You're not the first, nor will you be the last, to get sucked in by a "deal too good to pass up" offer.  
 
No doubt, in time you'll find good reasons to justify those purchases. For now, though, try not to let them be a distraction.
 
Meanwhile, start here.

"Now, lemme see if I can locate this 'reference guide'. At 1,200 pages you'd think I'd have tripped over it by now."
 
Its actually 2528 pages long. As manuals go its written well. 

One bit of advice is learn the names of things. Learn what a clip is. Learn what an aux track is and so on. Once you learn the terms used to describe features and functions you will be well on your way in understanding Sonar.  The manual is ideal for this.

+1 to at least skimming over the Ref. Guide to get familiar with areas of the application and terminology. This will help you communicate questions to the forum, and when you need to learn something deeper, you'll have an idea what terms to search on.
 
Here's good overview of Signal Flow that might be worth a read, too. Written before the advent of Aux Tracks, but that can come later:
 
http://blog.cakewalk.com/know-your-signal-flow/

*Bitflipper*
The link you sent me,tto the documentation with the table of contents, is that the same 2500 page 'reference' guide MUDGLE was referring to?

HARDDRlVER
*Bitflipper*
The link you sent me,tto the documentation with the table of contents, is that the same 2500 page 'reference' guide MUDGLE was referring to?

yes.
You also have documentation that comes with sonar Platinum (if you downloaded the documentation).

Hi Harddriver.
 
One convention I really would like to instill in everyone is when we start talking about routing.
 
ALWAYS make the distinction between when you are SENDING a signal to an aux track or bus and when you are OUTPUTTING to said aux track or bus.
 
We have all have many lengthy conversations which could have provided the OP with the answer within a couple of posts rather than elaborating unnecessarily and heading off in totally the wrong direction!

Bristol_Jonesey
Hi Harddriver.
 
One convention I really would like to instill in everyone is when we start talking about routing.
 
ALWAYS make the distinction between when you are SENDING a signal to an aux track or bus and when you are OUTPUTTING to said aux track or bus.
 
We have all have many lengthy conversations which could have provided the OP with the answer within a couple of posts rather than elaborating unnecessarily and heading off in totally the wrong direction!

Hey what's wrong with reminiscing down memory lane and totally derailing a thread  

Guilty as charged

John
One bit of advice is learn the names of things. Learn what a clip is. Learn what an aux track is and so on. Once you learn the terms used to describe features and functions you will be well on your way in understanding Sonar.  The manual is ideal for this.

This is my challenge.  I am really new to this, I have never done any recording at all.  I play the piano - that's it.  I'm an IT guy, so the software doesn't intimidate me, but the mountain seems insurmountable.  I've been going through the Groove 3 video series on Sonar - it is good for explaining how to do things, but is not much help if you don't know even what you are looking at.
 
Aux Track? Take Lanes?  Master Bus?  I haven't the foggiest clue what any of these are.  Heck, I don't even know what "comping" means.  Its been a very slow process of learning, but I've been amazed at how much I've learned so far.   6 months ago I didn't know what a DAW or Midi was.  Now I can record simple audio and VSTi tracks, and even route things back to my modules.  
 
I am having a blast though with all of this.  I read the forum religiously, even though it seems to be in a different language to me.