argh sonar!
I used to be able to select which "quality" I could bounce stretched-audio (clips) as.
Now I cant seem to find it. online help and manuals were of no use either.
 
for example, the audio quality that is "worst" for STILL sounds great on slowed down drum loops.
the "good" one, well, meh. I DONT want the vvocal version or the mpex one.

are you talking about getting low-quality glitched effects on slip-stretched clips??? if so, select the slip-stretched clip then open the track inspector.  click the clip tab then click on audio snap.  check enable.  then, in the offline render dropdown select "same as online". then when you bounce the clip or export the project that clip will retain its grittiness. 

hmmm. thanks swamptooth.
this seems to be it, or at least close. and I can mess with it from here. 
i SEEM to remember that it used to be (Sonar 8.5??)  when you drug it longer (or shorter) it would either duplicate data mathematically or drop data mathematically, and that sound is really what im after. I don't want it to try to maintain pitch or timbre, I want the raw and gritty (and pitched) one.

I don't know why they make it so hard to do stuff (and force a re-learn) we used to do so simply.

Could this be what you're looking for ?

Page 646 of the X2 manual, under "Algorithms and rendering" :

"Typical algorithm choices for an AudioSnap session work like this:

• Do your AudioSnap time stretching, error correction, etc., with a quick algorithm: choose either Percussion or GrooveClip.

• After your AudioSnap editing is finished, bounce to track with a better algorithm: choose one of the Radius choices, or for drum tracks, Percussion is usually the best choice."

yup percussion might be what you want in that case... tech changes with mainstream uses unfortunately. :/