Hi everybody, I'm totally new in the daw world. I bought a roland jp-08 a few months ago to try to reproduce some of the famous synth pop songs from the 80s in my laptop. I have been experienced a lot of fun recreating each sound on these songs; however I need now a daw to capture all the different tracks (sounds from jp-08) that make one song and add drums/effects/etc.
 
I noticed that an external insert for hard synths was available on Sonar X3 Studio and Producer in the past. Is something similar included for Sonar Artist or Professional? I can't find any documentation or forum discussions confirming this.
 
Do I need anything else? i'm just trying to have fun my jp-08 and laptop at home but happy to spend some money to make my experience more exciting.
 
Thanks in advance!

You might want to check out DAWs other than Sonar if you don't already own it.

Why is that? Any DAWs recommendations for my needs?
 

sarasa.sarlanga
Why is that?

Because Cakewalk is 'on-hold' while Gibson, the owners, decide what to do with it.
If you read the statment here http://www.cakewalk.com/ you will effectively see that Cakewalk is 'closed for business'. :(

You can still get Sonar Home Studio absolutely free as a giveaway from software magazine. It's all you need to get started.  http://forum.cakewalk.com/Sonar-Home-studio-Giveaway-m3718858.aspx
 
 copy paste this;    3327-46FD-8F9A-BBC7
 
Here     http://www.cakewalk.com/Redeem?kl=16&promo=CM250
 
All DAW's will play and record external MIDI synths. But for free you can't beat the Home Studio deal.  You will need an Audio interface with a stereo pair of line level inputs as well as MIDI ports to capture the audio output of the synth. .Here's a good choice for you.   https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/US2X2
 
You record the midi performance of your keyboard via the midi inputs of the interface to a midi track in your DAW, edit your mistakes, then the midi track will play the Roland sounds via the interfaces midi output port. At this point you can even change the sounds to your taste. 
Once your happy with the results then you can record those sounds via  the Audio outputs of the Roland to the audio inputs of the interface to an Audio track of your DAW. 
 
Most DAWs have drum, bass keyboard and just about every instrument on earth as a VST's instruments. Some better sounding than others. Home Studio comes with Enough good sounds to get you going. 
 
You can record drum parts using your Roland keyboard as a midi trigger for the Drum VST kits. 
You can play all the instruments from your keyboard track by track you build a song.