Ohh I didn't know the keyboard and interface can be connected in parallel.... that was really stupid on my part.

Sounds good - I will then get the audio interface and try out the other mentioned proposed solutions too. Many thanks for the responses!

Ok, I hate to spam this thread again, but I just bought the Tascam US 2x2.
 
Installed the driver and settings panel. Saw the Speakers US 2x2 installed when I opened "Sound" in the "Control Panel". 
 
Whenever I played the sound, I can see the green levels going up and down. However, no sound can be heard from my speaker. I turned the "Monitor Balance" to the max. level, as instructed in the Troubleshooting section, but still no sound. I played with different settings in the "Settings Panel" software - again silence. 
 
Drivers are up to date.
 
I tried restarting my computer, I tried plugging out the USB cable and plugging it back in again, still no sound.
 
But the moment I switched back to my in-built Realtek sound card, I could hear sound coming out of the speaker again.
 
I searched Google and found a few people with the same issues as me - but with no responses whatsoever that could resolve the problem - a couple managed to resolve it by upgrading to Windows 10!
 
One thing I noticed was that for properties of the Speakers, under the "Levels' tab, the speaker level is at the minimum, at 0.0 dB. However I was not able to increase the level any higher. The level was stuck at the minimum, at 0.0 dB. When I switched to "Mixing Driver 1" or "Mixing Driver 2" as the default driver, again there was no sound, but in this case I could see that the speaker level is at the maximum. Not sure if these information can help.
 
Anyone is able to advise on this? I'm starting to get rather frustrated - things aren't supposed to be this hard, are they, when it comes to just getting my MIDI controller to work properly with SONAR..
 
Thanks in advance..
 

stantough
Ok, I hate to spam this thread again, but I just bought the Tascam US 2x2.
 
Installed the driver and settings panel. Saw the Speakers US 2x2 installed when I opened "Sound" in the "Control Panel". 
 
Whenever I played the sound, I can see the green levels going up and down. However, no sound can be heard from my speaker. I turned the "Monitor Balance" to the max. level, as instructed in the Troubleshooting section, but still no sound. I played with different settings in the "Settings Panel" software - again silence. 
 
Drivers are up to date.
 
I tried restarting my computer, I tried plugging out the USB cable and plugging it back in again, still no sound.
 
But the moment I switched back to my in-built Realtek sound card, I could hear sound coming out of the speaker again.
 
I searched Google and found a few people with the same issues as me - but with no responses whatsoever that could resolve the problem - a couple managed to resolve it by upgrading to Windows 10!
 
One thing I noticed was that for properties of the Speakers, under the "Levels' tab, the speaker level is at the minimum, at 0.0 dB. However I was not able to increase the level any higher. The level was stuck at the minimum, at 0.0 dB. When I switched to "Mixing Driver 1" or "Mixing Driver 2" as the default driver, again there was no sound, but in this case I could see that the speaker level is at the maximum. Not sure if these information can help.
 
Anyone is able to advise on this? I'm starting to get rather frustrated - things aren't supposed to be this hard, are they, when it comes to just getting my MIDI controller to work properly with SONAR..
 
Thanks in advance..
 

Did you plug your speakers into the interface?
 
Dan

Bummer.. I didn't. After plugging in the speakers everything works now.
I still had a bit of issues with off sync, then I tried the suggestion to input a positive value in Full Chase Lock timing offset (50 ms). I have had three runs with 0 off sync notes thus far - my best record with SONAR yet.
 
Thanks for the help. A couple of last questions (hopefully):
 
1) For MIDI in/out I just need to select the MIDI controller, and not the audio interface, right?
2) For both playback and recording, however, I will select 2x2, speakers and microphone, respectively?
3) Is there a way to make all these settings default? Including the timing offset etc.
 
For options 1 and 2 I figured the answer is yes because this is my current setting and I seem to be able to record and playback just fine. 
 
Thanks again!

For 1 and 2 the answer is yes.  If you are making the changes in the preferences screen, they will remain that way until you change them again.

You did switch to ASIO mode?
And it's called Hi Jacking not smap, You should always start you own thread now people will think you issue is the OP's...

Cactus Music
You did switch to ASIO mode?
And it's called Hi Jacking not smap, You should always start you own thread now people will think you issue is the OP's...

I second the recommendation to switch SONAR to ASIO driver mode; sounds like it's defaulted to WDM. Then set the lowest possible buffer size that doesn't generate clicks/pops on playback, and try recording MIDI without the Timing Offset.
 
And stantough is the OP; I think he was just concerned about the thread dragging on and getting a little off track with the new interface. But that's fine with me since the original issue is still not resolved.

Thanks for the replies. 
 
I think increasing the time sync to 50 ms did the trick. I'm making almost no mistakes now. The audio interface is still connected to my desktop though; if anything it should help ease the memory of my desktop at the very least.
 
Just in case you guys are interested, I did try switching to ASIO but ended up having no sound in recording and playback, and in the playback/recording driver option, I was only given the choice for low latency ASIO driver. I remembered having this issue 10 years ago when I had first contact with Sonar and the advice given was to change to MME.
 
But now I've switched to WASAPI shared. No hard proof that it helps, but doesn't hurt to try. 
 
Thanks again.

10 years ago MME might have been good advice, but the Tascam's ASIO driver is very good.  Make sure you have the device selected in preferences.

+1.. ABSOLUTELY use ASIO  You should spend a little time reading Sonars documentation. The ASIO fact is very clear in the second sentence I think.