Anderton
Either I don't understand what you want, or you don't understand what I'm saying. I may have gotten too complicated because I set up pretty heavy-duty sidechain effects that involve processing the control track and sometimes pulling out some of the audio. But it sounds like you have a relatively basic request:
 

 I was looking for a way to solo JUST the receiving track that was side chained...WITHOUT losing the side chained sound on that track.

 
Let's use a practical example to make sure we're on the same page:
 

• You have a track with guitar that's going through a gate with a sidechain input.
• You want a track with drums to feed the gate sidechain via a send, so the guitar is gated by the drums.
• You want to be able to solo the guitar track, hear how the drums feeding the sidechain affect the guitar sound, but not hear the drum track's audio.

Yes? If not, please explain what I'm missing.

 
YES, this is exactly what I was asking to do.
 

Anderton

When you solo the track, it mutes ALL other tracks effectively, thus turning off the input track, whether it's pre fader, cloned or whatever.

 
This is not correct, so maybe this is the issue. When you solo a track, you are effectively turning the channel fader on the other tracks all the way down. However, the status of any track's mute, solo, or fader position will affect a send ONLY if the send is set to post. As the send from the drums is pre-fader, it's not affected by the solo button on the guitar track. The signal feeding the sidechain persists, even though you can't hear the audio from the drums because the solo button has muted the drum track's audio output.
 
I just tested this now with the example given above, and if the track sending to the sidechain is pre-fader, and the send level is up, then the guitar will be gated by the drum sound whether the guitar track is soloed or not.

 
This is NOT how it works on my system with X3e, unless I am missing a "global solo" setting or something.  I FOR SURE had the control track send PRE fader and when I solo'd the receiving track, I could see my compression signal in the PC4K compressor STOP.  Just as if I had muted the control track.  Soloing a track is NOT like pulling the fadars down on the other tracks..... understanding the fadar is typically the last in the chain.  It is ALSO MUTING THE OTHER CHANNEL BEFORE THE SENDS, whether they are set pre or post fadar.  Believe me, if it didn't, it would work and I wouldn't be asking this question, because when I first solo'd a track, I noticed this right away.  BOTH in hearing and also the visual on the gain reduction meter on my PC4K that was receiving the side chain.
 

Anderton
 Why do you consider the routing "useless" or "beating a dead horse" if it lets you solo the processed signal without hearing the audio from the control signal? Or do you want something else that I don't understand?

 
I was half joking...because I've been *struggling* to describe my question.... and everyone including yourself was NOT totally clear on my question...or had an answer that was slightly off topic, etc, etc.  Also because it really ISN'T that big a deal.  Probably a rare occasion to use this scenario, but since I noticed it, I brought it up here in the forums to help understand X3 better.  The program rocks to the max, so it is almost always easy to find another solution or work around, should you find a procedure you can't do.
 
BTW, I whole heartidly thank everyone who has replied.  That's what makes these forums such a HUGE asset and a great place to learn and help others.  I'd be lost without these forums and the knowledgeable people that respond.
 
 
 
 

I just double checked again and even set up other instances of the same type of side chaining.  SOLOING the receiving track, will shut OFF the control tracks going into the side chain compressor, no matter what.  I also verified that it was pre fadar, as I could MUTE ALL OTHER TRACKS NOT INVOLDED, and then pull the fadar down on the control track...  YES, the PC4K was still compressing away.  Put the control track to POST FADAR...pull the fadar down...  NO MORE COMPRESSION on the PC4K.
 
It appears Soloing does something other than pull fadars down on the other tracks.  It mutes them somewhere in the chain before the sends.
I'll make a video to show this, if needed.
 
EDIT... dang...didn't I say all this in my first post??  ha!  smack me pleeze!!  ;-D

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFigf5nyhuM
Here's a video showing that using the solo button (on the track being side chained) will shut off the control track.
 
