I used to record bands and had a dedicated monitor mixer and a audio interface with enough outputs to supply the monitor board. I no longer do that and have a much smaller interface nowadays and normally just bring in singers at this point... I'm the "band".
Therefore I'm setting up my monitor mix by using the sends in Sonar and sending the sends to its' dedicated buss which in turns is an alternate mix I can send thru an additional stereo output of my soundcard. That way I can muck around while recording and listen to the main/master mix and the talent (usually just a vocalist at this point) can have their own mix. I keep the sends prefader of course. Soloing etc doesn't affect the "MIX 2" either...since the sends are all before that stuff.
I'm not really seeing any other way to do it, and it also seems pretty simple too. My latency is low enough that it isn't a problem and I can also use FX from Sonar....like reverb ...and send that to my "MIX 2" as well, should the singer want a touch of it. My soundcard also is a "zero" latency on the recorded input as well. Only the playback tracks (or FX) would have latency.
So...two simple mixes on record/playback....using sends like you would a "monitor mix" on a live board.
Typical setup I guess is my question?? ....or am I too old to know a better way?