Welcome to the forum!
It takes good monitors and a lot, A LOT of trial and error to learn to mix so that it transfers well to any system. Be prepared to use a year or so (depending on how much time you spend with SONAR) for learning the basics of that skill.
A spectral analyser like the excellent, free, Voxengo SPAN, can help you to analyze your projects and compare them with commercial recordings. Using imported reference tracks is the first step in getting an idea of the task.
What on earth do you mean by this:
"if i record the song to a cd through windows media player..."
post edited by Kalle Rantaaho - 2012/11/08 11:16:30
SONAR PE 8.5.3, Asus P5B, 2,4 Ghz Dual Core, 4 Gb RAM, GF 7300, EMU 1820, Bluetube Pre - Kontakt4, Ozone, Addictive Drums, PSP Mixpack2, Melda Creative Pack, Melodyne Plugin etc.
The benefit of being a middle aged amateur is the low number of years of frustration ahead of you.