I have been using my new Focusite Scarlett 8i6 with Sonar X1.  It records fine except that I can’t figure out how to adjust the headphone monitor mix to adjust the volume of what I am recording relative to the rest of the mix.  Turning the “monitor” knob on this little red interface has NO EFFECT on the headphone monitor mix.  I played around with the Scarlett MixControl software settings but had no luck.  But I have to admit, I don’t fully understand these settings.
 
Also note, when I record electric guitar (“Instrument” input setting), I can hear the guitar in my headphones even when the track’s Input Echo is off, but when recording using a microphone (“line” input setting), I cannot hear what is being recorded at all, unless I turn on the track’s Input Echo, but the latency is so awful, I keep it off.  Any help appreciated. 

Why are you using the monitor knob? The headphone knob is for the headphones. Also there are a few configurations within ScarlettMix which can sort of be confusing at first but it's all pretty simple if you play around with stuff as you read through the manual. There are setting you need to pay attention to like whether you are using the DAW for monitoring or you are using the 0 latency monitor feature within ScarlettMix. I've found that the ScarlettMix is pretty much a set and forget it type of thing but you definitely have to read the whole manual and understand what the functions of it do. 

The latency can be reduced by adjusting the buffers in the ScarlettMix which is also in the manual. You will want to go through the buffer options incrementally until you start experiencing cracks/pops/dropouts/freezes then turn it back up a bit. I can use mine at the lowest setting (1ms) and get around 7ms roundtrip reported in Sonar while I'm tracking but turn it up to the 2ms setting for mixing (which results in about 12ms roundtrip). That depends on how powerful your system is though.

Cheers.

http://www.youtube.com/wa...eature=player_embedded  

This video (link above) from Graham at www.therecordingrevolution.com  was a big help for me using Focusrite mix control.

Roy

That vid is for the Saffire MixControl so it's a little different than the Scarlett MixControl. Didn't watch the whole thing but the concepts are likely similar. Just something to be aware of.

My unit is the scarlett MixControl looks pretty much the same and Grahams ideas seam to work fine beepster, it certainly helped me to set up a headphone monitoring and a comfort verb using a send in sonar pre fader to an fx bus. Im very pleased with the set up now.

Roy

Yup. Not saying it wouldn't help but that version looks a little more intricate so I was just giving OP the heads up. It should however, as you said, still be helpful.

Cheers.

Cool...   that is a nicely done video.
 

Thanks for providing me that link to the Saffire mix control (even though a bit different from my Scarlett), which provides me a much better understanding on how to monitor what I am recording.  I will play around with it tomorrow (Tuesday) and let you guys know if I have further questions.  In the meantime, I still don't know what the "monitor" knob on my Scarlett interface does.  There is a separate headphone knob which I use to adjust the volume of the headphone mix, but what does the monitor knob do (currently I hear no change regardless of how I turn it)?   Thanks again for all your help.

The monitor knob controls the monitor outputs on the back of the interface. I don't mean to sound rude but you really should take a look at the manual. Those units are pretty user friendly.

Thanks for trying to help Beepster, but I am still confused about this monitor knob.  When I read through the Scarlett manual, it points out the monitor knob but does not really explain what it does or how to use it.  If, as you say, the "knob controls the monitor outputs on the back of the interace", then why do I not hear any changes to the outputs I have connected to outputs 1&2, and 3&4 on the back of the unit when I turn the knob?  I know I must be missing something pretty basic here, but I still can't figure out what that basic thing is.