Hi Folks.  Newbie forum member here.
 
I purchased Sonar X2 last year but only activated it recently.  It's a big leap from Adobe Audition 1.5 that I'd been using reliably for years.  But I took a new job writing and recording for a music production company that licenses to film and television, so I figured it was time to get up to date.
 
I've had no trouble recording MIDI instruments in Sonar, but I'm getting some odd (what sounds like digital) distortion when trying to record audio--completely unusable.  I can't find the solution.  To get by I've been recording audio in Audition and importing it into Sonar for mixing; juggling between the two is a hassle, though.  I have no issues recording audio in Audition, and there are no issues playing it back in Sonar once I've imported it.  It's just a recording issue.
 
I typically record 48/24.  I'm operating on a custom built PC: i7 quad; 12 GB RAM; Windows 7 Ultimate.  I'm using two second generation Echo Layla interfaces.
 
Incidentally, I purchased Amplitude 3 a couple of days ago and have also had noise issues when using it in standalone mode.  Again, if I use it as a plug-in in Sonar with previously recorded audio it functions as it should.
 
Am I missing a key input setting?  Are my older Layla interfaces the issue?
 
Thoughts/suggestions/comments are welcome.  Thanks in advance!

Are the two interfaces able to use the same ASIO driver or do you have to use WDM? If you're using WDM driver mode, you might try switching to ASIO (Preferences > Audio > Playback and Recording) and see if you still get access to all the I/O channels on both devices. But even if only one interface is available, try recording and see if that solves the issue. In any case, make sure the Record Timing Master is the same driver/device as the Playback Timing Master (Preferences > Audio > Driver Settings).

ASIO only supports one sound card. So you cannot use 2 sound cards in ASIO mode. Only WDM mode allows 2 sound cards. 
 
Now, you must set one sound card as the master and one as the slave. This might be why your getting digital distortion. Only one card or devise, like Big Ben can be used as the master clock. so check your master and slave settings. This should resolve your issue
 
CJ

Several audio interface vendors support chaining multiple of their interfaces together in ASIO - there can only be one ASIO driver present, is what my understanding is, but you can daisy-chain 2 of the same audio interface, as long as the ASIO device drivers and hardware support it - there are some clocking issues that need to be set properly, as well, and again not all audio interface products support doing this.
 
Bob Bone
 

Yea, you are right and I am wrong. I overlooked daisy chaining.
 
The problem still has to do with setting one to master and one to slave
 
Cj

I have not done daisy-chaining - just happened to recall others doing it, and seeing interfaces that supported it.  :)
 
Bob Bone
 
 

CJaysMusic
ASIO only supports one sound card. So you cannot use 2 sound cards in ASIO mode. Only WDM mode allows 2 sound cards. 

 
It will support two sound cards if they are the same. I've run both my Layla3G pair and my Delta 1010 pair ASIO with no issues, but if I try to use a Delta with a Layla I have to switch to WDM or MME. 
 

The ASIO restriction is one audio driver at a time. It is up to the developer of the audio driver whether more than one physical interface may be used at the same time.

brundlefly
Are the two interfaces able to use the same ASIO driver or do you have to use WDM? If you're using WDM driver mode, you might try switching to ASIO (Preferences > Audio > Playback and Recording) and see if you still get access to all the I/O channels on both devices. But even if only one interface is available, try recording and see if that solves the issue. In any case, make sure the Record Timing Master is the same driver/device as the Playback Timing Master (Preferences > Audio > Driver Settings).

This basically solved my problem.  I was set for WDM (which is what always worked with Audition).  The switch to ASIO gave me clean audio recording in X2.  The catch: I can only use my first Layla unit--the master unit.  Its slave is recognized, but I experienced continuous dropouts when I tried to record using those inputs.  Playing with buffer size didn't help.  I can get by for the time being, but I'll eventually have to figure out more inputs for tracking drums.
 
Now I'm having some issues with plug-ins only performing during playback, not while recording.  Any suggestions there?
 
As you guys can probably tell, I'm still a little green when it comes to DAWs.  I only gave up tape completely about four years ago.  I'm really loving all the options that have been opened up (like MIDI instruments--suddenly I DO have all those vintage keyboards and synths), but I've got some learning catch-up to do.
 
The help is MUCH appreciated.  Thanks!

AlphaTango

 
Now I'm having some issues with plug-ins only performing during playback, not while recording.  Any suggestions there?
 

Tracks are always recorded dry in SONAR. It is possible to hear the effected audio with "Input Echo" enabled but the track will not record the effects. To record the effects would require looping back through the interface to another track or importing a captured wave made by a plug-in recorder like HGS WAV Recorder.