I have 8 ported to a Toshiba dual core laptop, 8 gigs ram, win7, half TB  HD, using the Tascam US1800 I/O. With the software that came with the 1800, Cubase LE5, I can set up all mono tracks but don't know how to get mono in sonar 8. All I see are stereo pairs. I don't want to use those since it buggers up panning. Need all mono for my band. Thanks.

It is controlled at the track level with the input selection drop down. Select the left or right input of the stereo pair and the track will record in mono.

Reluctant to post to a thread the OP didn't reply to yet.
 
But if you are using the ASIO drivers then Sonars input list should show 3 options for each stereo pair. It's confusing because it only lists odd numbers.
I'm not near my daw so this is from memory and might not look exactly right.
 
Tascam us1800 input channel 1 left   ( = input 1 mono )
Tascam us1800 input channel 1 right     ( = input 2 mono)
Tascam us1800 input channel 1 stereo  ( = will record a stereo track )
Tascam us1800 input channel 3  left   ( = input 3 mono )
Tascam us1800 input channel 3 right     ( = input 4 mono)
Tascam us1800 input channel 3 stereo  ( = will record a stereo track )
 
so the list will be 3x 8 or 24  channels of choices.