My advice for learning Sonar and not worrying about forgetting stuff thanks to Karl Rose.
Apologies for any typos or brainfarts in the following post. I did not proofread it.
I've posted similiar threads in the past praising Karl's vids because they really are great yet for some reason don't seem to get as much attention here on the forum's as I personally think they deserve. Don't get me wrong... the various other resource materials out there are indeed great but in the case of other video series a lot of the time they either aren't as linear and thorough or they focus more on the production side of things as opposed to the raw functionality.
For example, some vids I've watched go into specific detail on how to perform specific functions spending a lot of time showing real world examples. That is great for seeing Sonar in action doing something from start to finish but what happens is now you know a lot about SOME things but huge swaths of the program get left out. Even in the examples themselves sometimes they gloss over really important functions/actions within the procedure. Those functions can make a big difference when you try to apply the procedure to your own work because most of the time your needs are going to be different for your music. Knowing how to tweak the little things can make all the difference in the world.
Other vids focus on showing you cool things you can do with Sonar which again is great but they work on the assumption that you are already familiar with the program. So you think you've bought something that is going to train you to use Sonar but instead it's showing you how to perform specific production techniques with Sonar. So again you are learning something but you have to follow the vid step by step and in the end it may not even apply to your work. Knowing what those individuals steps do and how you can change/tweak things as you work through will end up with much better results for YOUR work.
There are of course some great books that are extremely thorough and linear and you should totally snag those as well if you can but they are text and pictures. Great for reference but I find it is really helpful to be able to see someone going into all the menus, tweaking settings, routing stuff and generally moving around the program in real time.
Then there is the manual... oof. I originally made an attempt to read my way through all 2000+/- pages of that sucker (testing things out on my system and making my own notes along the way) and burned out after a month or so at around page 700. It is not a light read and there is a lot of repitition and unfortunately (even though they've done a through cleanup revising of it since I tried to read straight through it) there tends to be some outdated things, little errors/typos, features that don't really work as described, etc... This is definitely more something to use as a reference.
Karl's vids seem to combine the best parts of a big thick reference manual and a very linear/concise set of tutorials that explore everything in real time. I almost think he scours all the manuals for EVERYTHING (like I attempted to do and failed), sorts it all into logical categories and figures out the fastest/most thorough way to explain it through real time video examples. There is no fluff or unnecessary lingering. Just "this is this thing, this is what it is for, this is what this thing does and this and this and this and this" until every parameter has been covered.
They won't show you how to mix or do a bunch of fancy studio tricks. They will show you every little nook and cranny in the program so you know where it all is, what things are capable of and how to tweak absolutely everything. That way when you watch the more production oriented vids you'll know what the heck is going on and be able to replicate it how YOU need to using the tools that work best for YOU.
The added bonus is this can save you a fortune on buying extra plugins and tools. Chances are if you own Producer (or even Studio) that anything you THINK you need is likely already there. I used to have a long expensive list of things I thought I could not do without. That list has been widdled down to very little AND the urgency of owning those things has gone away because I know how to use Sonar to accomplish more or less the same functions (just maybe with a little more effort and perhaps not achieve the EXACT results I might want).
The other nice thing is they are easy to reference. This is why I say you don't have to worry about forgetting stuff. I step away from my DAW for weeks or months at a time and when I do fire it up I usually have a specific set of tasks I want to accomplish. Sonar is such a huge program it is very easy to forget stuff. I used to reread manual entries or scour my own personal notes beforehand to refresh myself but this takes time and again I'm not actually LOOKING at the function. I just want to refresh my memory on what menus I need to access, what tools I can use and just generally get my head back in the game before I proceed. I keep a folder on my laptop (which is not my DAW) that contains all the manuals, books, notes and vids I have about Sonar. More and more I am only accessing Karl's vids. The day I intend to do something I'll make myself some tea and watch the relevant entries (most of which are bitesized chunks of around ten minutes). 15-30 minutes later I can just plop myself in front of the DAW with all the concepts fresh in my mind and a logical plan of how I want to proceed and simply do it. No constantly stopping to check notes, google crap, harass the forum, etc...
You get the idea. As you are learning you get see someone knowledgeable poke around the program and explain things. Once you are more comfortable with the program if you need to jog your memory you can just review the pertinent sections.
The vids I own by Karl and highly recommend are...
