Need help setting up my system

[humancircus]

Hello.
I`ve purchased a 896mk3 together with an windows xp system and sonar PE5.
I find it very worky to have to rearrange all routing when I change recording mode. Example: Record with a mic, then I would have to turn off the monitors manually, and only use the headphones.
I also wonder how to record the prossessed signal when using f.example limiter or reverb of the 896mk3. If Recording input in sonar is set to analog 1 left, it will only record the "dry signal" even if I can hear the prosessed signal through my monitors when recording. It is also a input called Motu return wich seems to have the prossesed signals, but I find them to be very low.

Another issue is when recording vocals, I cannot get the volume loud enough throug my headphones. Having almost clip at the input meters of the vocal input, still the vocal will not be loud enough to align with the music played. Sure, the music volume can be lowered, but then I feel I loose some of the "feeling" when recording vocals..
Any ideas?

The next issue is how to set the parameters in sonar and the motu software.
I have an 2.3ghz quadcore from amd, 4gb ram, and two separate S-ATA disks. When trigging MIDI from my synth, wich latency is accepted? what about the buffer sizes and all that? ASIO or WDM drivers when using XP?
Another thing is that everytime i start up my system it finds a new PCI device, but I can not install it, neither to i find the yellow dot in the system configurator telling me wich unit it is.
Is this maybe because I use XP, and there are only drivers for Vista? any ideas?

[Mark S]

the xp drivers are available at motu:

http://s3.amazonaws.com/motu/downloads/ ... e/32fw.zip

you might need to be logged in there to get them.

You're best to go to the Sonar forum with setup questions:

http://forum.cakewalk.com/tt.asp?forumid=5

Your question about latency is unclear. There is a difference between interface latency and MIDI latency. Sonar compensates for both.