Sorry for the video quality.   camtasia on the way  :-D

Well, I looked at your video which definitely shows what you describe. So I set up a collection of modules exactly as you did, down to the S-Type compressor, the two channels side by side, the Pro Channel flyout, etc. etc. I repeated your steps as precisely as I could, and you know what? Turning on the Solo kept the sidechain effect but muted the drum track audio.
 
I thought okay, may it's a ProChannel thing because in my example above, I used an effect in the FX bin. Nope.  I tried switching one, then the other, then both pro channels from pre to post FX. Added FX to the EQ bin...nope. It worked exactly like I described above. Tried exclusive solo, and that still worked too. Solo Override...nope. It always worked as expected. Then I turned on input echo like you had...not that either.
 
I'm completely at a loss. Obviously I can't dig into your machine to look at what else is going on, but it sure seems that the setups are identical. Yet there's something that's different.
 
The only thing I can think of at this point, because this sidechaining technique has worked for me since the dawn of Sonar sidechaining, is that your particular project has some kind of corruption. Does this happen EVERY time you use sidechaining? If you set up a new project from scratch, load up a sustained sound, and gate it with a drum track, does the same thing happen?
 
Frankly, it's mystifying. I have no idea what it could be about your setup that keeps things from working the way they're working in my setup.
 
Grem, could you give this a shot and report back on the results?
 
 
 
 

I could not replicate the failure either. SONAR works as it should here, using pre-fader sends always send signal to side-chain solo or not.
 
I did use a new project and a project template created in X3 for testing.

thanks guys for going above and beyond in helping.  Let me just make a new project and see what happens.  I'll use different instruments...maybe just audio instead of VSTi and then see what happens.
 
thx again.

Welp... I just did a quickie track using audio tracks ONLY and it worked just fine!!  Solo'd the track and the side chaining continued.
 
I'll experiment further, but I was using Superior Drummer 2.0 as my control track in the video.  I'll try other options in THAT same [corrupted??] project and see what happens.  In the past, I have had some odd (but rare) behaviours with Toontrack, that it wouldn't surprise me if Superior Drummer wasn't the culprit in this.
 
You guys have been an immense help and just another reason to confirm I'm using the right software.  thx again!
 
btw...I'm using a brand new StudioCat, I've had DimPro crash it at 64 samples a time or two (locked up my Steinberg UR-44)...but otherwise it has been crash free for about a month now. 

I messed around with the [corrupted?] project...  Took ALL instruments out of the project, down to just two instances of Z3ta 2 and it still wasn't working correctly.  I didn't have any audio tracks yet and was too lazy to pop one in.
 
What actually seemed *corrupted* was the PC4K, as when the track was solo'd....it was still showing an input (the little light up top glowing) and as I changed the ratio...it changed the sound like it was compressing more...and the output knob was also able to clip the next module in line.  So somehow the actual track (NOT the control track) was *leaking* thru into the compressor, when it was solo'd.
 
 
Like I said, not a deal breaker and what I'm doing is just trying stuff out like this to learn the program better, since I just jumped up from 7PE.
 
Must just be a weird project ;-)   I'll chalk it up to that and not consider it a bug or a problem, but something that occurred in that one project, since I got it to work correctly in another experiment.  At this point, most of my projects are *learning* projects to navigate my way around X3, so nothing lost.  I'm not a rock star either!  dang!

Hey guys...THANKS again.    We'll call the *problem* an "audio Illusion*... which happens a lot in my studio... I've seen weirder for sure!

The fact that it was a virtual instrument was a CRUCIAL missing piece of information. MIDI tracks don't have pre/post send options. When you soloed the sidechained track, you were muting the MIDI track. No MIDI, no data feeding drums, no drum sound, no send to the sidechain. There's nothing wrong with Sonar, Superior Drummer, or the PC compressor.

Right. Some options are:
 
1. Solo override the MIDI track.
2. Freeze the drum synth.
3. Bounce the drum track to a dedicated control track for the side-chain