Cheers - My old setup was an M Audio Keystation over USB. Works fine, as does this larger Keystation over USB.
At this point I was using the pedalboard MIDI out into the Rme MIDI in and it was working just fine (as it still is, through the merger).
 
Now I'm using MIDI out of the keyboard and merging it with other devices (like the footpedal) into the Rme MIDI in. No luck.
 
What's confusing me most is the fact that Sonar is clearly seeing the events to use as automation but just wont record notes where other DAW's and notation software will.
 
Yes I could plug it in via USB (which I have done as a necessity), but I want to have all my MIDI devices into the same port for various reasons and this simply shouldn't be happening.
 
Windows Services - I'm not sure exactly what that covers but I haven't changed anything since I got this PC from Scan Audio. But likewise, I haven't tried to use a keyboard over MIDI in since then either - but it doesn't make sense to me that my other device is working when all they are both doing is outputting note commands, and as stated it works in other software.
 
 

I'm sorry my friend if I'm being redundant, I know you said it has nothing to do with a loop region. I'd like to make certain you're aware that a punch region is NOT the same thing as a loop region. They CAN be combined but the loop region can be different from the punch region (although i can't see the use in that). If you have a selected region for punching it doesn't matter where else you try to record even if you see midi activity, you'll only be able to record in the "punch" region which is designated by the 2 red flags, the "loop" region is designated by the 2 yellow flags (you're template for new a new project may have the punch region preselected). Again I apologize if this is not what you're having a problem with.

Understood buddy - I appreciate your post as you really do have to suggest EVERYTHING when trying to solve such a problem like this.
But yes, that's not the problem. As stated it is the case even in a clean project with no such markers set, and even if that were not the case it would not explain why hits on my pedalboard record but the keyboard doesn't within the same timeline area

Hi EtherealEntity,
 
In situations like this, tech support would have you try a couple of things:
 
1. In C:\Users\<your current user>\AppData\Roaming\Cakewalk\SONAR X2 Producer delete the following files:
Cakewalk.ini
TTSSEQ.INI
 
This will reset your MIDI devices settings in Sonar so you would need to re-select them in Preferences  - MIDI devices. 
 
2. If that fails, try re-personalization. Start Sonar with the CTRL + SHIFT keys pressed, this will re-copy necessary files and reset some registry keys in case they became corrupted. 
 
Doing these two things should reset everything back to factory default so any settings preventing MIDI input would get wiped and reset. 
 
The only other thing that we do differently that may cause a problem is we send local control off at start of Sonar by default. This could be causing an odd setting to happen on your keyboard controller. To see if that's the case, disconnect your MIDI keyboard controller, start up Sonar, and re-connect it. If you can record from this point, the local control off setting is screwing with the controller. There's an ini flag you can set to turn that off. 
 
Hope this helps.

Hey, deleting those 2 files worked!
THANK YOU!! :D
On the surface that doesn't look any different to having gone into pref and unchecked/checked said devices but it did the job, great!