I'm using SONAR X1 Studio with a Novation Impulse49 MIDI Controller. I can tell from the display on the controller as well as the input gauge on the MIDI track that there is data being transmitted and confirmed with the Novation helpdesk that the Impulse is working fine. My pitch wheel always immediately responds and I never have to change settings or mappings...is there something I'm missing in getting the Mod wheel to work?

Try this:
Arm an empty MIDI track for recording.
Press Record in Sonar.
Do nothing but wiggle the Mod Wheel.
Press STOP in Sonar.
Open the Event List View. Do you see MIDI data recorded?
 
If so, the problem is whatever instrument you are attempting to drive with the MIDI track, isn't responding to the CC events.
Check the event type and let us know what kind of data was recorded (can't remember what mod wheel is, offhand)
 
If not, then the problem might be in the MIDI interface. any chance there is a filter removing certain MIDI event types?
 
If not, then the problem must be in the Novation controller, not sending MIDI events.
 
 
 

Sorry for the delayed response...
 
The Event List shows Kind="Control" and Data="1:Modulation". It turns out that the instrument wasn't responding to CC events. I'm pretty new to all of this, so I wasn't aware that some instruments wouldn't respond to CC events. I was using the Cakewalk Studio Instruments suite that I bought a while ago before upgrading to Sonar. Once I switched to Cakewalk TTS-1, it worked without any problems. Thanks for your help - I appreciate it!