I'm running x1 on an I7 with 16 gigs of ram and two hard drives.  Although I haven't measured it, the latency when I try real time monitoring of inputs or softsynths, is much higher than the ms displayed on the latency setting in preferences.  When I put it down to the minimum (about 2 ms) it is still audible, and when I put it higher, the echo seems much greater than what it is saying.  When I run a softsynth at this setting, with other tracks, my system starts glitching.  Is the number there just a "serving suggestion?"  (approximation).  Are there other settings I'm missing that could bring my latency down? 
PLUS: I'm getting an editional wierd latency when I start recording: set the latency to 2 ms, play something into kontact on the keyboard, and after a bit a huge latency is introduced, even though initially it was responding quickly ?!?
Thanks!

Just a guess, but your msec Offset only corrects the inbound latency to your project (based solely on the input latency of your DAW to Sonar). I don't think this helps your outbound Echo-button monitoring latency to your mixer or external speakers/headphones, for example.
 
Try disabling all your other plug-ins except any you use for this MIDI channel, and see if that helps the latency.
 

Another quick question... what driver mode are you running (ASIO with drivers specific to your hardware is highly preferred, WDM is a close second... any others with see delays as you speak of)?

You probably know this, but when assessing latency, it's a good idea to hit the 'by-pass all fx' button on the control bar (Letter E is the keyboard shortcut).
 

I don't have any effects running, I don't think.  When I look at driver mode, it's showing WDM/KS.  For some reason, there is no ASIO showing up for my card (MOTU 24/i with motu internal card).   There is an ASIO, but it appears to be ASIOforall that I might have installed at some time, which is refusing to load with my sound card.  Shouldn't MOTU specific drivers be showing up?  Or maybe MOTU doesn't use ASIO?

Geoffey, please take a moment to add a sig including complete system specs, like you see below...which will aid in all reflections/future discussions...
 
ASIO4all is known to cause problems and should be removed to a backup folder...  the latest motu ASIO drivers should be available on their website...

+1 on removing ASIO4ALL, since you have an audio interface, which should have ASIO drivers of its own.
 
I recommend you switch your driver mode to ASIO, and point Sonar to use your audio interface.  If ASIO4ALL was removed prior to switching to ASIO, then I believe Sonar will automatically find and assign your dedicated audio interface, if you click Apply after switching to ASIO driver mode.
 
I think you will find instantaneous relief from your latency issues, once you switch to your interface and ASIO.
 
I suggest settings as follows, as a reasonable starting point:
 
Audio interface: Sample Rate of either 44.1 k or 48 k, ASIO Buffer Size of 128
Sonar: Driver mode of ASIO, Sample Rate set to match what you set your interface to (44.1 k or 48 k), Record Bit-Depth of 24 bits.
 
In my opinion, you want to end up at or just under a total roundtrip latency in Sonar of 10 milliseconds.  That number is a reasonable balance.
 
The above is predicated on your having previously installed your audio interface drivers, (sorry - had to mention that)
 
Hope that helps, 
 
Bob Bone
 

+1 to the above for getting rid of ASIO4all. Some have good luck with it, and others have had terrible experiences (like me). It is essentially a WDM "wrapper" for software to "see" ASIO when it is not available, but even having it installed can conflict with other (true) drivers. I took another's advice from long ago and uninstalled those completely and forgot I ever saw them.
 
Check out MOTU's site (http://www.motu.com/download) and get the ASIO drivers from them for your hardware. Drivers specific to your hardware are always preferred over anything else.
 
In addition to Bob's advice for setting ASIO latency to 128 initially (Preferences->Audio->Driver Settings->ASIO
Panel...), do a quick check on your I/O buffers as well (Advanced Mode:Preferences->Audio->Synch and Caching). It should be defaulting to 256 for both input/output, which should be fine for most cases. I set mine to 512 for larger projects and left it there because it is sufficient for just about everything I do.
 
Final quick check... in case you have on-board audio as well, Windows can be flaky about seeing an audio interface come online and "grab it" as soon as it does. The only way I have found to override this behavior is to have both onboard audio and the audio interface powered on and go into "Change Sound Card Settings" in Windows. Both should show up at that point, and setting the onboard audio specifically to default (can assign the interface first, and then assign the onboard audio) will force Windows to ignore the ASIO audio interface when it powers on/off (so that SONAR can use it freely). ASIO is "exclusive" so Windows grabbing that interface when it sees it can cause issues.

I actually have Windows sounds turned off, but do have the default Windows audio device set to the on-board sound chip, rather than the audio interface.
 
I then set each audio application that I want to have use the audio interface, to explicitly use the audio interface, and all other applications, such as Windows Media Player, use the default on-board sound.
 
This way, no Windows conflicts arise, and it works well for me, plus, I can have WMP playing while my Sonar is up and running, in case I need to do that, and there is no problem with doing that.
 
Bob Bone
 

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