Just play like a piano

Welcome to the forum.
Since you bought a MIDI controller instead of a MIDI keyboard, you'll have to depend on software synthesizers to hear what you play. And to get your delay (latency) down to a level you can stand, you'll need to invest in an audio interface designed for recording and processing audio faster than your stock computer sound card can. Not a Sound Blaster.
I don't know what soft synths came with your version of LE, but you may have to search around for some cheap or free soft synths that have nice piano sounds. Or the very expensive ones.

DON'T PANIC
 
You thought you were getting a paring knife, but they delivered a new kitchen, including ranges and glassware.  There is a paring knife in there somewhere, but you are going to have to hunt through a couple of drawers.
 
Your a-500s does not have the capability of making any sound on its own. It isn't too different from your computer keyboard (except it knows how hard you type and can handle more than one key being pressed at a time).  So what happens when you hit the middle 'C' key is it sends something like the letters C4 and a number between 1 and 127 to the computer.  Concievably you could 'type' on your computer using your 'piano' keyboard.
 
When you run Sonar LE on your computer with the A-500s plugged into the computer, it can see what you are 'typing' on the 'piano' keyboard.'  It can 'record' what you are 'typing' or it can pass it along to another component that knows how to turn the letters C4 and the number into a sound (a synthesizer). 
 
He first thing that we have to do is introduce your keyboard to Sonar.  With Sonar running, go to the menu bar at the top and select EDIT->Preferences.  This will open a window with several options listed down the left hand side.  One of these is MIDI -> Devices.  Select MIDI Devices and look to see if your keyboard is shown in the 'inputs' box.  It might be called something like A-500S.  If it does not show up here something was missed in setting up your A-500s on the computer and you need to go over the user manual for the keyboard on how to install the drivers.
 
If it does show up there, go to the Sonar menu File -> New to create a new project.  There should be several choices for types of projects to create.  Give the project a simple name (katinka for example) and select the 'normal' template.  This should cause Sonar to open up in the 'Track View' mode and show a line for an audio track and a MIDI track.
 
We will tell Sonar to send the keyboard typing to the MIDI track and have the MIDI track pass along the information to a synthesizer.  Add a synthesizer to the project by selecting 'insert->Soft Synth' on the menu bar then selecting 'Cakewalk Sound Center.'  Check 'First Synth Audio Output' and 'Synth Property Page', then click OK.  This should result in the Sound Center being shown on the screen.  Drill down to a piano (or a kazoo, or strings, or whatever you want the keyboard to sound like)  You can use your mouse to test the sounds by clicking on the keyboard displayed in the sound center.
 
Go back to the MIDI track that was created for the project.  Select your keyboard as the input and the Cakewalk Sound Center as the output.
 
This might be a good time to save your project so you don't have to do this every time.
 
If the gods are happy with you, you should be able to play music on your keyboard using the A-500s keyboard.
 
Dealing with the delay might have to be handled in another message.  You don't necesissarily need to get an external sound card.  Lets get this much working and then see what we can do performance-wise with what you have already got.
 
Glen
 
 
 
 

For now, you should also download and install ASIO4ALL version 2.10  This should help a lot with using your built-in sound card.  Once it is loaded you will need to make some changes to your Edit-> Preferences-> Audio-> Plaback and Recording to set the 'Driver Mode' to ASIO'

Glen

You might need to go back and change the outputs of your soft synth tracks to ASIO4All.

Thank you! It was the "share" option that made it work! Now the latency is more in the acceptable range. I will have to work with it to see how it goes. The next thing I need is that I have to press the keys really hard to hear them play... Is their some setting to alter the "touch" needed? I have looked thru the keyboard manual, and tried the settings for touch (key velocity) and velocity curve. As long as I play on the bottom edge (nearest to my body) of each key, I get the response I need. BUT BUT. If I press the key at the top of the key (furthest from my body), then the keyboard/sonar insists on a 'hard' press. This is required for sharps/flats (the black keys) when they are struck by the middle three fingers... I Have searched the keyboard manual and cannot find something that talks about this... By the way, I am thrilled at your help!!! Very professional and knowledgeable! I can't thank you enough!

There is probably a way to turn off the velocity. Look in your manual.
On my keyboard there's a button to press that turns it off, giving all the notes played a velocity of 80 regardless of how hard I press the keys.

I think you should consider taking the time to learn to record your playing and saving the performances.  Then when you decide that you want to play with the knobs you can play them back while you learn to tweak things.  I think you will also get a kick out of accompanying yourself and adding additional sounds and instruments. 

Your laptop does not have very good performance specifications for sound.  When the latency starts to really bother you you will probably want to invest in a good external USB 'soundcard.'  Look for posts from Beagle and follow the links in his signature for recommendations. 

The default Sound Center pianos are pretty entry level.  There are a lot of other, better, options, some not too expensive, that can be added in (either to Sound Center or as seperate Synths).  A real good piano might take more computer than you have so don't get carried away until you have a bit more experience.

Glen

A new/related problem??? I purchased an M-Audio sustain/hold foot pedal. Without pressing the pedal, it works as expected. But when I do press the foot pedal, all the sound disappears (I hear nothing coming out of my computer/SONAR LE. Is there some switch/option that needs to be set in the Sonar to respond to a foot pedal? The Roland user manual implies that it is just suppose to work with no other settings...