Am I right about prospective purchase of Professional?

I'm a one-man-band recording every track once at a time in a teeny weeny studio using a new tower PC and about to purchase Professional. My pre-purchase questions/neurotic anxiety:
 
- Professional will offer me drum samples and editing capabilities that won't cause a nervous breakdown?
- Professional will offer me other digital bass and synth instruments? (80% of my tracks will be synths with 20% added guitars and vocal sounds)  These are easy to insert into Professional tracks and control with my MicroKorg controller?
- Professional will mean I won't need a physical mixer as in the old days if I'm working as a single home recording musician mixing the cat and caboodle into a stereo mix all within my PC?  HOWEVER, opposite argument, if I plan on recording a few tracks using a mic for vocal effects and one electric guitar, I'll still need a mixer (even if only with few channels) to plug the guitar (or guitar effects processing box) into as I'll need a preamp prior to line in of my external USB soundcard?
- Professional will mean a 2 channel stereo in/out USB soundcard will be sufficient?
- My sound card must have a Midi In (which I noticed few soundcards do) if I'm going to use a keyboard like a MicroKorg XL as my controller of the Sonar synths? (example, was going to buy the Tascam UH-7000 but Cakewalk's list of tested soundcards says it doesn't have a Midi In so that one's out)
 
I used every Cakewalk from Cakewalk 1 to Sonar 2XL, then dropped out, and now I'm back!

It's your lucky day. There is no need to purchase Profesional. There is now only one version which is based on Platinum and it is now Free for Bandlab users. All you have to do is join Bandlab.com. This has all happened quite recently. The new version is simply called Cakewalk by Bandlab. It's the core software that was Platinum without the extra plugins and content. Bandlab has lots of free loops available if that is your thing. I guess the money you were going to spend on Pro can now be used to buy plugins etc.

Must be your lucky day :) Notice that you need an internet connection to activate and install it. No off-line installers.
 
[Edit] Your also double lucky, as you missed the lifetime update deal ... there still seems to be some bitterness left in the air about that. 

SONAR Platinum is perfect for your needs, but it is not available anymore.
 
Cakewalk by BandLab is basically the same DAW and engine without so many synths and effects "given" away with the purchase.  It isn't  as cost effective, but more precise to add your own choice of synths/effects.
 
 I seem to record music much like you, doing mainly synths for the rhythm and fx tracks and then bringing in real guitar/bass/vox.  Dim Pro, Rapture, Alchemy (all older synths) are mainstays, but I use NI Kontakt a lot, too.  You can get the NI collections relatively cheap by buying into the NI world and waiting for the twice a year sale.  Buy a $100 softsynth like I did and then spend $200-400 to get upgraded to more NI synths than you can swing a cat at, including the Kontakt sampler (pretty much THE standard sampler these days) with worlds of libraries available and plenty of synths.  You won't need any other synths with all of those included.  

chris.r

iRelevant
[Edit] Your also double lucky, as you missed the lifetime update deal ... there still seems to be some bitterness left in the air about that. 

The bitterness you're talking here was mostly about that people who bought into lifetime updates were asking for an unlock key after Sonar shut-down, so they could stay with the most recent version of Sonar for their lifetime, but are refused to do so, unfortunately.
 
[snip]

I had more the poster ahead of me in mind, trying to diminish the excellent value of CbB vs his $500 Cubase.

AIR Complete is another one worth looking at. Probably not right now though... keep an eye out at pluginboutique, as every so often they'll sell one of the instruments for $1 and offer an upgrade to complete for $69.
 
M.