I installed the plugs when I used a Focusrite Saffire.  Don't ever use them.  HTH.

scook
TTSSEQ.ini?

Good suggestion, but I've already tried that. The only reference to MOTU in there was 
    [AliasInput]
    828mk2=828mkII
which I took out. 
 
This morning I went back in and again edited out all the MOTU references from AUD.INI, but this time SONAR did not crash as a result. Either I'd made a mistake last night by taking out something I shouldn't have, or the mistake was reloading while SONAR was running.
 
I also checked the registry to make sure there were no MOTU refererences under Cakewalk Music Software. I am tentatively concluding that the mystery link to MOTU is in some Windows setting, since I know of no other Cakewalk-persisted data beyond INI files and the registry.
 
UPDATE: For future reference if anyone comes looking...
Good ol' Process Monitor helped my find the problem key - HKLM\SOFTWARE\ASIO\MOTU Audio ASIO
Deleted this key and the warnings stopped. The ASIO key is apparently an enumeration of available ASIO devices.
 

The plugin suite that came w my 2i4 are pretty nice … 
I'm glad the plugs came w the 2i4 ..they are subtle and they sound good once you dial them in ...
can I live with out them ? sure 
a while back  I e mailed Focusrtite to find out how many authorizations they allow on the plugin suite
I was told 4 …..so far I have used 2 , I have them on my Win 8 machine and my I Mac …..
the Novation Bass Station  actually surprised me , it sounds real nice ...
disclaimer …..I'm not one of the super heavy duty synth guys,  I use them sparingly ….I'm glad I have it
I'm not sure how many authorizations that plug will allow …so far I have 2 authorizations  ..
one is  on my W..8 64bit and the the other is on my I Mac ...  
 
all the best , 
 
Kenny
 

I decided to give the Bass Station a go. Just because of your endorsement, Kenny.
 
Not that I needed any more frickin' basses! But I figured it might be different enough to at least earn a spot on the second-string roster. And I do appreciate the CPU-friendliness of older plugins.
 
So I went to the Novation website, and was immediately put off by the product description: "...defined countless dance and electronic hits of the 1990s". Ugh. The only thing I hate more than current EDM is EDM from before they called it that. But I am nothing if not open-minded!
 
I dropped it into an existing project, cycled through a bunch of presets (that all sounded remarkably similar), and my initial thought was "note to self: don't listen to Kenny any more". 
 
But on a hunch I layered it with a sampled-bass track and was not displeased with the result. So I'm gonna keep it, at least for a while. And Kenny's back on the good list.
 
 

So your back up and running? That's good news.

bitflipper
I decided to give the Bass Station a go. Just because of your endorsement, Kenny.
 
Not that I needed any more frickin' basses! But I figured it might be different enough to at least earn a spot on the second-string roster. And I do appreciate the CPU-friendliness of older plugins.
 
So I went to the Novation website, and was immediately put off by the product description: "...defined countless dance and electronic hits of the 1990s". Ugh. The only thing I hate more than current EDM is EDM from before they called it that. But I am nothing if not open-minded!
 
I dropped it into an existing project, cycled through a bunch of presets (that all sounded remarkably similar), and my initial thought was "note to self: don't listen to Kenny any more". 
 
But on a hunch I layered it with a sampled-bass track and was not displeased with the result. So I'm gonna keep it, at least for a while. And Kenny's back on the good list.
 
 

 
Kenny

I actually had the Midnight EQ+Comp before I bought my Scarlett audio interface - got the bundle for pocket change. I like them, especially the compressor - it is one of the few compressors that sounds as tight as I like, one of the few 3rd party which work for me, alongside Waves CLA Classics and McDSP G Channel. Not that I use any of these regularly.
 
The Scarlett suite is relatively weak - or more precisely, not any better than the plug-ins that come bundled w/ most hosts these days. 
 
Bass Station... I guess it's ok, though it's kind of dated. Personally, for synth bass, besides Logic's own ES-2, I'd pick up Korg PolySix or Steinberg's Retrologue.
 
One thing I can say about Focusrite is that, in my experience, they have great customer service. I had to contact them for 3 different issues over the last few years and each time I was very impressed with their turnaround time and how they followed up w/ me. 
 
 

+ 1 for the Plug-in Suite.   I have a Scarlett 18i6 and like the plugins that came with it.  The Compressor and Reverb are decent and good to have as part of your plugin arsenal.

I may have to test customer service again. I don't know what kind of karmic debt I owe the universe, but I can't seem to catch a break. This interface may be broken!
 
Three times now either the left or the right monitor channel has spontaneously dropped in volume by about 20 dB, as if the Dim Solo was intermittently kicking in on one channel only.  I'm waiting for it to happen again so I can swap cables and verify that it's not the cables or speakers. Urg!

Hi Bit
The only hardware problem I've ever had with my Saffire 26 in about 9 years, was a few years back when the power supply went dead - but before it went dead I noticed a similar, though not exactly, type of problem (I'm desperately trying to remember exactly how the problem manifested itself, but advancing years and all that........but pretty sure one Chanel did drop in and out) - as it turned out the power supply was actually ok - a studio friend of mine, took it apart (replacements are difficult to get here in Africa) and found a thermal cut off (I think that's the correct description) that had gone faulty - we couldn't get anything like it, so we took it out! All has worked perfectly ever since.
I hope its something simple like this for you if its not a brand new system, but if its brand new I suppose it will have to go back - what a bummer.
Anyway just ordered my Saffire pro 40 from Sweetwater - these units are seriously good value, especially when I think about the problems I have had with RME and Motu units in the past!!
Cheers
Nigel