In addition to the SWA Complete SONAR X2 link Beepster gave you, ShellStaX posted the full list of chapters to make it easier to navigate (the YouTube list just has numbers). That set is a good reference for many things, although I freely admit I have little patience to watch videos end-to-end, and that set is over 9 hours of content. The local SONAR reference manual (pdf file which installs to the SONAR program directory from the CCC "SONAR Local Documentation" in the "SONAR Professional" tree when expanded (at the bottom of that tree)) I have made a shortcut to on my desktop as that is keyword searchable and often fastest for me to start with.
 
[semi-rant] I can commiserate with the OP, as I tend to harp on the "ease of use" aspect for a totally new DAW user and someone who has used PA9 voicing the same issues just adds fuel to my fire. Your comment about just wanting to track drives the point even deeper, as no one buying a DAW first time should be facing "Oh yeah, spend X hours of intense research and you will be back to where you were in your 4-track days." It seems folks who have already invested 1000s of hours (no joke) seem to expect others to relive the same growing pains, when the average parent wants better for their children. It is often very easy to explain the parent/child analogy to anyone, but communicating a specific application often gets pushback as "foreign thought." [end rant]
 
I am not sure if I caught all of the detail here, but getting your audio interface online (with good buffer settings for your system) and actually tracking is #1. Have you tried opening PA9 files you have made with SOANR? Those should open but may need the interface swapped (will prompt you on open). You can then save those with a new project name and look at tracks, etc., to see how SONAR "looks" for the same routing. For jumping into MIDI, a project template or even using a tutorial file as a template is a decent start - do not be shy to take an existing project file and deleting the audio/MIDI data from the tracks to save you routing time initially.
 
Going forward, this forum is probably the fastest feedback you can get on things. With a good descriptive title (very important) and detailed description of your hardware (can put in your signature) and what you want to do, responses are often quick and equally detailed. Definitely make use of this to break out specific questions by post... as you can see from your first venture generic statements often pull erratic comments on you.
 
 

Thanks for the heads up on the list, mettelus. I had only heard tell of the series being on youtube (probably shellsta's post) and did a search for it this morning for Anthony. I didn't bother watching them/looking at the titles because I own the series (which has the titles attached to the vids).
 
Honestly I'm surprised SWA released them for free on YT. I hope Karl is still getting paid for those. He obviously worked extremely hard putting them together.

mettelus
 
[semi-rant] I can commiserate with the OP, as I tend to harp on the "ease of use" aspect for a totally new DAW user and someone who has used PA9 voicing the same issues just adds fuel to my fire. Your comment about just wanting to track drives the point even deeper, as no one buying a DAW first time should be facing "Oh yeah, spend X hours of intense research and you will be back to where you were in your 4-track days." It seems folks who have already invested 1000s of hours (no joke) seem to expect others to relive the same growing pains, when the average parent wants better for their children. It is often very easy to explain the parent/child analogy to anyone, but communicating a specific application often gets pushback as "foreign thought." [end rant]
 

Very, very well said.

FWIW... I was able to use Sonar (X1) as a simple tracker/mixer within a couple hours of having it installed (but I did have some hardware issues that had to be sorted out to avoid clicks and dropouts).
 
The basics are not that hard to figure out IF you go through the tuts.
 
Insert a track(s), set your inputs, arm the track(s), press record.
 
Move the faders on the console to balance the levels of what you've recorded.
 
Export from the master (which all the track outputs default to).
 
It's actually way simpler than the old hardware multi trackers. No ping ponging, reading bizarro manuals that have been translated from Japanese to English, deciphering strange routing schemes, hooking up to external tape decks for export, etc... and getting much better results than the hissy/craptacular cassette tape output of those old units.
 
To go deeper? Hellz ya. It's way more complicated... but it's a PRO piece of software.
 
It's not supposed to be "easy". It's supposed to do WTF you need it to. The "easy" factor is there as much as it can be but if you dumb it down too much it will no longer be able to accomplish the "pro" level results.
 
And yeah... I do think some things could be easier/more straightforward but I'm not the one coding this behemoth nor can I anticipate the extremely broad needs of Cake's user base.
 
I also don't expect to install a pro video editing program and immediately become Coppola overnight either.
 
This sh*t is hard and requires patience/study/work. That's just the way it is. No DAW worth its salt is going to be any different.
 
Cheers.

