quest4success
These files have tempo info embedded in them, i.e. acidized.
Yes, but unless the project tempo already matches the baseline embedded tempo, the length is going to change because MBT time is the fixed reference in SONAR. I suspect David is correct that dragging it to an audio track first is allowing the clip to take on the project tempo before conversion to MIDI.
This should be easy to check with clips of known base tempo.
EDIT: I verified that if a 2-bar, 125BPM groove clip is dragged straight to a MIDI track in a project that's at 125BPM, the length of the resulting MIDI clip will be right on the money. But if the tempo is lower, the clip will fall short of two bars by the ratio of the project tempo to the clip tempo. If the tempo is higher, the clip will not exceed 2 bars, but the events in the clip will be longer by the ratio of the project tempo to the clip tempo, and events or parts of events that don't fit are truncated. On some level, this could be considered to be a bug, but it's quite understandable, and has an easy workaround.