anything locking me out of that without a real gain isn't what I'm after. Playing with programs like sonar really is way down the list unless there is a gain without loss.

Sonar is more of a highly specialized music creation package. Ableton is the same (except more geared toward elctronic music/sample based music).
 
As I eluded to earlier, for what you want, really either program is like swatting a fly with a Buick. They can certainly do what you want with ease but the learning curve to perform simple tasks might be prohibitive.
 
Can you please descibe to me EXACTLY what you are trying to accomplish? I might be able to point you to a more efficient path.
 
For example: In the video I posted I am using Mirrilis Action! which allows for split track audio recording of screenplay (one for game/system sounds and the second for voiceovers). I also show how to edit voicover recordings within a video editor (in that vid I use Windows Live Moviemaker... or whatever the frack it is called) which allows you to strip out/overly/edit audio separate from your video (which I don't really cover in depth but there are plenty of youtube tuts that do).
 
Many of these video screencap programs have similar options. You may just need to figure out how to use them in conjunction with your interface as opposed to dorking around with music nerd stuff like SONAR or Ableton.
 
Yanno?

Yea, I used to stream on twitch a while back and have been neglecting my youtube something shocking (even tho I'm getting requests for vids).
So heres the plan.
1) a good audio/mic setup for gaming with friends while chatting thru discord
2) record gaming vids and stuff (incl. voiceover) without having audio so bad you cant sit thru more than 10secs without stomping the close button at lightning speed.
 
I want a setup  I can use. I dont want to have to reconfigure all my audio options every time I change programs. Currently it seems if you want to use sonar its sonar and nothing else. I'm about 90% sure that this program really does not suit my or my system.
 
Everything worked fine as it should before I got this tascam unit (altho mic quality was complete rubbish. You can polish a turd, its still a turd). I was thinking of getting a blue yeti mic or something like that but kind of came to teh conclusion (after talking to ppl that know a lot more than myself about audio), if I'm going to spend that much, might as well go full on and get top gear for a small amount extra.

The first screen shot showed "share drivers with other programs" was unchecked. It's what we generally suggest when we separate our DAW audio from the rest of Windows audio. In your case, it's the opposite of what you want. Long thread, so I don't know if you already tried checking the "share" option, and whether that would make it better.

completely overlooked that option. However, no audio out even with it ticked. If I'm using my audio devices for anything it seem sonar will not play ball. Its still sonar OR other software. I want to output to my speakers, but since discord is doing that sonar cant.

I'm at a bit if a loss to understand why you needed a dedicated audio interface for "communication".....

Having said that, lots of people have a PC set up that can do all the usual PC things including gaming and also run a DAW like Sonar using ASIO drivers without any of the issues you appear to be finding. Certainly not to the point they can't get Sonar to even detect the interface drivers. What usually happens is that once ghe driver is installed Sonar sees it, you pick it in preferences and apart from adjusting things like latency that's it. And so long as the interface is switched on before Sonar loads Sonar will then always default to that driver.

In Sonar's preferences is a setting for allowing other applications to share the driver. Try ticking it. What it does by default is prevent Sonar keeping a lock on the ASIO driver and preventing anything else from using the interface, acting it means that if somethong else wants to access the audio system Sonar will allow it to. Though I doubt you'll get Sonar and something else operating in any kind of sync even if they happen to both play at the same time.

If you don't intend to use software synths or monitor what you record by getting Sonar to echo its input back to the audio interface outputs you don't even need to use an ASIO driver. The ordinary Windows WDM or MEE one will work well enough. ASIO is basically intended to reduce how long it takes the system to generate or modify audio down to the order of a few milliseconds, because with other types of drivers except WASAPI the amount of time it takes a computer to do the sums is long enough to be distracting at best and impossible to play in time with at worst. The problems set on for most people around the 10 to 20 millisecond mark. A WDM driver might have 50 milliseconds "round trip latency" which even gamers obsessed by instant respenses from the PC won't even notice, but for many serious music recording and production purposes that's an unacceptable amount of time.

But if you aren't doing the things that ASIO is intended to make possible, or at least much easier, you dont need to use ASIO drivers.

