Hello Everyone.
After many hours of searching and trying to solve an issue with my setup, I finally gave up and thought to ask you for your help.
I have Sonar X3 running in Windows 8. I have 3 Fireface UC interfaces connected together and sending the signal to the Dangerous Source monitoring device. Everything works great.
The problem is when introducing the Dangerous 2-BUS LT. The are no hardware related issues with the setup, I can rout the signal (total of 16 channels) from the 3 Firefaces combined to the 2_BUS which are routed back to one of the Firfaces' inputs and then to the monitors.
The problem is with the routing inside Sonar. I want to mix through the 2-BUS. So, to hear the processed signal after going through the 2_BUS, I have to create an audio track that receives it. All good till now and I can receive the processed signal just fine. However, any plugins on this track will not be recorder/printed when recording the signal from this track (although you can hear their effects). So if I want to put a compressor, for instance, on that audio track I can hear its effect but when I hit the record button on that track to print my mix it will not include this effect. I've seen a video in the Dangerous Music's youtube channel doing this exact setup but with Pro Tools. But the guy uses a combination of an Audio track and an Aux track where he made the signal coming from the 2-BUS go first to the input of the Aux track and out to the Audio track which made any effect be captured.
Unfortunately, I could not do that because Sonar's buses don't let you choose your input. Also with this setup I lost my Master Bus functionality (not receiving anything because every track is sent directly to one of the outputs of the interfaces).
So is there a way to change the inputs of a bus in Sonar? Or is there another way this could work?
I am really lost right now and hope someone here could help.
 
Thanks and sorry for the long post :)

Your post is a little confusing, but what I can make of what your trying to do is use a VST compressor to compress a incoming signal to a track before recording..
Farz I know this will do knot. You need a hardware compressor ahead of your A/D. 
 
Sonars Buses are input from your tracks, the buss itself has no input option because this is mote. Your tracks control the input. Same thing as a mixing desk. The buses don't choose the input, the channels do. 
 
 

thank you for your reply, and sorry for the confusion.
Yes, I want to put a VST plugin to affect the incoming signal, and to treat that track as my master bus (since the master bus is of no use in this situation).
So from your answer it seems that it is not possible to mix through the 2-BUS in Sonar (because there is no master bus or audio track that I can treat as a master track to put any VST on (like limiter or the like) to affect the whole mix?
Then my only other option is to have another DAW for mixing through the 2-BUS. I was hoping to do that in Sonar which is my main DAW and I like to work in it exclusively.
 
Thank you again.

You could mix it down into Sonar without any VST fx, and then add the fx and bounce to a new track. That's about the only option. I know that's not what you're looking for...

Why would you need to print the VST to the track upon recording? You need to export the audio eventually anyway, I don't really see how it makes a difference?

Thanks for your replies.
Sanderxpander:
What I wanted to do is to start my mixing process with a little compression/tape saturation on the master bus to affect the whole mix from the beginning, so when I make decisions about the individual tracks' eq and other processes I am doing that based on the sound I am getting from the 2-BUS and the compression/tape saturation plugins on the master bus (putting these after the mix has finished will not produce the same results as mixing with them from the start).
So when using the 2-BUS the way I explained, there is no signal going through to the master bus, and I am stuck on relying on the audio track that I created to receive the signal back from the 2-BUS into Sonar (which when record enabled won't allow processing the effects from the compressor/tape saturation plugins).
 
Leadfoot: doing it that way I will end up with only one stereo track. But I wanted to be able to mix all tracks and finish the whole mix then print them to one stereo track.
 
Any other ideas?
Thanks

Unfortunately, that is how digital effects work in the computer.  You can hear them "live" but they don't print, unless you have separate dsp (like my TC Konnect or the Apollo, etc.).  Same as if you put an effect in the box on a live performance.  You hear it, but that isn't saved as an audio file.
 
There is really no difference between what you "hear" live during mixdown and bouncing the stereo track w/ effects afterwards.  In your case you just copy or drag your master buss effect you've used during mixing over to the input mix. Try it yourself. You should hear exactly the same result and bouncing that track will give you the "final" master.
 
The only other alternative is mixing through a separate dsp unit like the Apollo etc. and recording that to your input tracks during mixdown.
@

Thank you very much for your help, I will definitely try what you have suggested.
"Unfortunately, that is how digital effects work in the computer.  You can hear them "live" but they don't print, unless you have separate dsp"
I think it is a limitation in Sonar rather than of how digital effects work in the computer. The absence of Aux input tracks in Sonar (which are available in other DAWs) is what limiting my setup.
Thank you again for your help everyone.
 
Best

Hi Toledoo1,
I know exactly what you're talking about. I mix through an external device as well (mine's an SSL but the process is the same). There are some DAW's that let you print fx on a track as you record to them (PT with an aux and Studio One come to mind here), but Sonar isn't one of them. Fortunately that's not a big deal and it only requires a few extra seconds (and is probably better anyway). Here's what I do:
 
Route your stems to the summing device (SSL/2-bus/whatever) and then back to an input on your audio I/O, create a track whose input is that stereo pair and enable input monitoring. That track then is the only track that feeds your monitors. That is the important part...the only track that is feeding your monitors must be that track. Name it "Print" or something. When input monitoring is enabled on that "Print" track you'll then hear whatever is coming into that track as well as any FX on that track, so this is where your 2-bus (or Master bus if you prefer) FX go.
 
Once you have everything mixed to your liking you'll need to record the signal coming into your "Print" track, just like you would with any other track. Now, you're not quite done because your 2-bus fx in the bin of your "Print" track aren't printed to your mixdown. to do that just bounce that track. Usually I just bounce to a new track and name it according to my filenaming convention...something like "AwesomeSong-1.6-mixdown-08-26-2014a". Then I'll put each of those mixdown tracks into a track folder called "MIXDOWNS" that is muted or archived.
 
In my setup the routing looks like this:
Tracks get bussed to stem busses (vox, drums, fx etc).
Stem busses get sent to RME Outputs 1-16
RME Outputs 1-16 -> SSL inputs 1-16 (In your case this is your Dangerous box...this is where they are summed and then potentially routed through other hardware)
SSL outputs 1-2 -> RME Inputs 47/48
RME inputs 47/48 -> Audio track in Sonar called "Print"
Sonar "Print" track with FX on it (saturation, Ozone, a "talent" button, whatever) -> speakers (or a bus with ARC/room eq on it that goes to speakers). THIS IS THE ONLY THING THAT FEEDS MY SPEAKERS!
When done, bounce the print track to mixdown tracks or export (only that track) to a wave file on your hard drive.

Let me know if you have questions and I'll try to help out.
Dean
 

I just looked at what this 2 Bus device is and does. So what you have is a summing mixer that excepts 16 channels of analog audio and sums it into 2 tracks. 
This is were you post confused me as your implying you want to run all your tracks though this and then apply mastering effects outside the box. 
 
I'm afraid all you have there is a analog summing mixer that is designed to provide you with a stereo mix. 
To do what you want to do you'd go to the next level and use a complete analog mixing desk and analog processing hardware to match. Ca Ching$$$$
 
What I would do with your set up is what has been stated a few times and mabey you don't understand. 
You just bring the stereo mix back and deal with it in the box. You don't even have to use Sonar, you could record it into a stereo wave editor like Wave Lab or Sound Forge. 
 
Your trying to do 2 things at once with a device that was not built for that. 
Basiclly your trying to mix out side the box but master inside the box in real time. 
You need to split these duties. 
 
I also see your dilemma with your interface(S) don't have enough outputs to have a monitoring point post DAW. Is there a headphone option in the outputs?