Man, I have felt his pain.  When first starting with an ancient Cakewalk years ago - about pulled my hair out figuring it out.  With a few of the upgrades along the way - about pulled my hair out.  When we switched all our home computers from PC to Mac (apart from my computer for Sonar) - about put my fist through the screen several times.  But in the end - I loved each product more than its predecessor, and the steep steep learning curve made me way better at using it because I hung in and figured it out.  For each of those I used manuals - written or on-line, whatever I had - and eventually muddled through. 
 
But to me the single biggest benefit of Sonar is this forum -

John
Then when you get stuck come here and ask a question. We are here 24 7.  

I try hard not to bother everyone with stuff I should figure out on my own - but when you need help, this is far and away the best forum of any software support group for any product (actually software OR otherwise) I've ever known.  And I'll take immediate input from a bunch of active users over a manual that may or may not have the answer I need any day. 
 
I hope the OP gives it a shot - learning any new software is a major headache, but with great software like this it's absolutely worth it.

I'm making progress.  I have sound!! 
 
Thanks Beepster, the SWA tutorials helped (watched parts 1 -3) - turns out I had everything installed and routed correctly - but for some reason the QuadCapture defaulted to MME32 and I changed it to ASIO.  Without the tutorial I never would have figured that out.
 
I have sound and can hear the addictive drums; that's the only thing I changed. 
 
My friend gave me a method to create a drum map.  I now see drum names but the step sequencer is gone and its showing a timescale?
(sigh)

With any DAW new or old the first thing we do is go to the audio settings and make sure all is the way you want it. I only read this last page of the thread so sorry I might have missed details, but I'm supprised no body was listening when you said you didn't have sound. That's an easy one to fix and I'm glad you found the answer. 
The cool thing about Sonar is once you get one version set up, all your newer installations, (upgrades),  copy all the old settings. There's lots to do after you first install it before you can start recording. I go down the preferance list in advanced mode, and open every tab and chack the settings. Something as dumb as sound on sound can screw you up if you don't want that setting... After hanging out here for a few years you catch on to the best settings and they start to actually make some kind of sense. 

AnthonyMangos
I'm making progress.  I have sound!! 
 
Thanks Beepster, the SWA tutorials helped (watched parts 1 -3) - turns out I had everything installed and routed correctly - but for some reason the QuadCapture defaulted to MME32 and I changed it to ASIO.  Without the tutorial I never would have figured that out.
 
I have sound and can hear the addictive drums; that's the only thing I changed. 
 
My friend gave me a method to create a drum map.  I now see drum names but the step sequencer is gone and its showing a timescale?
(sigh)

Good stuff. Keep slamming through it. It gets easier.
 
As for the missing step sequencer... it sounds like you are looking at the "Drum Pane" in the "Piano Roll View". That is a different input method than the "Step Sequencer".
 
Click on the clip you want to mess with, go to the "Views" menu at the top left of the Sonar window (at the very top... the old Windows style menus) and select "Step Sequencer".
 
If the clip is still actually a Step Sequencer clip then it should open up how you want. However it may now be a regular MIDI clip for whatever reason.
 
Kind of hard to explain in text but look through those videos for the ones about "MIDI" and "Step Sequencer". Should clear a few things up.
 
Cheers.

I'm going to give it a go tomorrow night, as long as it takes.  Programming the drum beat looks easy once I get the drums named.  I've also read through the Soft-Synth and Step Sequencer sections in Sonar X3 Power. 
 
I'm still not clear on how you go from the step sequencer to an audio track(s).  Right now I'd just like to get the addictive drums on one track.  I can pend a few weeks learning how to separate the kit pieces to simulate the studio mic'ing of a drum set. 
 
BTW, 'Cakewalk Help' politely responded to both of my help requests with genuine interest. 
 
Once I get the drumbeat, the bass should be like before.  I record direct, so it should be a matter of arming the track and setting the punch in/out points.  Please tell me that's it. 

I am glad you got sound (very important)! I noticed "naming" drum maps, and there are already resources to help you here...
 
A couple things specific to AD2. First, there is a nice blog write up by Joey Adams with drum maps and templates for SONAR X3. Just follow his steps and replace "X3" with what he does with "Professional" when navigating, etc., as those templates also work with the new SONAR. After you insert AD2 into a project (or open his project template), if you change the Output of the MIDI track to "New Drum Map->AD2 Standard" the Step Sequencer notes should then have names.
 
When you get a setup you like, saving as a track template is beneficial to quickly insert AD2 as you choose to see it in a new project (a track template is included above, but you can also modify and save it). Starting out it would be simpler to use the contents from the above blog post, but keep this in mind for the future.