I totally agree with what everyone has said so far on this thread.
 
Sonar provides you with the necessary tools to make GREAT recordings, you just have to learn how to use- them all.
 
Being blunt - if your songs don't turn out the way you want, it's not sonar's fault
 
One of the most important skills to develop is how to listen critically to everything you hear, whether it's your own recordings or commercial material.
 
Rip a few of the songs you think sound great and in the same genre that you're trying to emulate into Sonar and listen to them side by side against your recordings. CAVEAT: These commercial recordings will already be fully mixed & mastered so will be a LOT louder than your own stuff. Reduce the volume of your imported track(s) accordingly to gain a better perspective.
 
Before even thinking about investing in something like Komplete, I would seriously advise you to invest in a decent set of studio monitors so you can hear exactly what's going on in the mix.
 
Then at some point you will almost certainly require some sort of room treatment to try and eliminate (as much as possible) reflections, resonances, bass build up and suchlike from what is probably, not a good room for mixing and recording.
 
Above all, this is meant to be FUN so don't be put off at the enormity of the task ahead.
 
It's a long journey but the rewards are worth the effort you put into it.
 

Slugbaby
It could be because of a million things.  
Those 80s synth songs were often recorded, mixed, and mastered by talented professionals who also spent a fortune on gear.
Everything in your signal chain will affect how your music sounds.  Mixing on headphones will usually cause different issues when played through a stereo.  Music will sound different through almost any system; engineers tend to find the best all-around mix for consistency, but that's about it.
I can't answer your question about buying Komplete, but your money might be better spent on mixing courses or tutorials.  A good engineer can make gold from garbage, but a mediocre one would be lucky to make garbage from gold...
 
As an aside, I've been playing for almost 30 years, recording for 20.  I've worked with some amazing engineers and producers, in more "pro" studios than I can count.  Now that I'm working on my own at home, my mixes don't sound professional either.  I still hire a great engineer/producer to mix and master for me.

Good point. There obviously a reason a good engineer is recruited on a proffesional project. I guess I just overestimated the possibillities in modern music making. I probably need to give the mixing/engineering side of things more focus.

One of the first things I learned when I got my computer and DAW set up years ago: It's damn hard to make songs that sound great, regardless of the genre. 
 
And I'm not even recording analog!  The only analog thing I have is a microphone, everything else is "in the box".  Still, getting the dynamics, EQ, arrangement, voicing, effects, etc is very tough!

kevinwal
I ran across this when I was floundering (and I still am!) around trying to make pro sounding recordings. 
 
http://www.resoundsound.com/best-mixing-tutorials/
 
It seems to me that people who make great sounding recordings typically acquire a great deal of experience making mediocre recordings before they do anything else. So I read the tutorials, read books, and record, record, record, mix, mix, mix. Progress is slow but it's also real.
 
You might also consider posting your music in this site's song forum to get feedback on your work. Great folks there!
 

You're right I guess I'm just looking for the quick fix. I will check out the tutorials.
Didn't know about the song forum. Looks like it could be helpful.

robert_e_bone
Absolutely concur - Prime example, Beatles on a 4 track.  Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon.  AMAZING sounds, on primitive gear, because of the great care and great talent put into all aspects of the process, from the quality of the songs, the quality of the performances, the good engineering techniques used in recording the performances, the solid knowledge of the engineers of the available gear/effects, and the art of mixing/mastering.

Not to mention Mike Oldfield's very low budget recording of Tubular Bells. Good point.

If you're interested, here is a dance song my partner and I recorded back about 1990 on a local girl here in Atlanta. My co producer was Jerry Buckner from the PacMan Fever hit back in the early 80's. We actually got a 12" record deal from a NY dance label on her with this. We cut it on a Tascam 8 track 1/2 inch machine, locking up a bunch of analog synths like a Korg Polysix, a Roland D110 synth mod, a Korg M1, and I don't remember what else. They asked us for the 2" tape, so we transferred the 1/2 inch 8 track (with no noise reduction) to a 24 track machine at another studio in town. They took it and remixed it to make it a 12 inch...which was really long..don't remember how long.
Here's the link if you're interested...http://creative-digital.net/DannySongs/Powerless.mp3
After getting the deal, the girl decided she needed a lot of front money, which wasn't going to happen, so it fizzled.
That said, you can see what it took to cut this record...much less that you have here in Sonar Platinum. I would have given my eye teeth to have this package back then.

Very helpful stuff guys. Thanks a lot. I'm certainly going to use your advice.
 

Beepster
 
The synths and sounds that come with SPlat are really good and you can do a lot with them but you are on Artist, the base package that doesn't really have all the good stuff (mostly older instruments which are still good but not top notch compared to the fancier stuff).

The problem I'm having with finding a good synth is that most sound is created with techno/electronica and that's not really what I wan't I'm more looking for more simple sounds that would blend in with analogue instruments and I'm having a hard time finding that.

There's some pretty good stuff in the dimension pro packages...analog brass, etc. I have the Proteus 2000 package that has a lot of the old Emu sounds..might be a good place to start
Look for some Roland or Korg sounds that can be used as a virtual synth
You can get the old analog synths on Ebay pretty cheap these days

Anything specific you need? Do you really mean "synth" as in virtual analog synths? Or more as a general name for softsynths? 
 
I have Komplete 9 Ultimate and it is a nicely varied collection but there are also things in there that I  never use and things that I found disappointing and have since replaced with better options.