It's just the way cakewalk lists drivers and has been an issue of discussion for years and years. They tried to solve the problem by adding friendly names but it never resolved the issue because it still appends this left right thing. You should be able to list them simply as 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 etc and stereo should just show up as 1 & 2 etc. IMO anyways.

Thanks for the discussion! I changed to the WDM driver. New nomenclature is:
"Left Scarlett 18i20 USB 1/2"
"Right Scarlett 18i20 USB 1/2"
"Stereo Scarlett 18i20 USB 1/2"
"Left Scarlett 18i20 USB 3/4"
etc........
IMO, this is equally as senseless as the ASIO, although it does show an even-number, which could be considered a bonus. Since Focusrite spells out the use of the ASIO driver, I'll switch back, and hope that one day, Cakewalk or Focusrite or whomever will start providing realistic input names...

it may require some interpretation but all inputs are there. Its listing them as three different things for each stereo pair. The third instance is for stereo. The first two are for mono left and mono right.  Although it may seem strange it really isn't. 

IMHO it is neither senseless nor meaningful it is just the way it is. If there were a standardized naming convention for the various audio driver developers to follow it is possible it would be much easier for cakewalk to make changes to this. The last time I purchase an ad/da to wire wrap was 1995 so I could be wrong but this may have something to do with audio ad/da having stereo input and output. They did back then don't know about now. But as far as memory serves it has been like that in cakewalk products since pro audio days. Would I prefer it to be the way you would like it to be, absolutely. But lacking that I made a note of it 10 or so years ago and moved on. IMHO the audio software and hardware industries are running amuck and show little desire to do anything about standardizing and prefer to compete with one another thru marketing.

Just because we get used to, or accept inadequacy, doesn't make it right, or justifiable in any context. However, now that I've learned that "left" means 1,3,5,7 and "right" means 2,4,6,8, I will, as you say, move on. :)

woodenmusic
Just because we get used to, or accept inadequacy, doesn't make it right, or justifiable in any context. However, now that I've learned that "left" means 1,3,5,7 and "right" means 2,4,6,8, I will, as you say, move on. :)

Thats where you are wrong. The way Sonar is with the ability to have either a stereo track or a mono track with corresponding inputs it makes perfect sense. Some DAWs can't do that. 
 
And all DAWs require "getting use to".

John

woodenmusicJust because we get used to, or accept inadequacy, doesn't make it right, or justifiable in any context. However, now that I've learned that "left" means 1,3,5,7 and "right" means 2,4,6,8, I will, as you say, move on. :)

Thats where you are wrong. The way Sonar is with the ability to have either a stereo track or a mono track with corresponding inputs it makes perfect sense. Some DAWs can't do that.  And all DAWs require "getting use to".

All DAWs have mono & stereo inputs. Sonar is not an exception.

But what we are really discussing is the way sonar presents them. And it is confusing and rigid. This topic comes up again and again year after year because people think its confusing. Friendly names are not friendly.

When your picking from a list of 40 inputs it's is a pain in the rear.

Thats where you are wrong. The way Sonar is with the ability to have either a stereo track or a mono track with corresponding inputs it makes perfect sense. Some DAWs can't do that. 


Just when I thought I had it figured out.....  So, John. Are you saying the Sonar Input description below makes sense?
"Left Focusrite USB 2.0 Audio Driver Mic 1"
"Right Focusrite USB 2.0 Audio Driver Mic 1"
Please help! I would love to understand this... :(

"Left Focusrite USB 2.0 Audio Driver Mic 1" = input 1.
"Right Focusrite USB 2.0 Audio Driver Mic 1" = input 2.
 Real hard to figure that out. 
 
Then again it could be input a input b respectively depending on how the hardware is labeled. LOL. Then you should have a combined 1+2 for stereo. That could also be left and right. Or a+b.
 
Really there are only a very few choices.
 
The thing is your title is wrong. You have to know that now. 

John
"Left Focusrite USB 2.0 Audio Driver Mic 1" = input 1."Right Focusrite USB 2.0 Audio Driver Mic 1" = input 2. Real hard to figure that out.  Then again it could be input a input b respectively depending on how the hardware is labeled. LOL. Then you should have a combined 1+2 for stereo. That could also be left and right. Or a+b. Really there are only a very few choices. The thing is your title is wrong. You have to know that now. 

Not sure if your being sarcastic? But yes it is confusing when your dealing with many I/Os. I know how it works, and have been working with Cakewalk for 12+ years. But still to this day I have to divert my attention to doing some pointless conversion process to make sure I'm selecting the correct I/O. And when your assigning something like 16 tracks and one is wrong so you end up trouble shooting the mic, cables, mixing board etc it's tiring.