SWA Complete SONAR X3 Video Tutorial Bundle This is the most important one of the bunch. Make sure you get the COMPLETE bundle... not just the X3 one because that only covers the new stuff in X3. The Complete bundle includes the X2 videos as well which is what describes the entire program and applies to X3 (and now will apply to Sonar Platinum except for the few things they've changed). It is broken up into categories with each category getting it's own vid of approximately 10 minutes (for more complicated stuff it will have multiple ten minute vids in sequence... for example Audiosnap has it's own mini series of tuts). They are order in a way that takes you from the basic stuff about getting set up (yet goes into a lot of detail about these basics that I've never seen in other vids) then onto common functions (like recording and editing) and then into more advanced stuff like Audio Snap. What it does NOT cover are in depth tuts about all the effects and synths included with Sonar... just how to insert them, route things and generally get them set up within the program. He has other vids for the effects and synths. Currently this bundle is NOT on sale (it's just over $50 bucks as of this writing) but it does go on sale. I snagged it a couple months ago for $20 but it is WELL worth $50 if you don't want to wait for a sale. It is over 9 hours worth of extremely useful stuff and has become my go to reference for Sonar (in conjunction with google searches of the online manual).
SONAR X2 Advanced Workshop: Producer Effects This is the one where Karl shows how to use all of the effects that come with X2 almost all of which you will still have in X3. Unfortunately it doesn't cover the new stuff in X3 (and now Platinum) but those are covered in the SWA Complete bundle I posted above. Now you should be warned that he doesn't really give a lot of audio examples of what each effect does. He just shows you how to operate each effect and ALL of their parameters so if you want to actually hear what these things do you might want to plop yourself in front of your DAW and fiddle with them yourself as you watch the vids. Also he doesn't go into long descriptions of what effects DO. Like he doesn't specifically teach you what a compressor is or what a reverb is (but you can usually glean what they're for as he shows the the effects). So if you have absolutely no idea what common effects are actually for you'd have to do a little research on your own. There are plenty of free vids on youtube for that kind of stuff or I recommend getting a Groove3 account for a month and watching all their videos on effects (they are very good at explaining what common effects are for and DO include plenty of ausio examples). This one runs for 5 hours and is EXTREMELY thorough. Everything is sorted more or less by the types of effects (so all the compressors in sequence then the reverbs, etc and yes it covers all the ProChannel stuff). Unfortunately it is one long vid but it does have chapters so if you have a decent video player (like Quicktime) you can zip around the chapters as need be. If you only have the sucktacular Windows Media Player it will just be one long vid which is a pain (at least I've never figured out how to get WMP to show chapters... I really hate the new WMP). Personally I would love to see Karl make an add on to this vid for the paid extra plugins you can get from Cakewalk but whatevs. This one is currently selling for $50 which... well that's a little bit steep IMO but it is an extremely helpful vid so watch for sales. I think I got it for something ridiculous like $5-10 last year. Actually all the vids in the Cake store drop DRAMATICALLY in price so check the monthly specials regularly.
SONAR X3 Advanced Workshop: Virtual Instruments Revealed Unfortunately I do NOT own this one because I never noticed it until today but it is something I now MUST have because knowing Karl it'll finally shake out all my confusion and knowledge gaps in regards to the soft synths in Sonar. It's saying it's another 5 horus and is only $12 so I'm definitely going to snag it as soon as I can.
So there you go... a review and yet another high recommendation for Karl's vids. He's probably gonna think I'm a weirdo stalker or something now but I seriously mean it when I say I find these vids immensely useful... and he's not really my type what with the whole penis thing and all (NTTIAWWT).
I own other vids and resource material and maybe I'll continue this post to include them as well but as far as starter vids I think these are the ones you want. After you go through the series you'll be able to use the proper Sonar (and audio production) terms for things which will help make research much easier and help you communicate better with the forum.
Also if you have not done the tutorials at the start of the manual do them... seriously... just do them. They take maybe a half hour at most and will show you all the basic stuff you need to get started.
If you need to find out something specific quickly the best way I find is to use Google with the following search terms:
Cakewalk + Sonar + [an accurate but short description of the task/function]
It should bring up a bunch of relevant entries from the online manual (sometimes you need to read through a few pages of the manual or click the relevant entry links on the manual page) and/or forum threads that might help.
Cheers.