Hello all :) 
From someone coming from analogue to digital for the first time Sonar is a massive step up.
Im puzzled as to why there isnt more help available for complete beginners? As most of the easily accessible help guides ive seen assume a general to advanced knowledge of DAWs. 
It has taken me a lot of trial and error and google/youtube research to get to a point now where im fairly competent in getting whats in my brain into and out of the other end of Sonar sounding respectable.
With little effort on your part im pretty sure you could document or make an instructional series of videos detailing 'an idiots guide'. This would include a detailed run through of creating ‘your first song’ from a blank page to setting up instruments, learning about recording levels, effects, recording, etc.., explaining all the specific functions on the way in jargon free manner, eg, “what is a bus? This is how you use them”.
A nice easy learning curve rather than the cliff :)
Just a thought..
 

Sonar has Tutorials for 'your first song' ( 1-9  https://www.cakewalk.com/Documentation?product=SONAR&language=3&help=toc.html ) in the text form.
Really long and complete video is time/resources consuming to produce, so it is there but it is not for free:
https://www.groove3.com/sonar-training-video-tutorials
On the site there are many "basic" videos (like "what is a bus?"), they are not DAW specific. They have "All-Access Pass" for 30day (rather cheap) or one year. Really worse the money.
 
And finally, do not underestimate Sonar Reference Guide (2000+ pages pdf, installed with Sonar).

yeah i did see the tutorials but i thought they weren't very intuitive to a noob and as a yorkshire man the thought of paying for tutorials was out the window :)
will start picking my way through the ref guide.
thanks for the advice 
 

I recommend the ref guide first, may be just as "good night" book, to understand what is there in general.
 
But then visit groove3. Sonar, many known FXes, Synth, techniques and theory is there in a good format. $15 investment you will enjoy (if you have free time next 30 days...).
 
I am Russian, so I am rather paranoid when it comes to paying for software/tutorials/media content. My only excuse is that my own public software is free to use (and in case you will ever use any Controller with Sonar, you likely going to try it...). But Groove3 is a fair place.
 
Download ActivePresenter and try record yourself explaining any peace of software you use. Watch the result... That is what you normally see on YouTube (except professional advertisements). Groove3 has different level, for all videos they have at least 1-2 chapters you can preview. Compare with your own recording
 
Software producers have to sell you the product. And corresponding videos from them targeting exactly that aspect, if you stop after 5 seconds to open your walet, the mission is accomplished. Groove3 wants you watch next video, then next and so on. So they explain you useful staff, otherwise you stop watching and no longer pay...

Learning the intricacies of any DAW can be rather daunting if trying to learn it all at once. A better approach is to focus on tasks you want to do, learn the GUI, and then ask/research as you go along. Sometimes you may not know the terminology you are looking for, so a quick post in this forum with a nice descriptive title/body will get you feedback in short order in most cases - sometimes is a quick "point you here/there" and other times it can get a nice detailed response.
 
In addition to the above, the SWA Complete SONAR X2 was made publicly available, which is over 9 hours of content, nicely sectioned, and still very applicable in many cases. The chapter list for the above is actually posted on Steam, which makes it a lot easier to navigate the content.
 
Many times, when referring to a video, it is also helpful to have SONAR open while watching tutorials so you can pause and work along with the video (a dual monitor setup helps, but you can also ALT-Tab between applications for learning).
 
Quick edit: Berklee also offers a free course on Coursera which is very universal toward DAWs in general called Introduction to Music Production. I just checked that and the next run starts on May 2nd. You can actually just audit that course and right click on videos to download them for future reference, so do not need to feel obligated to take it "for grade."

There are a BUNCH of videos available through YouTube, on all kinds of aspects of working with various DAW software, and these are all free.
 
Some are better than others, but there are many many beginner videos you can work through, on everything from Gain Staging, Signal Flow, and there USED to be commercially available books that were pretty good, though I have not seen any for Sonar Platinum.
 
As far as FREE videos go, here are some links:
 
(this first one has links to the next three links from here in it)
http://www.cakewalk.com/CakeTV/SONAR-University
 
http://www.cakewalk.com/CakeTV/SONAR-University/Get-Started
 
http://www.cakewalk.com/CakeTV/SONAR-University/Go-Deeper
 
http://www.cakewalk.com/CakeTV/SONAR-University/Master-Class
 
If you go to YouTube and enter the following search terms within YouTube, you will get over 5,000 video link results returned: sonar platinum tutorial beginner
 
So, LOTS of really good and freely available videos teaching all kinds of DAW concepts for use in Sonar, and overviews of work flow, the use of soft synths and plugin effects and alternative routing assignments and sequencing with midi in Sonar and making it sound realistic, and all of that.  GO HAVE A BLAST!!! :)
 
The current level of functionality, sophistication, and sheer power of the combination of current level computer technology and DAW software such as Sonar, is absolutely mind-boggling when compared to the level of equipment and available techniques to the analog studios (even the best ones).
 
I am LOVING IT :)
 
Bob Bone
 

Many thanks Guys,
nice to see a friendly forum 

mettelus
Quick edit: Berklee also offers a free course on Coursera which is very universal toward DAWs in general called Introduction to Music Production. I just checked that and the next run starts on May 2nd. You can actually just audit that course and right click on videos to download them for future reference, so do not need to feel obligated to take it "for grade."

I was going to recommend exactly this.  Excellent course.  

The forum in that course is also very helpful, since you get a very broad exposure to a lot of techniques, hard ware, and work flows.
 
I just remembered I had posted the class notes (35 pages/11.82MB pdf) from the Introduction to Music Production course a year ago. They were done by a classmate and sorta saves the "note taking" part of the course for anyone interest.