Lately the SPLAT on the voiceover DAW in our B room which is on a moderately powered (i5) but new computer has been having a 2 or 3 second lag before playback or recording when the spacebar is pushed.  Just started a couple weeks ago.  Have gone through and checked all the settings and all seems normal.
 
Any possible solutions will be much appreciated.
 
 

IS there a recording count-in set up? A couple of measures that are counting down silently? That's all I got Ol' Pal.

Any chance it's not starting at first measure?

This will happen if you've cranked the Playback and Record File System I/O buffers under Edit > Preferences > Audio > Sync and Caching.

Seth Kellogg [Cakewalk]
This will happen if you've cranked the Playback and Record File System I/O buffers under Edit > Preferences > Audio > Sync and Caching.

Thanks for chiming in Seth.
 
I too have been experiencing that same problem lately, but I will try use your answer when I arrive home tonight and see if that solves the problem. 
 
What are your recommended settings if any?

I guess this issue will also occur if you have a plugin such as a limiter for example, that uses "look ahead". If Seth's answer doesn't help, check what plugins you have in the project.

My computer was doing that for a while.  Then I realized Windows Update had turned Game Mode on.  No problems since turning it off.

I have been fighting this same issue for a while now. I have been trying anything I could think of and not having a lot of luck. One thing I did that did help more than anything else I have tried.... I turned on Plugin Load Balancing. I had tried this a long time ago, when it first came out and it screwed everything up. Now though, it helps. I have no idea why this would be. It's still not like it used to be but, it is better.
I have noticed several people complaining of this problem lately. Has something changed in Sonar to cause this. Sonar used to be very responsive for me, downright perky! I run an i5 with 8 ghz RAM, Win 10, with a Focusrite Saffire Pro 40 & Focusrite Octapre. HD's are defragged. I have not changed anything in my system, Sonar has just gotten slow and lagging. 

Jesse G

Seth Kellogg [Cakewalk]
This will happen if you've cranked the Playback and Record File System I/O buffers under Edit > Preferences > Audio > Sync and Caching.

 
What are your recommended settings if any?

It's a balance. A larger buffer will take more time to fill, but a faster machine will fill the buffer quicker. Historically, I always set it as high as I could without any perceived delay. Now I tend to leave it at the default on modern machines, except for the 'Prepare' MIDI buffer.
 

robred
I have noticed several people complaining of this problem lately. Has something changed in Sonar to cause this. Sonar used to be very responsive for me, downright perky!

 
There's been no substantial change in the core audio engine for a while. We've been focusing primarily on UX, peripheral support, and drawing efficiencies these last few months. 

I haven't seen a large number of users reporting this, so I'm not sure it's a systemic issue at the moment. The wide variance of system configurations out there always makes things a bit murky though. 

To be fair, I have noticed Sonar becoming more sluggish over the past few months. I'm definitely not getting the performance I used to, and it seems to be less stable as well. I get these playback delays bigtime, and also I experience quite a few hangs when doing things like moving the playhead large distances, or dragging groups of clips large distances and letting them go. If I start playback too soon after dropping a group of clips, Sonar hangs. It's almost as if it's taking its time to think after I perform operations like this, and I need to give it a couple of seconds to get its act together. I don't notice these things in fresh new projects when they're still small, but when working on older, larger projects I'm just not seeing the same performance I used to and I have to be continually careful not to make any "sudden moves" lest it freak the old girl out and cause her to throw a hissy fit