Let's be clear - the forum has been wonderful.  ANY help by the forum is above and beyond.  
 
However, I found Sonar's initial documentation/instructions lacking.  No matter how much I grow to love this program, I'm not going to back off of that. One shouldn't need blogs and tutorials to get started.  If this were a 30 day trial/demo - Sonar would have lost a sale.
 
How many people have asked 'where can I find the manual?' Answer:  Go to Edit/preferences/accept local help.  Come on, put yourself in a newby's shoes.  How is that acceptable? 
 
Basically five posts here have been key to figuring out what would have prevented me ever sending this thread.  Many more have been beyond that.  The information in the mentioned five posts could have been clearly referenced in the software documentation. 
 
And I am a little humiliated by this experience.

Sausy 1981 your video ruled!!

My addictive drums are now set up.  Separate drums routed to tracks, saved the step sequencer pattern and track template.  And now that I've got it working the Addictive Drum Sounds are all ridiculous.
 
Tomorrow,  I'm going caveman - 16 bars of music with the step sequencer set at 8 steps per beat and 64 beats fit to 64 quarters. 
 
I guess the only way to toggle between swing and regular time would be to set it at 24 steps per beat? 
 
 

AnthonyMangos
Let's be clear - the forum has been wonderful.  ANY help by the forum is above and beyond.  
 
However, I found Sonar's initial documentation/instructions lacking.  No matter how much I grow to love this program, I'm not going to back off of that. One shouldn't need blogs and tutorials to get started.  If this were a 30 day trial/demo - Sonar would have lost a sale.
 
How many people have asked 'where can I find the manual?' Answer:  Go to Edit/preferences/accept local help.  Come on, put yourself in a newby's shoes.  How is that acceptable? 
 
Basically five posts here have been key to figuring out what would have prevented me ever sending this thread.  Many more have been beyond that.  The information in the mentioned five posts could have been clearly referenced in the software documentation. 
 
And I am a little humiliated by this experience.

Hold on, you have no reason to feel humiliated. We have seen threads of this sort before. It is no dishonor to not know things. I think the only real problem was how things started off. Ask questions thats what we are all about. I can say that I have help countless new users over the years. Its what we do.  However attitude plays a big role too. The right attitude will get people tripping over themselves trying to help. The wrong attitude will get just the opposite.  
 
Its all about learning. I think you have learned something here. With that and some patience you will become a Sonar guru. I can point to some on this very thread that have come from knowing very little to being gurus in their own right.  
 
Sonar is a deep and powerful DAW. One of the deepest. It does take some time to understand it. I can say with absolute confidence it will be worth the trouble.
 
You are working with us now and I see you have become a very welcomed member. Now you can count on our help at any time day or night.  I am very glad to have you on board. Thank you for changing the title. All that has transpired is in the past and is no longer remembered. We start fresh.  
 
Welcome to the forum Anthony.

This is excellent. Glad your all set Anthony and any issues in future let us know.

By the way Anthony, My next video will be on using the midi sequences in Addictive drums and the Transform function and some other fun stuff.

Thanks Saussy - the part where you changed the level of the drum hits in the step sequencer was awesome. Varying volume slightly on my tom rolls made the drums sound - real. I even was able to enter a 4 bar Piano track with the soft synth. Used step sequencer and then altered the notes in piano roll. Too much fun. Having problems with Synth strings getting sound.

Actually it was just the soft synth that totally threw me. Recording instruments seems to be the same as PA9 with a few cool short cuts thrown in. Cakewalk effects are infinitely better, I used to only use the Vegas Audio effects that came with my old Delta 1010. This phaser sounds like my old phase 90 pedal.

I am going to review the soft synth tutorial at home, but here is what is happening with the string synth.
 
I inserted the 'string soft synth' and checked the boxes recommended for addictive drums, not simple instrument track.
 
1)  It created two instrument tracks and one midi track.  The midi track has no input and the output is the string soft synth.  For the two instrument tracks, the inputs are the string soft synth mono left and mono right respectively.  Outputs are 'master'.
 
2)  I opened the string synth and clicked on one of the options - rock 40 or something.  Loved the sounds.
 
Here are my symptoms:
 
1)  In the step sequencer I entered the notes.  When I enter the note I can hear it.  When I click by the note on the left side, I can hear it.
2)  When I click play on the step sequencer, I don't hear any playback for that track.  When I click play, on the main I don't hear any playback.  All other tracks have sound and play normally.
3)  I can see in track view that the MIDI track picked up the step sequencer entries.  Also, the piano roll has the notes on it.
 
I must have not accessed a preset properly or have something wrong in the set up.  I'm pretty sure I approached it just like the Piano and Drum tracks. 
 
I was able to successfully get all of my drum tracks on audio and delete the MIDI.  Same thing with the piano.  Maybe I shouldn't have as I could directly compare the settings. 
 
 
    

The reality is learning to use a program as complex as SONAR, or any other program of similar complexity like Cubase, is not easy. Cakewalk is aware that there is a desperate need for tutorials that take people from "Square 1" to where they're comfortable with the program, and is investigating ways to solve this need. The biggest problem is defining "Square 1." Is it a sound card? ASIO? Does it have direct monitoring, or should people be made aware immediately of Input Echo? Are they mostly interested in MIDI? Audio? Beats? Loops? Every one of these is a different "Square 1."
 
Granted, having no "Square 1" at all is no solution, but I've put a lot of thought into what a solution would look like, and so far (emphasis on "so far") it has eluded me.
 
It's pretty easy to take people from intermediate to advanced; the success of "Friday's Tip of the Week" confirms that. People already know the lingo and the basics, and you can build from there.
 
To add insult to injury, one of the biggest problem with any DAW is that it runs on an operating system made by Apple or Microsoft, and you need to learn that as well.
 
This is not to make excuses about Cakewalk not being able to lead people by the hand and get them up and running with SONAR, but there's no obvious answer to me. Fortunately there are very bright people in this forum and I wouldn't be surprised if someone here DOES see an obvious answer. If so, Cakewalk will be on it faster than a tick on a feral cat in the spring.
 
Meanwhile, this forum is nothing if not an exceptional resource...I consider it one of SONAR's main features. It has certainly helped me out more than once, which is why I want to give back.

Anderton
 
[....] Granted, having no "Square 1" at all is no solution [...]

Square 1 was free at the CW store for a while and is still on KVR Audio (free). Everyone can have Square 1