Hi everyone
I have to say whilst I have been a singer for many years I am a newbie to the cakewalk and Sonar world, so if I could get a little help i would really appreciate it...
 
I am using a Windows 7 PC
A focusrite 2i2 Soundcard
 
All I want to do is play a track through Sonar and sing over it purely for rehearsal purposes, a bit of reverb would be nice as well, I have loaded a track but when it plays I am getting a dostorted hum over it, this stops when the track stops but I cant sing with it as it is, has anyone any ideas?
 
Many thanks
Wayne

do you have the latest drivers for the focusrite?  is this a 32bit win7 or 64bit win7 machine?  do you have the correct drivers for the version of win7?

which driver mode are you using?

Hi and thanks for the response, I'm running a Win7 32bit system, driver mode? tbh how do i check that?
 
Thanks
Wayne

Hi I have managed to sort the buzz out now, just need to figure out how to add a reverb effect whilst im singing along to a track...

in order to hear reverb while you're singing, you'll need to add a reverb plugin to that track, then click on the INPUT ECHO button on the track.

but this will also add an echo on your output which is directly connected to your latency.  if your latency is high then you'll hear a really bad echo, if your latency is low, it will be minimal.

Beagle is spot on. Latency is the time it takes for your signal to enter the computer, be pumped thru whatever program or processing you do, and back out into audio again. Depending on what version of Sonar you are using those settings can be found in your audio settings in Preferences. I use a Focusrite on my laptop which has X2 loaded on it for working on the go. You also want to check if your drivers are set for WDM or ASIO. You will also find that setting in Preferences. ASIO has always worked better FOR ME. Some people have had great success using WDM/KS drivers. At any rate, on your audio settings page you should see a slider that defines how fast or slow the latency is. There is a button under that slider. If the slider is not greyed out and the button does NOT say ASIO, you need to go to the next page to reset the drivers. On that page you will see a drop down box that has the name of the driver you are currentlly set to use. Click the drop box and you will see ASIO on the list. Click ASIO. Re-start Sonar, go back to the audio settings page and see if the button now reads ASIO. The slider should be greyed out. Now when you click on that button your Focusrite Control Panel will come up. Then you can adjust your latency. The lower the number of samples, the faster your audio gets processed, thus, lower latency. Adjust it until you hear a slight distortion or clicks or pops. Then back it up to the last setting that you got good clean audio with and leave it. My settings in Sonar on an Intel i5 rig usually are set at 128 to 256 samples. Thats with lots of higher grade third party plugins and I use nothing but virtual instruments. If I use just the Tts-1 for GM purposes I have gotten down to 64 samples which is pretty amazing to me. I remember when I first started out in computer recording I was lucky to get down to 512! The lower the latency the less echo effect you will have on your input monitoring. I know this is a lot of info but take your time, follow the instructions, and you should be able to get that latency down on your Focusrite. 

Sonar is designed as a "recording" program and not really optimized for performance. Sonar's EFX's were meant to be used in recording, not as a real time processor. 
As the boys have said,  trying to use Sonar's EFX in real time is very tricky. You need  ultra low Round Trip Latency or you will hear the delay that each stage of processing adds to the signal path. Very few systems are good enough for this.

Instead: 
Learn to use Sonar to enhance your MIDI backing tracks. I am a solo performer and this is one of my prime uses of Sonar. There is almost no limits to how much  you can make a boring MIDI track come alive. 

When you are satisfied with the arrangement, tempo and sounds then export the song to a WAVE file ( 44.1/ 16 ) 

Now go buy yourself a little 4 channel mixer with built in EFX or a TC voice processor and play your backing tracks using Win Amp or any Media player.