MadM,
 
yes, you should get a "real" soundcard - probably USB, for doing music.  I used an Audigy card here at home years ago, and it worked (even recorded!) but Creative does bloatload your computer w/ all kinds of useless stuff.  I don't know if it is still true, but the EMU chip the Audigy used did everything at 48 rate instead of CD audio 44.1 and changed between them on the fly.  I can still hear the clicks that produced on some old songs I recorded from vinyl.  I suppose you can get it to work, but if you plan on spending time on music, it would be best to replace it. 
 
Lots of people use the low end Focusrite's with few problems.  That would be my suggestion, not that I've used it, but just from the forums (and not just Cake's).  And if you do get a new soundcard, spend the time to remove all the Creative stuff - programs and any hints of Creative.
 
Also about the German - is that for SONAR or Creative?  Usually when you put in an install disk, that is one of the first questions, what Language?  You should be able to put the disk in and start from that pop-up page.
 
Stick w/ it.  There is a lot of learning to learn before you actually start making music.  Unfortunately, you are starting at zero, it seems, with the computer.  That is rough, but as you get the computer and then programs sorted out, you'll learn more than you need about self-tech support but you can apply that to new systems in the future.  Bummer, but it is worth while seeing how computers and their logic occupy about half the modern life.
 
@ 

Realise that "soundcard" is a generic term.  Very few are actual "cards" nowadays, they're external boxes connected by USB or Firewire.
 
@AT   I think he meant he installed in German and all the menus show in German but the help files are English.

The language topic is Cakewalk's. I purchased it as download, and the files are multilanguage.
But my question on track assigning buttons to appear as standard view is still open.
Audigy: I never experienced that issue of changing rates, and it seems I can sort out useless CL software. Keeping in mind the PC crash after inserting the sound card, I'll try to stick to the one I am running now. And I prefer built-in devices, avoiding "cable salad".

Sanderxpander
Honestly that price range is very tight for something serious. But you can still end up with better results than the Soundblaster. For now, are you using the Soundblaster with its own ASIO driver? Try increasing the buffer size a little to see if the "ring modulation" goes away. Also, what do you mean with "default GM instruments"? The Microsoft GS Wavetable synth? I seem to recall that shouldn't be available in ASIO mode (which would indicate you're not using that), but I could be wrong.

Hi,
currently I am using the Creative ASIO. I just had to find out which one was most appropriate. First, I picked the wrong one: rate 96 KHz at 24 bit. Seems that was too much for Cakewalk's TTS-1, which works well at 48 KHz rate.
That should have been the trouble, since after changing to the Creative ASIO driver working at 48, the strange sound had gone and everything was allright. When I was sill looking for the right driver I had tried out a lot, and so I once saw the GM by Microsoft GS Wavetable synth. But that is solved as well.
Thanks anyway.

Glad to hear you have things working right now!

OK If you are doing nothing but playing softsynths from sonar, you do not really need a quality sound card at all. The music you are making within Sonar will be very high quality wav files on export regardless of what sound card you use. The music is "manufactured" inside the computer at pristine quality and the sound card is just playing it back so you can hear it. You do not need to worry about the quality of the A-D convertors, the microphone pre-amps or the over-sampling rate etc. You just need low enough latency to play with a controller (if you are using one) without losing the groove, and to manage your mixing, which is not very demanding. A truly awful playback interface (which in spite of the sometimes justified prejudice you will find on this forum) the soundblaster is not, might be a problem but soundblaster will give your ears a good enough idea of what the music sounds like to do a good job.

Sorry to reopen an old thread, but I'm having the exact same problem. Running (or trying to run) X3 Studio on a Dell desktop, Windows 7 Professional, 16 GB RAM, Creative Sound Blaster Audigy Rx 7.1. I updated the driver as MadMusicologist did, no love. I've been back and forth a bit with Cakewalk tech support, and they are responsive, which is great, but their suggestion (delete AUD and restart) did not work. Switching the driver mode to WDM got the demo track to play, but with no sound. Even that is an improvement over a pop-up beep that sends me to a Cakewalk support page that doesn't have info for the Audigy Rx.
 
Before I get flamed for having a Sound Blaster, let me note the following:
1. Everything else I have installed on my computer works fine with the Sound Blaster.
2. I have two friends who are happily making music using this exact setup, one with Logic Pro (he's running Mac OS on a PC) and one with Ableton. One of them points out that Four Tet uses a Sound Blaster, for whatever that's worth.
3. I don't have a lot of money, so buying a new sound card is absolutely not an option.
4. I have no interest in or aptitude for computers or tech, I barely knew what a driver was before this nightmare began, and I've spent all told about three hours on this, which I could have spent playing piano.
 
The irony is that I bought Sonar because I read somewhere that it was the most user-friendly DAW for beginners, that and it comes with great VSTs and supports microtones. 
 
Anyone have any ideas before I give up, uninstall, and mail back the CD? I want this to work and will try anything that doesn't involve spending more money. Thanks.
 

Update - I got the Audigy RX to work by switching Driver Mode to MME. No word on latency etc. but at least it's producing sound. 

No one will flame you just for using a SoundBlaster Alex,  but you have to bare in mind that in the grand scheme of music production they are right at the bottom of the pile.
They are optimised for games and home theatre, and when used for that purpose are very good, but if you ever get problems with Sonar the first question will always be "Have you tried using a real audio interface?"

Karyn, understood and thanks. Any hint of what further problems could be in store? Latency, or something else? I wish I had bought a different sound card for sure, and I'll get something more appropriate when circumstances permit. I am however a little bit knocked over by how hard it was to get Sonar to work with what is after all the best selling internal card on Amazon. It's not a rare or obscure piece of equipment and it was just a giant pain in the ass to even get sound out of it. In my darkest hour I was considering returning Sonar and getting Reaper instead, as some Reaper users actually recommend the Sound Blaster. So while the SB may be a total piece of crap, it's a common piece of crap, and these compatibility issues don't reflect well on Sonar.