Which doesn't solve the curious problem of what it is about your setup that means Sonar is having the problems you describe, but might help you get things working.

This post was in response to DethBringa. Lotta doods posted as I was typing though... lol
 
 
Understood. I am going to go ahead and say that tolerating the learning curve to learn Voicemeeter would absolutely be worth it in your case.
 
I am absolutely not trying to drive traffic to that youtube vid (I don't have any google ads crap enabled and don't give a winged fart about people "subscribing" or whatever) but if you can sit through that bugger (which I've broken up into linked chapters in the vid description) then you will most definitely be able to get the setup you want.
 
What I do is a little different but in your case you would simply want VoiceMeeter to have all your "System" sounds (such as games and NON audio programs) going through the VoiceMeeter "Virtual" channel and then have your mic/TASCAM unit set as the "Hardware" input(s).
 
I'd say try the ORIGINAL VoiceMeeter at first instead of "the" Banana version. From the sound of it you do not need the extra complexities of the Banana version at the moment and learning the simpler original version can get you primed for when/if you need the extra routing options in Banana.
 
To reiterate this more simply.... WITHIN VoiceMeeter* you want all system sounds (your games/windows sounds/browser audio such as youtube/etc) going through the "Virtual" input. The TASCAM with you mic connected will be your "Hardware" input. Then you mix and route those two inputs and send them to their final destination such as an audio program like SONAR or Audacity or Reaper or Ableton or whatever.
 
 
Full disclosure: I am still a student of all this and the smarter/more experienced doods can likely provide better info but everything I've posted here is/are things that have worked for me personally or I've seen work consistently based on other Q&A's such as this one.
 
Cheers.
 
*edited for clarity

as hindsight I should have just brought a yeti.
I think the issue with understanding is I got in over my head and over what I need.
...to put it in your words...
 
I wanted to swat a fly (knowing nothing about the subject) and got talked into getting a buick cause its better. Too many experts telling me what is better. Sure its overkill but I assumed better was better.
 
..or in gaming terms...
It would be like buying a nvidia titan X for playing runescape.

DethBringa
as hindsight I should have just brought a yeti.
I think the issue with understanding is I got in over my head and over what I need.
...to put it in your words...
 
I wanted to swat a fly (knowing nothing about the subject) and got talked into getting a buick cause its better. Too many experts telling me what is better. Sure its overkill but I assumed better was better.
 
..or in gaming terms...
It would be like buying a nvidia titan X for playing runescape.

Don't get me wrong. If you are referring to the TASCAM that is indeed a good puchase for what you are doing. It doesn't only act as a conduit for audio it also takes significant load off the onboard soundcard during recording or editing or during playback.
 
As you said it IS like adding a high end gaming/video card BUT... in the same way it takes on the extra resource load a high end game/video task would otherwise dump onto the usually inadequate onboard vid and ultimately the CPU.
 
Audio, much like video, is very taxing on system resources. If you can set this all up correctly then the audio interface will help you run and record your games, any screencap vid software and your audio recorder (all of which a resource hungry tasks) with less risk of dropouts/glitching/etc in the audio, the video and the gameplay.
 
If that makes any sense.
 
FWIW, even though I am not really a gamer I keep my old copies of CoD 1 and 2 around in case I want to spend an hour blowing crap up. I run it through my Focusrite interface and monitor through my studio headphones and it is freaking BRILLIANT as far as sound.

I'm thinking about next purchase, I would like to get some really good headphones but I had so many issues with my back and neck with my old headset I'm thinking of sticking with my speakers.
 
I've been a PC gamer since the original civilization.
 
What I expected was install, plug in, work. But it seems that was a wrong assumption. I think the 2nd place I went wrong was deciding to play with sonar.

Russ.15
ASIO drivers are exclusive, and Sonar seems to be pretty strict about not sharing the ASIO driver with anything else.
 

I'm not too sure about that statement.
 
I use ASIO with my RME UFX and I can play Windows media player simultaneous with SONAR playing (I know, I know, that's what most people say my songs sound like).
 
FWIW, I've had the "share audio device" (or whatever it's called) set ON/Clicked in SONAR for years.