Newbie 3 questions: Suggestions for upgrade, midi vs. wave, audio samples purchases

Audio and midi should both play.
What kind of audio interface (sound card) are you using and what are your system specs/Win version etc...
ASIO works very well, but doesn't like to share it's drivers with other programs.

K... in the right hand window under the media tab - audio library, there is: Loops and One shots.
these all act like waves ~ paste/drag'em  them right into a trk.
there is also a midi tab with a ton of files but these will not play.
I did obviously see that I can change my driver mode to MME 32 bit, but I still have the question: will it compromise anything else in Sonar?
 
Here is what was s'posed to show up in my forum signature:
Sonar X3 Studio 64 bit, AMD 3.4Ghz, 64 bit op. sys., 12 GB RAM, 1 TB HD, Windows 7 Ultim., I/O MOTU 2408 MKll PCIe 424 sound card, Sound Forge sound card (not default player tho), no addtl. 3rd party plug-ins or audio files.
 
thanks in advance!
Ed

You need to insert a soft sent to play midi sounds. Sonar does not play midi without a soft sent installed and the midi tracks output pointed at it. As said when you switched to MME mode you are directing Sonar to on board wavetable sounds which are low fi compaired to the proper soft synths. 
Studio has fewer synths than Producer and the newer versions. But there are more than enough to get started. 
TTs-1 is the GM synth you can use instead of Wavetable and it will play all midi files. 
It can take a lot of time to explore all the sounds that come with Sonar. 
And there are many free VST's from 3rd party vendors. 
Session drummer is the best for drum sounds but you needto load a kit to make it work. 
Sounds like your just getting started with midi so it's a slow learning curve hang in there. 
Recording real audio is much easier than figuring out midi if your new to the concept.
 

Thanks all,
I've inserted soft synths, but yet to get it to play.
I can see Cake. Sound Center Soft Synth glowing blue and right click it, "Enable Midi Output" is checked.
For the "In" I chose Cack. Sound Center Ch.6 (the only midi channel in this proj.)
For the "Out"  I selected Cakew, Sound Center
For the "C" (don't know this one)  Cake. Sound Center #6
solo this trk. and the meter is jumpin' but no audio
all other wave trx. still play
I followed the various Insert Soft Synth Options choices...  confusing...
 
 
Any sugg.?
thanks again,  "whew, learning curve ahead!
Ed

http://www.cakewalk.com/D...&help=Browser.04.html#

Look for the heading To Preview Midi Content from the browser - full explanation on this subject.