i've hunted, but just cannot find it if it is there...
 
 

The Stop/Start Audio Engine button?
I'm not sure I understand the question, bat.

In 8.5 it's
 
Ctrl- y  = off 
 
then Ctrl - shift -y  =on   

The global bypass feature was introduced in 8.5.

still haven't found it.
 

RobertB
The Stop/Start Audio Engine button?
I'm not sure I understand the question, bat.

 
usually, while tracking, i never use any plugins for anything at all.
 
and, i typically monitor guitars, keys, bass, etc, live, and don't need echo/playback thru the system, no latency.
 
vox, sometimes i monitor thru headphones, sometimes in the room with my monitors, but again, no plugs along for the ride.
 
 
i have several songs that are fully mixed now, and i've decided to re-track.
i want to turn off every plugin on every track and bus, while i re-track.
 
 
all of the modern daws have this ability.
 
but i cannot find it in Sonar 6PE

all of the modern daws have this ability.
 
but i cannot find it in Sonar 6PE
 
You answered you own question. Did you not see Bitflippers reply? 
You record some of the best music I've listened to on the song forum, so I can see you really know what your doing. No doubt about that.  
I'm totally against the upgrade bandwagon in general myself. But  there might just be a reason to upgrade. They are always adding more stuff and little features like global bypass of efxs bins is a feature I use 3 or 4 times a day.  
I started with Home Studio and then Producer 6 was my first version of Sonar. It was pretty basic as I remember. Even though it gets the job done, it is the features they keep adding that you'll miss immediately if you tried to go back.
 

yes, you are right, 'm warming up cactus.
 

 
i gotta upgrade my home pc first (it's on the net, not my dedicated daw)
 
and XP is really working well for me rightnow.......
 
i just know that there is probably 90% of sonar capability i don't use, and figured it would be worth looking for an easy answer.
 
 

I get a feeling we both approach recording the same way. This stuff is way over kill for old school recording habits and people who can actually play real instruments. I agree 90% of the features they add are to turd polish and create music without actually playing it. 
If I don't like the sound of a track, I re do it. I don't go digging for a "tool" to fix it. 
But workflow is important and some of the stuff they add is good for basic recording. 
 
I probably would still be happy with 8.5, it is one of the best versions made so far. But I took the bait after I had to replace my old Roland keyboard and the new one came with X1 LE. It is a turd, but I registered it like a good boy, and Cakewalk sent me an offer to upgrade to X3 studio for only $99. 
Studio is perfect for those of us who don't need  99% of what Sonar does. It is not missing much that Producer has, a drummer and a few space fart synths.  In a way it's very close to 8.5.
 
I feel sorry for all those who fall for the upgrade treadmill. $199 to buy x1,, then wasting bandwidth downloading an endless stream of updates. Then another $199 to go the X2 and more updates. Then we come to X3  another $199 & everyone raving about how it is finally the most  stable version  yet, ??  the list of bug fixes is about at page 8 by now.  They just released another 670MB download and 2 more pages of fixes? Anyhow I like it and will probably use it for 4 years or more until Microsoft makes it outdated. 
I'm only out of pocket $99, not $600 like most so all is good.