First off...is it an X2 only feature?  I'm contentedly stranded in X1......(read: looking for a good excuse to upgrade)

Here's what I want to do>

Set up a loop, arm a track, hit R and turn my back to the box.

Record take after take, have them stored & muted ...either on the same track in clips (prefered) or on subsequent tracks acceptable I guess.

So while I"m doing this I could damn-near just shut the monitor off....no hands on the box at all....I don't wanna hear my previous takes while making the new one.

Go ahead, make my excuse to upgrade...tell me all those dreams can come true...go ahead  ;)

What you describe is a feature in X2, X1, 8.5, 8, 7 ....

I'm not sure when it was first introduced.  

Yeah, you should be able to do this in X1. It is two different functions you want to read up on in the manual. Looping and Auto Punch. They are both relatively straightforward but to describe it step by step would be a little time consuming so just take a peek at those topics. The main points are use the Loop and Punch modules and make sure that your record preferences are set up properly to make sure the takes are being stored how you want and that the previous takes are being muted. 

Cheers.

Yep...pretty standard in Sonar...Beepster and Don are bothe right..I started with Sonar 4 and am pretty sure it had Auto Punch...which is basically Take Lanes now from what I gather...this has a lot of vids and seems to be pretty straight forward.