Avast me harties....Oh well.  just so you know, it is against the rules to sell or use a second hand copy.. you might want to think about becoming legit, you can get your hands on Artist by the month for less than the price of a pizza. Or if you by some Roland gear and now TAscam stuff you'll get a free copy of Sonar LE,, use that to upgrade for real cheap...
 
The help files are hugly available to all. If you have an older version they are right there in the menu. The new versions they are on line. At the top of this forum you can 
Open  Cakewalk- Support - Knowledge Base. 

Cactus Music
Avast me harties....Oh well.  just so you know, it is against the rules to sell or use a second hand copy.. 

 
Really? I was unaware of that, as people sell this, and logic, and everything else on ebay without repercussion. Way I look at it, at least I paid something for it as opposed to outright stealing it from a torrent, etc.... I would LOVE to have bought the full on edition in a box, brand new; but when you are jobless, even twenty dollars becomes an issue. (believe me, I find myself picking up pennies and stuff on the sidewalk because it can go towards gas, etc)... if I ever have the chance I'll be more than happy to buy a full on copy straight from Sonar, but for now, what I have will have to do. 
 
Although I think I actually had a lite version of one of the cakewalk programs that came with my Alesis soundboard or something like that. I honestly can't remember. But I'll still check out the help documents, etc, and do what I can, and Lord willing I'll have a job again soon and can go back to what I know and love!

HI:)
 
Most Musicians have big Problems playing to a metronom, cause they did not practise with metronome, so I often take a Drum Groove and for them it's much better to stay in time.
 
For me I often do Midi Recording Half Time, so it grooves more....
 
Bassman.
 

If you are subconciously speeding perhaps that is what your song needs. I have found out (dead serious, no kidding) that two or three glasses of wine make my timing a lot more tighter.

What I usually do is work something out on guitar, synth, whatever and get my foot tapping to it.
 
I then record four bars of one note/chord per beat, with the metronome off and leaving Sonar set at the default 120 bpm. I then use the loop editor functions to tell me what the tempo I recorded at was or if it's MIDI check the number of milliseconds between notes and calculate the bpm. I'll then set up a bare-bones kick and snare/hats track and use that as the click rather than the metronome. I find the typical "ping click click click" of most metronomes doesn't work for me because I nearly always end up playing against "click click click ping". Too many years of playing and listening to music that relies on a strong backbeat I guess.
 
If I start with a sequence then I'll take a guess at the kind of tempo that'll work, set up the sequence in the DAW or hardware then adjust the tempo till it feels right.
 
Sometimes a very small change in tempo, e.g. 90 to 92 or 130 to 135 can make a huge difference in "feel'. Sometimes a slight tempo change is all that's needed to make a part that was hard to keep in time all of a sudden just work. As can shifting e.g. some of the hi-hat timings so they're a few milliseconds early or late and pull or push the groove.
 
The danger with functions like your Yamaha keyboard had is that if you come to rely on them you never learn to play in time.... 

A musician must learn to play to a steady rock solid beat.. (how else will everybody keep together?)
 
I insert a drum synth then add bass snare bass snare to the first four beats then groove clip it and stretch it out (then freeze it).
 
Metronome practice should be undertaken at the age of 12 or younger :)
 
Keep an eye out for those tricky and rare 3/4 time waltz' :)
 
http://rexred.com

I don't have much right to be telling others how to play but I do practice with a metronome and have for several years now, so while I have a bunch of issues with my guitar playing, recording to the metronome in Sonar isn't one of them. Do yourself a favor and work with one every day for a month. I'd be shocked if this didn't become much less of a problem for you.