brundlefly
You're still not recording audio; You're recording MIDI, and the Freeze operation is generating the audio. The waveform preview is just a low-res visual representation of what the track meter is registering. You can get the same result by recording MIDI in a Simple Instrument track, and bouncing to another track. But you're still generating audio offline after the fact.
 
There is a workaround involving bouncing the soft synth track to another track with Fast Bounce disabled, and Live Input enabled, but it's more trouble than it's worth.
 
It'a best just to go ahead and create a loopback path, either with physical patching or in your interface's virtual mixer if it provides this functionaity.
 

Thanks for the explanation. Here I thought I may have found the answer. 
 
The work around which is not totally clear to me seems way more than I can handle.  
 
I work with waveforms a lot. I stack them, stretch them and do many un-mentionable things to them. So for me to be able to easily record the audio out from a VSTi is crucial.
 
Who want to buy my Sonar Platinum. Never down loaded and never installed.

I vote for this. It's been on my list for a long time.

perfectprint
theres an excellent warning sound that occurs telling you have introduced a feedback loop! the fact that it may be possible to introduce one is not reason to exclude it. 

If there's an option to disable the functionality in preferences set by default newbies wouldn't hear a squeek.

I'm scratching my head ...as to why not with patching the loop, by whatever means and muting where needed.  Yes, some flip of the buttons within Sonar would be nice, but most people at this point in recording should be able to do this with minimal hassle.
 
However...the idea mentioned earlier about a newb expecting to record their VSTi live is most excellent.  Why would they think otherwise?

when a "noobie" (fwoabw) introduces a feedback loop, they soon learn how to avoid them! (just like in the real world) maybe a warning of some kind, to help?

Where do I vote for this?

I voted for this, but ...
 
This seems like a case for better routing to me.  Being able to send to another track should solve this, and would be useful in other ways too.

It is hard to believe that at
http://www.cakewalk.com/CakeTV/SONAR-University/Get-Started
and the manual
http://www.cakewalk.com/support/doc.aspx?DLID=1005
have no instructions on how to record the audio from a VSTi.
So I looked at the 38 MB X3 Reference Guide
http://www.cakewalk.com/support/doc.aspx?DLID=1002
and again only how to record midi only. Perhaps I did not look hard enough?

I did a search for “record” at the forum
http://forum.cakewalk.com/SONAR-f70.aspx
and only seven items came up. That was not much help.
 
In our modern day I feel that one thing that any DAW should easily is to record audio from a VSTi in real-time. As one member said it is expected that Sonar being a top DAW will have this feature. Users are amazed to learn that is not possible in Sonar. They finally spend hours on research and in my case three days trying to get this to work. What a waste of time for all of us Sonar supporters.
 
I see many threads asking about how to record audio from a VSTi on real time. Cakewalk should by now realize that this is a very desirable feature to implement. They have not after so many version updates and so they will never do so in my opinion.
 
So, my feature request is that Cakewalk put in their manual and in the forums an official statement that Sonar cannot easily record audio from a VSTi in real-time. There are as scook to quote him directly summarized:

“Plug-in output is not recorded in SONAR. The only solutions are VST recorders, loopback (with physical and virtual audio connections) and bounce using live input. That is it, there is no more.”
 
Officially state that Sonar has been designed to disallow any real-time recording of any and all VSTi’s. This will reduce the threads on this subject and save the members hours spent on research.
 
List all the applicable threads:

I'm not seeing how this is a problem though. You play your part and click the "Freeze" button or bounce and it's printed. Then it's an audio clip.
 
I genuinely curious because I may be overlooking something... what real world application would this be preferable for?
 
And of course if it is absolutely necessary a loopback via the interface into a new track isn't all that difficult. Some interfaces even have wireless loopback.

 
If you are happy with how recording the VSTi is currently done you have company.
 
Midi and external audio can be recorded in real time. No-one asking that to first freeze the tracks and then to bounce.
 
1. For me it is workflow.
2. the bounce clip may not be identical to what I recorded. Some randomization from the VST and VSTi will not be reproduced properly.
3. Cubase which I dropped for Sonar can do this so I was expecting that all great DAW's can record the audio from a VSTi in real time. 
4. I am not crazy about work-arounds. Yes perhaps if I do adopt them I may get used to them.
 
The FR I am proposing here is not to start a debate as to why but to inform other users as stated in the OP. The why and how debate is going on in other threads.