I am looking for some advice.
I would like to continue doing a bit of recording when I am away from home during the week, on my netbook.
In fact its not that important to be able to do much audio, just being able to edit & record midi would be great. What do I need?
 
I have a Windows 8 netbook and I’ve installed Sonar x2 on it. Do I need any external sound modules etc or can I actually play and record midi sounds internally via software somehow? I have got a mini usb keyboard of course.
 

Soft synths are for this sort of thing. TTS-1 is a good synth to get you started.You can use headphones to monitor with your built in sound chip. 

 
To record midi, you'll need a virtual midi keyboard.  There are some free ones and some cheap ones on the net.  I use Chirp.  It looks like a midi keyboard to Sonar, but you play it with your mouse or PC keyboard.
 
This is not a great way to make music, but ok if you're traveling light and just want to try out some simple stuff.
 
 

My daughter tossed out her 2007 Sony Laptop Vista 5200 RPM drive etc. 
I re-purposed it to a Sonar travel and mobile recording workstation. New Evo 250 GB SSD, added more RAM and installed W7 64 bit. So far it's running great.  I still bring my Scarlett 6i6 with me as I can't stand fighting with none ASIO drivers in Sonar. I am thinking of buying a Scarlett Solo for travel so I don't have to unplug the 6i6 from it's umbilical of studio wires. The Solo is also bus powered, something I don't recommend for the studio, but would be perfect for a hotel room with only one A/C outlet. 
 
 Was not planing on buying this but it was on clearance for $49 Can.  All you need to sit under a palm tree and work on some midi tracks. Ya it's made for a iPoo but I will use the docking tray to store guitar picks. 
    http://www.akaipro.com/product/synthstation25   

Cactus Music
Ya it's made for a iPoo but I will use the docking tray to store guitar picks. 

 
Are you saying this thing can be used as a usb midi keyboard without an ipod or iphone docked ?
 
The documentation seems to imply that one or the other is required, that it 'turns your phone' into a keyboard.
 

Near the end of the video it says it is a USB midi controller as is (and can use a docked device as a sound module).

Definitely TTS-1 then? Couldn't I use something like Cool Soft Virtual Midi synth, I just tried that and I can't seem to connect to it - it doesn't show up as a soft synth.

In fact I am not getting any sound and get this error message
Audio Driver Error
The following drivers either do not support the current
audio format or are in use by another application
please choose whether you want to disable them or use them anyway
IntelSST Audio Wave for IHF[WaveRT]
IntelSST Audio Wave for DMIC[WaveRT]
 
whatever I do I get no sound - so does this mean the sound card I get with the netbook is basically no good for this kind of thing?
 
 
 
 

If that is an onboard sound chip (it seems it is), many only "support" 16-bit playback. I have found that laptops typically playback (not record) best in either WDM (preferred) or MME driver mode. For work with MIDI recording or playback this can be adequate, but for audio recording is not ideal.
 
If you go to Preferences->Audio->Playback and Recording, if already set to WDM there, go to Preferences->Audio->Driver Settings and click the "Wave Profiler" button at the bottom. If not WDM, can set it in Playback and Recording and the Wave Profiler should start automatically. Check the output of that profile and it may only pass for 16-bit.
 
SONAR should then adjust accordingly, but is always good to double-check the top three Preferences->Audio tabs (on the left). The entry that is most important is Preferences->Audio->Driver Settings->"Audio Driver Bit depth" may need to be at 16. SONAR plays the "middle man" to ensure the digital output of the projects matches the playback mode/driver settings for you (i.e. a 24-bit project will still play this way). You may also need to fiddle with the "Buffer Size" slider to get best latency for what you are doing.

Like I said, when I try and use Sonar without an ASIO driver it is just not worth it. You'll waste day's fighting an uphill battle. I know there are a few folks who have made it work but myself never. I can play songs in MME mode but forget any attempt to record midi or audio in sync. It will drop out all the time too. And I tried asio4all a long way back and that is not a good idea if you also use a real ASIO interface as well. Once you install asio4all it contaminates your set up. Go buy a Scarlett Solo.  
 
The little Akai  keyboard works great. Small keys with a different feel than what I'm used to, It is certainly not a piano.  I got used to it fast enough and have laid down Organ for 3 songs as well as some drum stuff. 
 
The iPoo dock is only a feature. It's also a basic usb controller. And there's no driver for it, plug and play. Absolutely no latency.