Hello, I am interested in moving from FL Studio to Sonar.
I have Sonar Platinum in demo mode but I can't generate any sound at all.
The tutorial talks about adding a soft synth called Dropzone, but there aren't any synths or generators, only effects.
I've gone into the piano roll and input some notes, but there's no sound output.
I don't think it is muted, I think the problem is that there are no instruments to actually generate sounds from the notes.
Is the only purpose of the demo to enable someone to look at the layout and menu options but not actually do anything constructive with Sonar?
Sonar seems to have better quality virtual instruments than FL, but if the demo is this useless, I don't think I'll buy Sonar because I can't establish its usefulness or capabilities before paying.
It's very frustrating when I seem to have finally found a package with good default instruments.
Thank you for your time and information in advance.

Have you tried going Insert > Soft Synth and selected one from the available list?

Yes, that's what I'm talking about.
I was following the getting started tutorial step by step, but insert/soft synth shows no syths.
There aren't any with the demo on my machine.
Is that normal?

it's in the "Artist Instrument Collection" can be accessed from the Cakewalk Command Center (package manager) https://www.cakewalk.com/Command-Center should be visible after Sonar is rescanned the VSTs

Day two and I still can't get a noise out of the demo of Sonar Platinum.
Maybe I'm just too stupid to use this and I should stick to FL.
 
A VST scan reports 9 plug-ins. It doesn't say where they are located.
The browser inside Sonar has a Cakewalk tts-1, a basic piano, but that looks more like a mixing desk to me.
Insert-soft synth still has no content on the menu and I can't find anything using the browser.
Why is the demo so empty, is it really restricted so that people can't experiment with Sonar's instruments?
 
All I want to do is insert a few piano notes using a mouse in the piano roll and add some drums to check the sound quality of the instruments.
Does anyone have any clues that can help me?

TTS-1 is a GM synth so it has a lot more sounds than piano. The program defaults to the first preset which is a piano. It looks like a mixer because it is a 16 in x 4 out synth. It can play 16 different instruments at a time. I would guess the other 8 plug-ins are effects.
 
I have never installed a demo, you may want to contact Customer Service directly. The contact info is here http://forum.cakewalk.com/FindPost/2090582

Having watched a range of tutorials on the web, my conclusion is that the demo version is almost empty, save disabled (unlike some other DAWs) and to me, useless.
It is better to get a demo of the software in a music shop, if possible, and not to waste time on the demo version.