ryannadon

mcmasters
YES faders would be much better.
 
EVEN MORE IMPORTANT
A copy fader levels to send feature like that other 800 pound gorilla DAW has.
Having to remix the rough mix with the gain knobs is counter productive and so NOT fun.
A simple "copy faders to send X" would be fantastic.
 

Hahaha! Looks like I stumbled on a sore spot! Having spent the afternoon twiddling tiny gain knobs, I have to agree most emphatically with McMasters; NOT fun. However, it is worth it in the end!

Sonar has one - it's called the send assistant    -  see post #8

I missed that. Thanks.

ryannadon - just thought I'd mention I have some very similar gear. If you ever want to talk specifics about some of those pieces feel free to PM me. You can see some notes in my signature info.

Somehow I'm not getting what the problem is here. Most interfaces have the ability to balance the input signal with the playback from the DAW. Very few do not offer this feature. It might be a physical knob or it might be via a Software mixer. This feature is pretty darn important.
 
  There was a similar thread a few days ago and in the end the person was having to spend more money to make up for a shortcoming in the monitoring system. In this case the lack of a output volume separate from the headphone volume. 
 
Bottom line is when shopping for an audio interface, make sure it has the options you need. 
Example , my Scarlett 6i6 ( and others in the series above it) have the software "Mix Control" that allows dozens of options for headphone and cue mixes that do not involve changes to your the DAW's mix. I haven't had to use more than one mix so far, but looks like I could have 4 different cue mixes happening. It takes only a couple clicks to set a nice balance between my input and the playback. 
My Tascam interface did this with a knob but it was not very loud. The Scarlett is real loud! . 
 
 

You are spot on regarding shopping for an interface that suits your needs. However, I bought my audio interface almost 5 years ago, and since then my needs have changed quite drastically. Maybe I should be looking into a new audio interface instead of a headphone amp, but doing it this way is allowing me to get maximum bang for my buck out of my existing interface as well as learning some new gear and some pretty awesome routing techniques.
 
There is a minimal software mixer that came with my Profire, but I just can't see how you could get multiple headphone mixes using that alone. I could be wrong though. I'm definitely open leaning how it works if there is a way.

I completely disagree that you could do this with just your soundcard's mixer. That would work fine if all you need is a balance between what you're playing and "the backing track", that is however a far cry from making 2 or more independent headphone mixes. What if the guitarist doesn't want to hear the prerecorded leadvocals as loud as the keyboard player does? Or if the bass player wants mostly drums and not much else.
 
Any situation that requires multiple mixes of already recorded stuff means you have to make those mixes in the place where all the tracks are playing. So I believe you're going about it the right way, and you certainly don't need a different interface for this purpose.