bitflipper, I totally understand what you mean. I don't disagree with anything, so thanks for the reassurance of my own understanding/knowledge.
 
I've already compensated for latency in the DAW, which gets me synched up to the very sample, much better than even the ASIO self-testing can measure. I do expect some ever-so-slight latency, but certainly not 50+ms. Surely some people have measured much better than that. What's got me troubleshooting and providing workarounds is that as you mentioned, you use a much older machine, and can deal with the latency. So, it must not be quite that bad. My machine is less than 3 months old, with an iCore7 4/8 thread CPU, 16 Gigs RAM, SATA drive, new Intel MB with 2033Mhz backplane, and everything else in order up to what I know, which is fairly advanced.
 
CueMix DSP is the method we used, because it runs directly on the MOTU PCIe-424 card giving us a mere 3ms delay in feedback. This is very workable, since it allows me to change the feedback volume of the vocal while tracking is going on without causing Drop-Outs. So, this is what MOTU expects me to do, which works very well except, I can't use a compression plug-in (even a very fast one).
 
I just don't think I should be hearing the singer tell me, "Yeah, this is horrible. It's throwing me off". Maybe what's changed is a setting I didn't catch, or I don't really fully understand the right approach in latency-management.
 
gwitz, yeah, I do run BitDefender, but I disable it completely when we track. It's been an issue before when it would attempt to read the files Sonar was writing, which was seriously dumb on BitDefender's part. They don't even recognize a DVD movie before hijacking the DVD drive to scan it. heh

brconflict
Even with the transport stopped, and not using any plug-ins on the Vocal buss, I'm still hearing 50-100ms latency in the Sonar X2 echo.

 
That's all as expected with PDC. Please read what I wrote again. All tracks are delayed to sync with the track that has the latency-adding plug-in.
 
And it does not matter whether the transport is running or not because SONAR has to maintain PDC at all times so that everything is in sync when the transport does start rolling.
 
Other then the PDC Override switch I mentioned previously (which you should try), the only way to get rid of PDC is to remove the plug-in from the project or freeze/apply the FX. Disabling it will not make any difference because SONAR has to be ready for you to switch it in and out at any time without inducing playback hiccups.

Brian good compact i glad you can take a plug in with out distortion i see your tolrencey level is coming back, hope you have checked your PLUG supply to make sure you computer is buffered with enough power so your computer doesnt seem sluggish!
 
Circuitry can play a big part in those drop outs you know.
 
Full power!
 
If not Studio One!

brundlefly, yeah, I tried disabling PDC, but it didn't help as I'd hoped it would.
 
Dappa1, are you a Presonus rep?

This is just me, but I'd toss a hardware compressor and reverb on the direct monitor and fly with that, even if I had more capable PC hardware.  I've only recently attempted any monitoring through the DAW.

doncolga, that's always a tried and true solution. I do have an outboard compressor I can integrate with the MOTU that will easily do the job. I just wish I could figure out why latency has sort of taken a dive since we were doing this before without issues. If I could get back to using a latency setting of 32 in Sonar without drop-outs, I'd be stoked. I'm going to possibly try what Coresan alluded to. I found I experienced a bit more sluggishness after applying the X2a update, so I'm curious now, myself.
 
I'm also going to try starting a fresh, 1-track session/project, and see if, with absolutely no effects, etc. I can get rid of latency, then dissect the more loaded session. Freezing tracks, disabling PDC, and removing/disabling plugins didn't help, so I'm going to get to the bottom of this, if I can.

These plugins seem to be common causes of tracking latency: PC Concrete Limiter, LP-64 Multiband Compressor, LP-64 EQ and Perfect Space Reverb.
 
Bob Bone

OK! Well, I found one problem, which I feel silly about. Obviously, I do less tracking than I do mixing/mastering. The MOTU's PCI Audio Console has an I/O Samples per buffer, that was set to 2048. Changed to 32 samples, and latency is non-existent, even through Sonar.
 
With that said, brundlefly had the other solution. Transient-Shaper was a tremendous problem. I would never imagine it would induce THAT much noticeable delay!
 
Anyway, like I said, tracking is not something I normally do, and it seems to be the one area I have the hardest time with Sonar. 
 
Thanks for all the help!
 
 

Sidenote: I installed 32-bit Sonar alongside the 64-bit version, followed by the hotfix. Bad things happened with the Waves plug-ins. Lots of horrid static and inability to use them. I had to perform a bit of cleanups to correct this. I don't recommend trying to co-exist two Sonars 32/64bit on the same machine with Waves...