And just to add, You might find that with the higher end versions of Sonar, like Pro or Plat, that you will have all the drum sounds you need without using an external synth. Using the built in VST's is the way to go these days.

Sonar's acoustic drum samples are pretty good.
 
For synthesised drums, not so much unless you want to use third party loops and samples (over which you have less control than many hardware drum synths provide). Hardware synths are very popular and new ones keep appearing for a reason.

Hi tlw, Johnny V, brundlefly,
 
Thanks very much to all of you for your reply.
 
brundlefly, special thanks to you for the detailed instruction. This is a great help and much appreciated.
 
Thanks