John T
This idea that everyone has to be their own producer is pretty crazy, I think.

You know whats way more crappy? The fact that today every musician has to be their own marketeer! Some musicians are terrible at selling themselves and are not successful as a result. Being your own producer is not such a bad thing to some extent, unless you really suck at producing. Many musicians know what they want to sound like. Its kind of like the old days when people in offices relied on secretaries to type letters. Who does that anymore? Well I still know a couple of computerphobe people who have someone type out emails for them :)

Cactus Music dropped a nice gem in post #14 I wanted to make sure the OP caught. With no MIDI outputs enabled (important step) in SONAR (X3 and above), opening (not importing) a MIDI file will automatically insert TTS-1 and route it for you.
 
It seems you are using MIDI files to build upon, so be sure to do the above step first ("create" a project by opening a MIDI file), then embellish it. This will alleviate some of your routing woes. But save it as a project file (cwp) after initially opening it.
 
Even if you have MIDI outputs, it is good practice to disable those in preferences to take advantage of the above feature. You would only need MIDI outputs if sending them to outboard gear.

Paul Thomas
Thanks for all the kind words and advice. This is obviously a great community and I wish I'd come here sooner to look for answers instead of trying to muddle through with my "I don't need a manual" attitude. Already made progress. 
 
Cheers Guys :)

Hey, Paul... many years I was you...although I had to contend with Sonar 5,6,7, and 8...all of which totally sucked compared to what we now know... By the time 8.5 came out I had started to understand a bit... when the x series came out I screamed!!! NOOOOOOO!  I'm just starting to understand...but wow, it has been truly awesome... comping alone has changed things for me big time.  Templates... oh, what a joy and I still don't use them enough but am getting better..... it really takes some time to get so you can just create... till things become second nature. But as that begins to happen, wow!  It is truly amazing what I'm able to do these days... songwriting in my wildest dreams would never have resulted in what I'm able to create today...
 
I have to admit... compared to others on this forum I don't know diddly... but what I want to do these days is pretty much automatic and each week I understand a bit more... and it's what I need to know to do what I want.  Geez, being able to wield real frackin' orchestras... oh man... I mean... this is like what I imagine heaven might be like (if I were a heaven believer!)... It's consumed me in the most exquisite way! The best part of existence for me...
 
Hope you get there... can't imagine songwriting any other way these days... although I do miss the group collaboration (well, maybe not...)
 
Watch all the vids... and practice real time... I always have two screens open... to exercise my brain real time on a tool/technique... vid on one, a real song in sonar in the other....
 
Have fun!
 
 

You know, because I rely on various track and project templates I've created over time, if I have to do things from scratch I really have to stop and think about the process of routing MIDI and audio tracks to VSTis and busses etc. I have a process but it didn't come overnight. I've been hooked on audio and the recording of it since I was 14, I'm now 61 but as I've learned things, technology has advanced and the amount of science that filters through to users is far in excess of the time available to absorb it.. Short comment: always something new to learn. I'm also a musician and while the desire was there from the beginning, the ability to play didn't come overnight either.

It's a complex process, there's a lot to remember and while Sonar makes the tools to make all these processes a little easier there's no denying as others have said its just a matter of spending time with Sonar and getting to grips with the basics.