I am a composer who mostly just does score notation in Sibelius.  Once in a while I like to make a composition sound better by exporting to MIDI and mapping virtual instruments to it using Cakewalk.
 
My Sound Blaster died a couple years ago, and I've survived using my motherboard's on-board sound.  I can even run Sibelius/Kontakt with it.  [It's not pretty - the rhythmic precision in playback is choppy, making the computer sound a little drunk during realtime playback, but for me it gets the job done and certainly this becomes irrelevant when exporting audio... only relevant when playing real time].  But obviously I haven't done what I first describe above (MIDI, mapping instruments) for some time now - Cakewalk will not even output sound using on-board sound (or at least I haven't figured out how to get it to).
 
I'd like to do some more instrument mapping in Cakewalk Sonar, and I know I can't use it with an on-board sound card.  I know people are very reluctant to recommend Sound Blaster cards.  I'm willing to look into more professional audio cards, but are there any you'd recommend that have the standard 1/8" jacks in the back for output and input?  A decade ago I used to only buy professional audio cards, and I remember how relieved I felt when I finally just bought a Sound Blaster and no longer had to deal with various fancy-shmancy RCA, optical, etc. inputs and outputs.  Is there a cheapskate's professional sound card out there that would get the job done, be reliable, and be used commonly enough to never have to worry about drivers failing to be updated (that's another wonderful thing about Sound Blasters - you know that even a 15-year-old SB card is still going to have supporting drivers for it... possibly even included with Windows installations because SB cards are so ubiquitous).

it can be done,
but i'd highly suggest not.
 
invest in at least the most basic of usb interface
 
IMHO anything is better than a sound blaster

batsbrew
it can be done,
but i'd highly suggest not.
 
invest in at least the most basic of usb interface
 
IMHO anything is better than a sound blaster

 
couldn't agree more. get a decent brand 2 channel ASIO audio interface and you will live happily ever after
 

+1 to the above. Additionally, you will want to get used to using TRS cables as they are properly shielded and balanced (for mono signals). 1/8" jacks can have an adapter used to fit 1/4" TRS, but they are not the ideal choice. Almost any audio interface will have TRS jacks, so something to research.

+2
 
You've spent all that money on a computer and SONAR and now want to cheap-out on what is arguably the most important part of the entire setup.

For described task build-in sound card should work without problems/glitches, also in Sonar. May be with big latency, but still playable with MIDI keyboard. The same is true for SB, many people claim they have significantly reduced noise compare to old models (that was primary reason for me to use something else).
 
I do not think that "professional" and 1/8'' connectors are compatible words... At least RCA, more usual TS/TRS (some XLR) for output. Entry level: Focusrite Scarlett Solo. There are some (significantly) cheaper Behringer interfaces, but that can be even more problematic that your build-in sound.
 
Focusrite is known for relatively stable and long live drivers. You can find some "fail" reports, but much less than with SB (and SB was working fine for you).
 
If you are short in money and have Firewire (TI chip) in your computer, you can try to get low latency good sounding interfaces second hand for close to nothing. But check compatibility with Win10 first (officially it will not be supported, but users are reporting either they work in practice).

Ok, I guess I can deal with the non-eighth-inch jack issue.  I guess the only issue left is the driver.  Any recommendations of specific models/brands that I won't have to worry about not being supported in future versions of Windows?  I guess another way to ask this question:  which basic "staple" pro sound card would be the most widely used?

mettelus
+1 to the above. Additionally, you will want to get used to using TRS cables as they are properly shielded and balanced (for mono signals). 1/8" jacks can have an adapter used to fit 1/4" TRS, but they are not the ideal choice. Almost any audio interface will have TRS jacks, so something to research.

Bristol_Jonesey
+2
You've spent all that money on a computer and SONAR and now want to cheap-out on what is arguably the most important part of the entire setup.

With all respect... If someone has NO mic and no guitar, not even monitors with TRS/XLR connector, what is the reason to spend money for good pre-amps and balanced outputs?


And in drivers live time (I do not speak about quality...) nothing from "decent brads" can beat SB, not even RME. And except RME, all that "decent brands" have "driver support disaster" interfaces.
 

While I do not use ASIO4ALL or the internal sound chip, based on the data collected by Cakewalk through the analytics data reported in 2016.08 these are the top two audio outputs detected in the current version of SONAR. The former most likely driving an internal sound chip. I am not mentioning this as a recommendation but an observation that the internal chip in the PC should work albeit not the best performer. Here are the configuration instruction for the internal sound chip and the current version of SONAR. Adjust the drop downs as needed for your setup.

If Windows can see and use the onboard sound, so can Sonar. At least, I've never heard of a situation where a working onboard card with a Windows driver can't be used in Sonar.

Check Sonar's audio preferences for it. You'll probably need to select the MME or WDM driver dialogue, not ASIO.

On-board chips are often OK for simple playback, though latency is likely to be an issue if you try to play anything using a MIDI controller.