Sonar 4/FW-1884 Issues...

Hi troops. Well I got my nice new Tascam FW-1884 and am very pleased with being able to get some hands-on control. But I’ve got a few issues with audio recording and midi that are hindering me more than a little. There seem to be plenty of happy 1884 Sonar users here that might be able to help…

1. Audio recording: I’m noticing pretty heavy CPU usage when recording anything into it. I open projects that I’ve happily run with my old Audiophile and CPU at around 20%, with the Tascam it’s at 50%. When I’m recording new guitar tracks in a project of only 8 tracks, usage is sitting at around 60%, occasionally spiking up and cutting out mid-take! It seems the same using WDM and ASIO drivers, although it’s better with WDM. I’ve got latency set at 5.8 ms, and buffer at 256 in both Sonar and 1884 control panels. Is this some issue with the Tascam? Any tips as to how to diagnose where my problem might be?

2. Midi input: I can’t seem to get midi into Sonar from the 1884. I’ve got a basic Roland midi keyboard plugged into midi in port 1 of the Tascam. I’ve set up the midi routing on it – the lights flash to show midi input/output activity on the Tascam. But I can’t get any midi signal into Sonar. The only way to get Sonar receiving midi is to select the midi port on the Tascam as a midi device in Sonar (in addition to ‘1884 control’), but this stops the 1884 communicating Sonar at all. I’ve read all the documentation and nothing explains this. Any ideas???

Specs:
Pentium IV 3gHz
1 GB RAM
2 x SATA 7200rpm HD
FW-1884 (1.41 drivers, 1.21 Sonar sw)
Adaptec Firewire card (TI chipset)
Sonar 4.0.2